Michael Rapaport has always been a disruptor.
As a kid growing up in New York, Rapaport had a big mouth and could make people laugh, though teachers continually noted his "disruptive behavior" in class. "That's just a genetic disposition," says Rapaport, on the phone last month from New York. "That's just who I am and who I've always been."
It's what led him to move to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up comedy after high school. And his stand-up is what led to his acting career, after casting agents saw him perform on stage and knew he had the makings of an actor.
October marked the 30-year anniversary of his first film, the Detroit-shot "Zebrahead," and he's gone on to a healthy career in films such as "True Romance," "Higher Learning" and "Beautiful Girls," as well as TV shows such as "Boston Public," "My Name is Earl" and "Justified." Now he's back on the road doing stand-up.
"I'm talking s—, I'm talking about myself, I'm talking about what's going on in the world," says Rapaport, 52, who is known for his profane, rapid fire rants against athletes, politicians, rappers, Gary Dell'Abate on "The Howard Stern Show" and anyone or anything else that catches his ire. "I talk about being married, being divorced, I talk about a lot of social stuff, I talk a lot about my life. I talk a lot of s— but I like to talk s— about myself, because if you can't make fun of yourself, you can't make fun of anybody else."
Rapaport grew up on Manhattan's Upper East Side where his penchant for talking trash and cracking wise got him in trouble at school. That disruptive behavior was noted on his progress reports and report cards from teachers who said his antics in class would hold back teachers from teaching and students from learning.
"I don't think I could help myself. I was just all over the place," says Rapaport, who says he was diagnosed in third grade with ADD-like behavior, but his parents, who were both in the radio business (dad was an executive, mom was an on-air personality) refused to medicate him. "I probably could have benefited from being on medicine, but at the time it wasn't like everybody was on something."
His disruptive behavior continued to be a problem at home and at school, where he was pulling Cs and Ds in his classes, and he says he didn't end up graduating from high school. But socially it wasn't a problem, and he never had problems making friends or talking to girls.
By 15 years old, Rapaport was an early convert to hip-hop, and he'd frequent clubs like Union Square, the Rooftop and Latin Quarter, seminal New York City hip-hop hot spots where he says he'd be the only white patron in attendance, aside from a young up-and-comer who would go on to become MC Serch.
"Hip-hop was all I cared about," says Rapaport, who grew up having dreams of becoming a professional basketball player. "It's the music of my youth, and I love it."
So this very disruptive born-and-bred New York hip-hop fan moved to Los Angeles in the late 1980s with dreams of becoming a comedian. Within months, his brash attitude and on-stage presence caught the eye of casting agents, who knew he had something special they wanted.
Rapaport had no previous acting experience, but he felt an instant connection during his first audition.
"The first time I ever read a script, I was like, 'this is what I'm going to do,'" says Rapaport, equating his experience with someone who is inherently gifted at math. "I knew immediately, I'm going to be an actor. It came very natural to me. I'm not saying I'm some genius actor, but I was able to understand it, and I fell in love with acting very, very quickly."
He landed a part on TV's "China Beach," and the Oliver Stone-produced "Zebrahead," a romantic drama about a young couple in an interracial relationship, brought him to Detroit in the summer of 1992. It was his first film role.
"It was a great experience," says Rapaport of making the film, which was written and directed by Anthony Drazan and co-starred N'Bushe Wright. "It was like falling in love. That summer was like a love affair. I was there shooting a movie, so I was out of my mind, I was so excited. It was such a huge opportunity. We didn't spend that much time going out because we worked so much, and we didn't have a car, but it was very fun. We shot a lot in downtown Detroit" — there were also scenes shot on Belle Isle — "and I've always had a fondness for Detroit because of that."
Rapaport's background in hip-hop prepared him for the role. "By the time I got to Detroit I was like a veteran," he says. "It was like, 'this is what I am.' So when I did that movie, I was like, there's no way I'm not getting the part. I was like, 'I am this dude,' actually I'm more hardcore in my brain than this character. This is soft compared to how I'm thinking in my head."
He received solid marks in "Zebrahead," and as his star rose and his roles grew — he's appeared in more than 60 movies and more than 40 TV shows in the last 30 years — Rapaport always kept a foot in the hip-hop world.
He was on screen with Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes in 1995's "Higher Learning," he appears in the music video for Jay-Z's "The City is Mine" (and is photographed in the liner notes of the rapper's "The Black Album"), and he directed 2011's documentary "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest."
And the father of two continues to talk trash in a multitude of formats — his "I Am Rapaport" podcast is nearing its 1,000th episode, he is active (probably too active) on social media and he published a 2017 book titled "This Book Has Balls: Sports Rants from the MVP of Talking Trash" — as he makes the most out of being a disruptor.
"I remember there was one time I was looking through some old report cards, and I felt bad for my younger self, seeing those 'disruptive behavior' marks. Then I was like f— that, I'm going to embrace that," says Rapaport. "Yeah, I am disruptive. There's something about that that's cool. It was literally like flipping a switch. And I was like, I'm going to turn this thing that was a negative into a superpower."
