Kevin Hart Recalls 'Little Moment' That Helped Him Jumpstart His Career In Hollywood

Kevin Hart in Jumanji: The Next LEvel
(Image credit: (Sony))

Every major movie star starts somewhere, and it’s most definitely not straight to the big leagues. Before a Hollywood mega star, such as actor and comedian Kevin Hart, can star in big movies like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle or the upcoming Eli Roth-directed Borderlands, he was taking what he could get just like any young up-and-comer.

Kevin Hart’s first credit in a filmed production was 20 years ago, and it’s been a long road for the 42-year-old to get to this point. He was just reminded of an early one while he was hanging out in the gym. He was in the music video for Terror Squad’s “Lean Back” in 2004. Check out what he shared on Instagram:

A photo posted by on

As Kevin Hart wrote on the social media platform, he got hyped during his morning workout when the song “Lean Back” came on and he was reminded of an early career moment. As he explained, he had the chance to have a role in the music video from the hip hop group Terror Squad alongside Fat Joe and Remy Ma.

At the time, Kevin Hart said he was “hype as hell” to have a small role in the music video at the time before working with the video’s director, Jessy Terrero, on 2004’s Soul Plane in an early central role for the comedian alongside Method Man, Snoop Dogg and Mo’Nique. Check out the music video below:

Did you spot Kevin Hart? The actor is featured midway through the music video doing the same dance he does on the above Instagram post. Later in the video, he also brings some comedy to a moment where he needs to tell a crowd of people the club is full, much to their rejection. Here he was if you missed him:

Kevin Hart in the Lean Back Music video

(Image credit: (UMG))

That was Kevin Hart 17 years ago! The comedian cameoed alongside DJ Khaled, N.O.R.E., Tego Calderon, Lil Jon, Cool & Dre and Tony Sunshine. Except at the time, he wasn’t the big star he is now. As Hart also mentioned in his post, it may be a “little moment” now looking back in his career, but it’s still part of his larger and powerful rise in Hollywood that he still has yet to forget to this day. And he sounds like he’s still really proud of it too!

Following his work with Jessy Terrero that year, Kevin Hart would find small roles in movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Scary Movie 4 and Little Fockers before really finding his footing years later in Think Like A Man and Ride Along. Nowadays, he just struck a major deal with Netflix and he’s starring in Borderlands alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Cate Blanchett following a major recovery from a car accident.

His next movie, Fatherhood, is coming to Netflix on June 18. Check out what other upcoming Kevin Hart movies are in the works here on CinemaBlend.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.