Kevin Hart has been cashing in on people laughing at his pain for over two decades. But his road to fame has been anything but an overnight success.

In a new Bleacher Report interview with Taylor Rooks, the Hartbeat co-founder explained how he wasn’t just randomly plucked from a pool of comedic talent to be the next big act. Rather, the comedian attributes his success to spending the first 15 years of his career learning how to grow his fanbase so that Hollywood executives would view him as a box office draw.

This comes on the heels of a callout from Katt Williams, who left the internet in shambles when he unleashed his grievances on several comedic peers, including Steve Harvey, Cedric The Entertainer, Rickey Smiley, and, of course, Hart, on “Club Shay Shay.” In the January 2024 interview, Williams referred to Hart as an industry plant and a gatekeeper who made a name for himself off roles that Williams passed over.

The viral discussion was not explicitly mentioned during Hart’s conversation with Rooks. However, when presented with the notion that comedy’s evolving landscape and the rise of social media make it easier for new talent to obtain success with approval from the industry’s guards, the comedian had some thoughts. “When you hear the term gatekeeping or gatekeepers right…it’s become the easy escape. The easy escape for what you haven’t done, or what you’re not doing, or what you feel you should do, is the world of blame,” Hart waxed to Rooks.

“It’s a very undefined statement. Who are the gatekeepers? Who are you actually speaking of when you refer to the gatekeepers? It’s like when you hear people say, 'Yeah, I would, but you know people hatin’ on me.’ Who is they?” he doubled down.

The Lift star even pushed back at the narrative that he exploded onto the scene without enduring obstacles. “Who says that my experience wasn’t one filled with lack of opportunity? So, like the lack of opportunity that presented itself then still presents itself now,” he says. “There is no difference, and there is no change, right. When you talking about the ‘stars’ of comedy, okay, well, let’s go down the list. Is there a high volume of comedic stars that we’ve seen?” asks Hart, as he runs down a list of names including the likes of Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Chris Tucker, Martin Lawrence, and even Williams.

Moreover, the multi-hyphenate is certain that “the different versions of success that we have all had match and mirror what the opportunities that we either maximized, saw crazy success in [or] saw minimal success.” Adding that for those who claim gatekeepers have stalled their career trajectories are either forgetting or failing to consider the business of entertainment is about getting a return on an investment and to protect “the entity that they’ve built or that they’re creating.”

“When you have the terms gatekeepers or people that are acting as preventative measures for opportunities, I challenge that because it’s supposed to be. If you just throwing out opportunities and you throwing out money with no return, then how will the businesses succeed?” the comedian ruminates.

Check out the full interview below. Hart’s remarks about gatekeepers begin at the 40-minute mark.