Being a single parent is no joke, but Netflix’s upcoming comedy-drama Fatherhood manages to find amusing moments in the midst of tragedy as it tells one man’s story of raising his daughter alone after his wife dies unexpectedly.
Kevin Hart plays the lead role in the adaptation of Matthew Logelin’s 2011 memoir Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love. Though not a single dad, the father of four has had moments over the years where he related to his character’s struggles.
“I gotta be honest with you, I think the scenes that really popped for me are the hair ones for sure,” Hart tells ESSENCE. “I definitely struggled trying to do my little girl Heaven’s head. There were times when I was left with the responsibility and I just didn’t know what to do,” he admits before adding with a laugh, “Her hat collection is amazing.”
In the film, we see Hart’s character grow as a father with the help of his community. Alfre Woodard stars as his mother-in-law while Lil Rel plays a close friend, along with Dewanda Wise, who later becomes a love interest. We also see his daughter Maddy grow up and begin to ask questions about their lives and challenge her dad in different ways. That father-daughter dynamic also hit home for Hart whose oldest children, Heaven and Hendrix, are now 16 and 14.
“There’s a scene where we’re about to go and get on a plane and Maddy asked me a question and she said ‘It’s always just us. Why is it just us? It’s never anybody else.’ It was moments like that for me when I started realizing my kids are talking to me and they’re young adults and they’re expressing themselves,” Hart shares. “They’re feeling, they have a mind and they want clarity. They want information and learning how to distribute it properly, it’s a learning curve.”
Check out our full interview with Kevin Hart in the video above. Fatherhood begins streaming on Netflix Friday, June 18.