This fall Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish will be starring in the film “Night School,” and the pairing has a backstory that some may find interesting.
Many years ago, in her early days of stand-up comedy, Haddish lived out of her car, and one day Hart gave her a helping hand that would assist both her living situation and career. The “Jumani” actor relayed the story when he recently stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“I’ve known Tiffany for years,” he explained. “I’m beyond excited [for her success]. I knew Tiffany when Tiffany was homeless. Tiffany was living out of her car and nobody knew. She was trying to keep it a secret … Something wasn’t write. Something wasn’t sitting right and I said ‘Yo, you alright? Is everything okay with you?’ She was like ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’”
Since Hart felt Haddish wasn’t telling the truth, he asked her where she lived and she couldn’t answer. That’s when he found out about the homelessness so to help out, he handed her $300.
From there, the “Girl’s Trip” star took that money, got got a place to stay for the night, and things finally began to look up. Hart also gave Haddish plenty of encouragement back then, which she said in a separate interview, was just as useful as the cash.
“I later found out that the money she took, she went and got like a motel, was able to stay there for like a week, use a proper bathroom. Never told me,” said Hart.
“Other people muttered the rumor. Tiffany got successful, took the story, I found out that [my ex-wife Torrei Hart] wrote in her journal about the relationship with me and her, how I acted as a piece of motivation in stand-up comedy because I simply uplifted her every time — told her she was funny. Told her she was going to be a star,” he added.
Haddish told the same story during an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this year and said not only did Hart give her money, he suggested that she write out a list of goals. She also joked about the amount of cash he gave her but was completely serious about how his advice helped.
“So I got a room that you could get by the hour up on Martin Luther King and Western at this place called the Snooty Fox, which is really like the ho stroll, but I just wanted to take a shower, take a little nap, write out my list,” she recalled. “I wrote: Get myself an apartment. Do these things, all these people I wanna work with, everything.”
The very next day, Haddish secured an apartment for herself.
“Night School” hits theaters on Sept. 28, and you can see Hart’s interview with Kimmel below.
