EPISODE 8: How I Got Kevin Hart In My Bed

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Getting comedian Kevin Hart into bed wasn't as hard to do as I thought it was going to be. And for those of you with sleezy minds, get 'em out the gutter! lol. But seriously, I wasn't sure how it would come off asking him that I want him to get into bed so I can take his picture, lol. So let me back up a bit and tell it from the beginning.

I got a call during one of my recent trips to LA from my brother (who is also my manager/booking agent) that he spoke to Kevin Hart's "people" and they wanted to know if I would be able to do a shoot with him while I was in LA. It was definitely NOT on my itinerary for the weekend, but a chance to shoot Kevin Hart, who is clearly on the rise to King Comedy status, I wasn't gonna turn down. I was really excited, but I was also trying to figure where I was going to shoot him. It was already set up for me to shoot at this one designated place for the 4 other clients I had that weekend, but I really didn't want to bring in an outside shoot there. So I called on my good friend and celeb stylist, Marc Littlejohn to see if I would be able to use his amazing house. But he had construction going on, a film crew was there filming God knows what and he had plans as well, so that idea was a BUST. I suggested possibly shooting at Kevin's house, but his publicist, in not so many words, relayed his response, "Hell NO." lol.

Anyway, while I'm trying to figure out where to shoot Kevin, his schedule was so busy, trying to find a day and a time to actually do the shoot was posing even more of a problem than a location. I was supposed to shoot him Sunday, but that changed. I was leaving early Monday, but by Sunday night, there still wasn't any concrete word on what was happening as far as rescheduling. I didn't wanna miss my flight the next morning, and they toyed around with the idea of me staying longer and they would pay for my extended stay. Then, at around 12am I got a call saying, "Michael...we're just going to fly you to Atlanta." His publicist told me that they were going to do whatever it took to get me to shoot Kevin, because they loved my work so much, anything that COULD be done, was going to be done to make it happen. Talk about a confidence booster!

So I flew back to New York City and 2 days after that, I was back on a plane and flying to Atlanta to shoot Kevin Hart. Now, I was supposed to shoot him the same day as his show he was scheduled to do there. So I showed up at his hotel for the scheduled call time ready to do the shoot and it seemed my shoot time would be getting pushed back because of some other interviews and things he had going on, according to his manager. I was a little disappointed, but next thing I know, I get call from Kevin himself. He said we could either shoot now for about 15 minutes, or we could shoot the next day and I could have all the time in the world. He said, "I flew you down here, so I want to make sure you get everything you need. I dont want you to feel rushed." Yes! He cared, lol. So I agreed and ontop of that, he offered to put me up in a very nice room in the same hotel as him and then he invited me to his show that night. I was freakin' FLOORED! lol. Things couldn't have turned out any better. I got the chance to meet him backstage after the show, along with a few other notable comedians. (And by the way, his show was HILARIOUS! I had honestly never seen his stand-up before, but after that night, I will say I became a fan).

So the next day we started our shoot very early. I had a few ideas in mind of what I wanted to do, and one of them was a really cool shot of Kevin in the bed with some really crazy expressions. I was thinking, he's a comedian, why not do a shot that's comical; that kinda tells a story and leads the person viewing it to come up with a bunch of different scenarios of their own based off of the expression on his face and the location of the shot. So I wanted to put him in bed. When we sat down and I was explaining the concept to him in his room, he stared at me with the blank face the whole time. I thought, "Oh man, this probably sounds absolutely rediculous. He's probably thinking, 'is this negro out his fuckin mind?" lol. I was giving him visual examples and pretending to do the actions, as if I were in the bed, myself. And still....blank stare. I was done explaining. Feeling kinda foolish and hoping he wouldn't shut me down too bad. After a few seconds of silence finally he said, "Okay! Let's do it! I'm down. I like it." I could tell he wasn't sure about it, but he was just willing to do it anyway, lol.

At this point, I was happy. But I needed to see his bed and what it looked like to visually get an idea of how I was going to shoot this. When I told him this he said to me, "Ummm, yeah. We can't use my bed tho." I gave him a curious look, and he looked at me, and without spreading his business too much to all of you reading, he told me his bed wasn't in a current state to be photographed (take that as you wish, lol). So I said, "well then you can use my bed. It's a pretty nice set up in my room." He agreed and off to my room we went. I actually made up my bed real quick before he came in, only because I didn't want him to come in thinking I was a slob (which I'm not!), but I realized once he climbed in my bed and tossed the pillows around, yanked and pulled at the sheets and blanket, that doing that was kind of pointless. We took some amazing shots in bed and I gave him various scenarios and expressions to think of to convey what I had in my mind and he delivered like a pro, giving me all the energy and personality I had hoped for. What was even better than that, when he looked at the shots we took, all he could say was, "wow." He called his manager to come over and look, and he said, "wow. This shit is HOT!" "This shit is hot," Kevin said. Then he said,"Wow, man...you knew what you wanted and you made it happen. This is really hot. I really like these." I told him, "I saw it in my head and I knew exactly how I wanted it to look and how I wanted it to be...I just saw it," and he replied, "That's amazing. Well I totally trust your vision...this is incredible. Whatever you want to do, I trust you."

I trust you is one of the most amazing phrases ANY photographer can hear. It means someone is putting their image and who they are in your hands and they trust that your vision will make them look great, as well as create something great as a total composition. I had a great time shooting with Kevin. He was funny, but not the same kind of funny you see of him on stage doing his act, or when he's impressing an audience for late night TV. It was laid back and effortless. During our last look, Kevin asked me how long I had been shooting as a photographer, and when I told him, he was totally amazed. He told me, "That's amazing man. Keep it up...you're definitely on your way to greatness." And I feel it too Kevin...I really do. Thank you.

There will be A LOT more photos AND a behind-the-scenes video of my shoot with Kevin Hart coming soon...and make sure you check out his cover story in SUAVV Magazine coming in January!!!