Kevin Hart shares thrill at ‘pulling one over on the audience’ in new heist film

Kevin Hart has shared how he enjoyed being able to “pull one over on the audience” during his new heist film Lift.

The comedian and actor stars as master thief Cyrus Whitaker, who leads an international heist crew in a race to lift $500 million (£395,320,000) in gold from a passenger plane at 40,000 feet.

Directed by F Gary Gray, best known for films including Straight Outta Compton and The Italian Job, it also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as his Interpol agent ex-girlfriend.

Discussing what drew them to the project, Mbathu-Raw told the PA news agency: “It’s the con, right? It’s the lovable bad guys.

“That sort of Robin Hood feel, like Cyrus says ‘I never steal anything from anyone that doesn’t deserve to lose it.’ I kind of love that spirit.”

Hart added: “Also the idea of pulling one over on the audience as well.

“In a heist film, I think there’s always a hidden agenda of hitting them with something that they don’t see coming, especially when they assume that they’ve got it right and that it’s all over.

“I think we do a great job of giving a nice reveal at the end of the story and what happened and how, that’s always fun.”

The actor also hailed Gray as an “absolutely legend” filmmaker as he reflected on how he builds a connection between the audience and his characters.

“When it comes to dealing with an ensemble, I don’t think there’s anybody that’s told stories better and that’s kept you invested into the characters more”, he added.

“From Straight Outta Compton to Italian Job to Set It Off. There’s so many things where you look and it’s the story of four to five different characters that you care about, that you want to know what’s happening and how it’s happening and you find yourself at the end going ‘Oh my god I can’t believe this happened but they were all there at the end’.

“He does it very very well, he maintains a nice piece of connected tissue to all.”

Hart also acts as a producer on the film alongside Bryan Smiley, Simon Kinberg, Audrey Chon, Matt Reeves and Adam Kassan.

Men In Black star Vincent D’Onofrio, Money Heist actress Ursula Corbero, Avatar star Sam Worthington, Into The Woods’ Billy Magnussen, Spider-Man actor Jacob Batalon and Leon actor Jean Reno are also among the cast.

Lift is available on Netflix now.