Chris Rock’s role as Pookie in the movie “New Jack City” is one of the rare performances in his acting career. It’s almost impossible to think of Rock playing a young man with a crack addiction and doing it so well, when his audiences knew him mainly for his ability to make people laugh. The 1991 crime drama showed a different side of the actor that fans had never seen.
Throughout the movie, Pookie had his fair share of ups and downs, especially with his recovery from addiction, his relapse and his eventual death. This transition makes the movie unforgettable.
Despite being a household name in comedy, Chris Rock plays a minor role as Pookie. The major character is Nino Brown, played by Wesley Snipes. Although Pookie isn’t a part of the drug empire, its dealings leave him caught in the middle.
Who Played Pookie in New Jack City?
According to screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper, the role of Pookie in “New Jack City” was originally meant for Martin Lawrence, but he had to leave production, and Rock stepped in. This happened when Rock was already becoming famous in comedy and was a familiar face on Saturday Night Live. He joined the “New Jack City” cast at a time when his career was just budding.
Rock wasn’t used to movies like this, but taking on the role turned out to be a great decision for his career. Rock plays Pookie, a young, troubled and vulnerable man whose life is spiraling out of control. Although the movie has some moments of humor, Rock keeps them from overshadowing the drama, especially as his addiction to crack plays a significant role in his journey.
What Happened to Pookie in New Jack City?
Pookie battles crack addiction, but he is hopeful again when he meets Scotty Appleton, the undercover police officer played by Ice-T. Pookie and Scotty had met before. During their previous encounter, Scotty had shot Pookie while trying to stop him from robbing a store.
Having been through cocaine addiction and recovery himself, Scotty offers to help Pookie with his addiction through rehabilitation instead of arresting him. Pookie goes through rehabilitation and gets clean. As a sign of gratitude, he agrees to help Scotty with the police investigation. The police were after Nino Brown and the Cash Money Brothers.
Pookie becomes an undercover agent inside the Carter, an apartment complex where Nino runs his drug business. Armed with a camera and some surveillance equipment, he acts as an informant for the police. The plan works for a while until things begin to fall apart for Pookie. Returning to an environment that exposed him to drug addiction, he couldn’t withstand the temptation, so he relapsed. The film shows that rehabilitation helps Pookie, but it didn’t automatically erase his addiction issues. His return to the Carter made it harder for him not to slip back into using again.
How Was Pookie Killed ?
Things get intense when the Cash Money Brothers discover that Pookie is a spy for the police. Pookie is killed after Gee, played by Allen Payne, finds out that he is an undercover police informant. The information reaches the Cash Money Brothers, and they shut down operations before the police arrive at the scene. After killing Pookie, the gang strap explosives to his body and leave him inside the building.
Scotty and the other officers arrive too late and find Pookie’s body and the bombs attached to it. Nick Peretti manages to disable the explosives before they go off. Pookie’s death hurts Scotty deeply, especially because he had been a part of Pookie’s rehabilitation and his recruitment as an informant.
At his funeral, Nick reveals that Pookie reminds him of his younger self. Pookie’s death hits harder because it shows how addiction can destroy someone, even when they try to escape it.
Why Was Chris Rock’s Pookie Performance So Memorable?
What qualifies Rock’s performance as memorable is that it is effortless. Throughout the movie, Rock changes his energy and mannerisms to fit into the specific situation. He keeps his comedic persona under control and allows Pookie’s character to lead the story.
Roger Ebert, in a review of “New Jack City”, praised Rock for his seamless portrayal of the character Pookie. He described Rock and Ice-T as real and relatable while focusing on Pookie’s rehabilitation and undercover story. Rock’s role is described as outstanding not because he played the role of a person battling addiction, but because he made the role feel like a person and not just a device in the storyline.
Pookie Shows the Other Side of Nino Brown’s Empire
Nino Brown is influential and powerful in the movie. However, Pookie shows the opposite of Nino’s world. Nino’s story is about controlling his drug empire and making sure his business is successful. Pookie’s story is about how an environment can influence a person. Pookie’s struggle with addiction and recovery is difficult and messy. Nino is presented as confident while Pookie is shown as vulnerable and helpless. The contrast between the two characters is one of the reasons why Pookie’s story continues to stand out despite his minor role.
How Did Pookie Change the Way People Saw Chris Rock?
Pookie’s performance in the movie changed how audiences viewed his range as an actor. After his role in “New Jack City,” Rock went on to build a bigger profile through “Everybody Hates Chris” and the “Madagascar” film. His role in “New Jack City” didn’t mean that he had stepped away from comedy. Rock went on to appear in more dramatic roles, such as “Fargo” and “Spiral.”
From time to time, Rock talks about his role as Pookie. In 2017, during an interview, he referred to Pookie as a “legend,” adding that he was lucky to have played that role. Again, he referenced the character during his Netflix special “Selective Outrage,” addressing the Oscars slap; he made a comparison between his character as Pookie and Will Smith’s Muhammad Ali. For viewers who only know Chris Rock as a comedian, Pookie offers a different introduction to him. The performance doesn’t ask the audience to forget that Rock is funny. It simply shows that there is more to him than fun and laughter. Pookie gave audiences a reason to believe in his craft.
Where Does Pookie Rank Among Chris Rock’s Career-Defining Roles?
Even though “Everybody Hates Chris” holds the top place in defining Rock’s career, Pookie introduced a different kind of Rock to fans and viewers.
Pookie didn’t have a lot of screen time in “New Jack City,” and his character wasn’t the most powerful, yet he gave the movie a distinct quality that even the character of Nino Brown couldn’t: a view of the damage left by the drug empire.
Any discussion regarding Rock’s ability as an actor would be incomplete without mentioning Pookie. “New Jack City” came early in Rock’s acting career, before he even became this big in the industry. Rock, in later productions, played Loy Cannon in “Fargo” and Detective Zeke Banks in “Spiral,” reinforcing audiences’ belief in his ability to deliver excellently. This is the reason why the character continues to come up in conversations more than thirty years later.
