‘Misty Green’ Star Chris Rock Uses a Biblical Comparison to Explain His Problem With Wokeness
Chris Rock has never been shy about wading into culture-war territory, and Chris Rock’s take on wokeness is the latest example. Back in 2021, he told The Breakfast Club that cancel culture was producing unfunny, boring material from comedians.
This time he is doing the press rounds for a film. Rock wrote and directed ‘Misty Green,’ which centers on a fading actress trying to make a comeback in unforgiving Hollywood. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 12, and A24 will release it in the United States on Oct. 9.
In a new interview on The New York Times’ ‘The Interview’ podcast, Rock explained what bothers him about wokeness. His objection is that it leads to a world that is less forgiving than it needs to be, which he summed up by saying, “we’re in the Old Testament right now.”
He argued the Old Testament has no forgiveness, and that it didn’t work, so a remix called the New Testament had to be written. It’s a line that has already spread widely, and it captures his argument in a few words.
Host David Marchese asked Rock about the throughline of forgiveness in ‘Misty Green.’ Rock said you don’t really realize you love somebody until you have to forgive them. He then mentioned a friend, nameless, who might have gotten canceled.
Rock recalled another friend asking how he could stay friends with that person, and said that if you’re only friends with people when they’re good, they aren’t really your friends. He stressed that this doesn’t mean condoning abusive behavior, and that part of friendship is holding each other accountable.
Marchese also asked about the ‘Woke 1.0’ era, the period right after George Floyd’s murder in 2020, and whether anything about it was redeeming. Rock said there was plenty worth keeping in the movement’s original impulse, especially giving marginalized people a voice, but that the trouble starts when you institutionalize it.
He also said he’s glad it all happened because it needed to happen. That nuance matters, because the comparison to the Old Testament is aimed at how the movement operates rather than at the people it set out to help.
Rock then reached for another historical comparison. He called it a “half a joke,” saying the first few witches caught in the Salem witch hunts were probably real, but once you open a Witch Office, you have to start making things up to cover your overhead.
The Mediaite write-up describes his argument as a charge that the movement turned its true believers into coldhearted people unwilling to forgive transgressions, big or small. That framing is the commentator’s reading, but it fits the point Rock was making about institutions taking on a life of their own.
The film is clearly the reason the topic came up. Forgiveness is a huge theme in ‘Misty Green,’ which stars Rosalind Eleazar, and the cast also includes Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick and Topher Grace.
The film was one of the Gala Presentations at this year’s Toronto festival, billed as a USA world premiere. Rock was among the stars who appeared at the festival, which ran Sept. 10 to 20.
Rock’s comments are likely to land differently depending on who is listening, but they give the film extra attention ahead of its release. With A24’s rollout days away, he has made forgiveness the center of the conversation around ‘Misty Green.’
Novo trailer de ‘Misty Green’, estrelado por Rosalind Eleazar, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick e Chris Rock. Dirigido por Chris Rock, ainda não tem previsão de estreia no Brasil. #MistyGreen https://t.co/JLqVzaXBlK
— VHS CUT (@vhscut) September 24, 2026
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