James Mottram

He has four Emmys and three Grammys for his comedy specials and albums. He's officially the fifth-greatest stand-up, according to a poll conducted by Comedy Central, behind only Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen. And he's starred in all manner of Hollywood comedies, from Grown Ups to Bad Company. But looking at his latest film, Top Five, you might think Chris Rock was disenchanted with life.

A highly amusing swipe at actors, egos, reporters and reality television, Rock plays Andre Allen, a former stand-up who has made his name in Hollywood in a comedy cop franchise called Hammy The Bear (a gun-toting bear, making arrests with the catchphrase 'It's Hammy time'). Now he's made a serious movie, 'Uprize', about the Haitian revolution, but - in classic Woody Allen/Stardust Memories style - the critics just want him to be funny again.

So is this Rock in disguise? "There are similarities," he says. "I can't act like there aren't. But I don't have Hammy The Bear." He pauses for a second, thinking. "I got Madagascar!" True, but voicing Marty the Zebra in DreamWorks' series of cartoons about zoo animals on the loose isn't quite the same (presumably, he doesn't have to record his lines wearing a black-and-white striped costume). He also doesn't have a drug problem, like Andre.

Still, Rock's script for Top Five reads like the 50 year-old is ripping into everything he dislikes about the industry - from coke-addled hangers-on and gold-digging partners to fake-to-your-face film journalists ("It's not anti-press," he assures me). Embodying the latter is Rosario Dawson's New York Times writer Chelsea Brown, a single mother instructed to interview Andre. After initially disliking each other, she gets him to open up - and gradually the caustic jibes fall away as love blossoms.

"I like movies that make you think they're one thing and end up being another," says Rock. "You think Rocky is a boxing movie until you hear him scream, 'Adrian!' and you realise you've been watching a love story. [Woody Allen]'s Broadway Danny Rose is really good that way too. You think it's this weird caper movie and then he runs back to get her at the end. I was going for that."

It's Rock's third film as writer-director, after Head of State and the martial comedy I Think I Love My Wife (ironically, Rock recently split from his own spouse, Malaak, after nineteen years). While it was fairly obvious he had to play Andre, Rock admits he wasn't desperate to double up. "I don't feel like I wake up wanting to direct myself. I'd rather have some great director do it. I'd rather have Paul Thomas Anderson direct me. Or Alexander Payne. But they're not knocking down the door."

In the past, Rock has worked with the likes of Neil LaBute (in Nurse Betty) and Kevin Smith (Dogma), while an early role saw him win acclaim as a crack-addict in New Jack City. But he's not desperate for drama. It's always been about the laughs, ever since he started doing stand-up in New York in the mid-Eighties, a passion that became a profession after Eddie Murphy mentored him, even giving him a role in Beverly Hills Cop II. "He was my idol," says Rock. "The most dynamic stand-up I've ever seen."

Raised in Brooklyn, the eldest of four boys, Rock's mother was a teacher and social worker and his father, who died in 1988 after ulcer surgery, a truck driver. But it was his grandfather, a preacher, that influenced Rock when it came to his stand-up routines. "I always want to sound like I'm arguing at a barber shop," he says. "My grandfather had that style as a preacher and I kind of adapted it."

Rock's turning point came when he joined Saturday Night Live in 1990, a decade after Murphy's inaugural appearance on America's iconic sketch show. "That was kind of the biggest moment in my career. It changed my life. I was poor and suddenly I was making money. That was it. My life's never been the same since I got on Saturday Night Live. It's like being accepted into Harvard or something. It's unbelievable."

Staying on it for just two years, Rock's status as one of America's most daring comics rocketed when he starred in his own HBO specials, including 1996's Bring The Pain (with its infamous rant on racism in the US). Yet he's not toured for almost seven years now. Partly it's being a father - he has two daughters, Lola, 12, and Zahra, 10. Partly it's because the increasingly politically correct world we live in makes it difficult for a comedian who works "on the edge".

He clearly misses it. "It's an amazing, amazing thing. Unlike making a movie, where you do something funny and then next year you find out if people like it or not, it's just immediate." It surely has to be better than hosting the poisoned chalice that is the Oscars, which Rock did in 2005. Diplomatically, he claims he'd "totally" do it again. "It's the second biggest audience after the Superbowl, so that challenge alone is worth it."

For the moment, he's just recovering after spending two years making and promoting Top Five. "I'm writing a script and I'm just hanging out with my kids right now." He doesn't seem too concerned that there's nothing else on the horizon. "You've got to relax a little bit," he says. He sounds mellow; not the Rock-on-a-rant from his routines. "I'm at peace with my career - for the most part."

Top Five opens on May 8th.