Chris Rock Admits He Was Offered A Role on 'The Sopranos' Multiple Times

Chris Rock has revealed that he turned down a major role on HBO’s The Sopranos multiple times.

During a discussion for The Hollywood Reporter, the 56-year-old actor opened up about how the offer came about and just why he turned it down.

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Chris was one of the early stars of HBO, with three comedy specials between 1994 and 1999 and launching The Chris Rock Show .

The offers started to roll in after that launch.

“Sometimes you can respect something so much, you don’t even want to be a part of it,” Chris told the roundtable. “Years ago, when I had my own show on HBO, it was at the height of The Sopranos, and I got a couple of offers to be on The Sopranos, and I was like, ‘I like it too much, I don’t want to spoil it.’”

While he turned down The Sopranos, when Fargo creator Noah Hawley approached him for the FX show, he didn’t hesitate.

“I thought [Noah] wanted me to host his wife’s charity event or something. [Fargo] is a big job… I was such a fan [of Fargo], I took the meeting anyway, and then he presents me with this offer, and I’m like, ‘Whatever you want me to do, I’m down.’ Because I saw how he handled Bokeem Woodbine,” he said.

“Sometimes people do amazing work and then when they handle Black people, it’s horrible. But with [Hawley], I saw how he handled Bokeem and I was like, ‘I can totally be in your hands,’” Chris added. “Once you see that, you go, ‘OK, this guy [Hawley] has no problem putting himself in that character’s shoes.’ I write, right? So, when you hand a studio a script, what you notice a lot of times is everyone gives you notes of the character they most identify with…Now the problem is that some people have a hard time imagining they’re Black, so there’s no notes on the lead if he’s Black. Or if the lead girl is Black, there are no notes from the white women. Because they couldn’t step into it. But Noah had no problem being Bokeem, and that’s why it’s written so well.”

Chris recently spoke to Nicole Kidman in another one on one interview. Here’s what happened…