‘You Could Just See His Nose Bleeding’: Kevin Hart Quits Doing Stunts With Ice Cube After On Set Fallout on ‘Ride Along’
Comedian Kevin Hart knows his limits when it comes to making people laugh.
But the funny man was back in the hot seat on a recent episode of “Hot Ones,” a hit YouTube show where celebrities agree to be interviewed while eating hot foods.
Hart was attempting to distract himself from the fiery wrath of the Elotes Loco hot sauce when host Sean Evans asked him if he had any stories about doing stunts since he racked up a successful string of action movies.
“I got a good [story] about Ice Cube,” Hart said through the pain. “We were doing ‘Ride Along.’ While doing the stunt, Ice Cube punched one of the stuntmen in the face for real by accident, and the stunt guy kind of [got] knocked out for a second. I was like, ‘Oh! That can happen? We can actually get hit?’”
“I remember Cube just hugging the stunt guy like, ‘You are going to be all right,’” Hart said, laughing. “The stunt guy was like, ‘No, I’m alright,’ [and] you [could] just see his nose bleeding a little bit.”
Hart said that after observing the damage, he changed his mind about how hands-on he would be in his stunts.
“Yeah, just let my stunt guy come in and do everything,” he said jokingly.
“From that day on, I stopped with the idea of wanting to do stunts,” the “Lift” actor revealed. “The energy that I used to have … younger me was like, ‘Throw me on the f**king table! You have got to slam me? Go ahead. Just do it, do one take so we get the real reaction.’ But now I’m 45. I don’t even want to run.”
After he shared his “Ride Along” story, Hart gave flowers to the stunt doubles who take the hard hits but often go unnoticed.
“Those guys do not get enough credit, man. There should be a stunt award. They really do not get enough love,” he said.
“Some of these movies that you have watched and fallen in love with where guys are falling from buildings or going through windows or falling down cliffs — they are using real people for that. I have seen some stuntmen get f—ked up and I have seen the director go, ‘We did not get it. Hey Gary, you think you got another one?’”
Although he’s sworn off taking hits for the camera, Hart continued to punish himself on the show and took on the Harbenero wing.
After downing ice water straight from the pitcher, the Philadelphia native spoke with Evans about his pet eagles, Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley, after headlines absurdly claimed the actor spent over $28 million collectively on the two birds, which are common African fish eagles.
“My eagles love me! I sent top dollar on those eagles,” Hart declared when asked if they recognized him as a father figure.
Hart purchased the birds as a homage to his love for his hometown’s football team. In 2023, he acquired the first bird, Jalen, after the Eagles made it to Super Bowl LVII and purchased his new bird named after the team’s running back after they took in honor of them making it to this year’s big game.
Hart went on to tell a funny story about having conversations to establish respect with his two feathered friends.
“They thought I was a rodent — I told people this. Them eagles are strong,” he said before asking the host if he had ever experienced being picked up by one.
“Well, I have! Just outside playing with my kids them muthaf**kas will swoop down quick and just pick me up from the back. You got to tell them, ‘put me down!’”
Hart ended his funny and totally fanciful story by saying that once he established that he was “dad,” he was safe from any unwarranted flights.