Chris Rock on learning to swim at 55: 'You’ve got to not be scared to die'
Chris Rock has a new skill.
The comedian, 55, says he recently learned how to swim as part of a new workout routine.
"Do you know how f---ing hard it is for a grown-up to learn how to swim? You’ve got to not be scared to die,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
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The four-time Emmy winner, who has a pool at his New Jersey home that he could never use, has been in therapy seven hours a week and says swimming is the perfect complement to that.
"The other day, this guy says to me, 'OK, you’re going to dive into the deep end and swim to the other side,' and I’m like, 'Are you f---ing crazy?'” he said.
“But then I dove into the deep end and I swam to the other side, and it’s a metaphor for what I’ve been trying to do during this time."
The comedian, who has twice hosted the Academy Awards, said earlier this year he was diagnosed with a nonverbal learning disorder, which means he has problems processing nonverbal cues.
"And all I understand are the words," he said.
Rock, who divorced his wife of nearly 20 years in 2016, also chimed in on the controversy that erupted after Jimmy Fallon apologized for doing a blackface impression of him on “Saturday Night Live” in 2000.
Rock, who doesn’t recall the sketch, labeled it “bad comedy” and said the “Tonight Show” host “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body,” adding he told Fallon he loves him when they spoke following Fallon’s apology.
Rock’s most recent TV appearance was a guest role on the CBS sitcom “Kevin Can Wait,” but viewers will no longer have to. It will be sink or swim when he returns to the small screen on the fourth season of FX’s “Fargo,” scheduled to premiere Sept. 27.
