Chris Rock on the making of ‘Misty Green,’ Lauren Miller Rogen on ‘Babies’ inspiration

TORONTO — Opportunities for celeb-spotting at the Toronto International Film Festival peaked Saturday as the red carpet rolled out for some of the most high-profile films of the year.

Chris Rock was in town to promote his drama “Misty Green,” which is about a down-on-her-luck actress trying to make a Hollywood comeback. The comedian wrote, directed, and stars in the film, with Rosalind Eleazar as the lead.

“I shouldn’t have to do the same thing every time,” Rock said on the red carpet ahead of the premiere. “Let’s see what Chris Rock’s drama looks like.”

He also said he was impressed when Eleazar read for the role and could see the film working with her in it

“She brought it intensity. She brought it intelligence. She brought her own stories that were much like the character — and some of them were even crazier. So she had an understanding of the character that even I didn’t have,” Rock said.

Early reviews suggest Eleazar may be an awards season contender with her layered take on an actress having a tough time in Los Angeles.

“It’s a tough business,” Eleazar said. “You have so many layers of protection because we’ve been through a lot, you know? But I think it’s just, you know, we just gotta get back up, and we keep fighting, we keep working, we keep surviving, we keep doing good work.”

Earlier in the day, Seth Rogen walked the carpet outside Roy Thomson Hall for “Babies,” a relationship comedy written and directed by his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen. The film follows a couple, played by Rogen and Anna Kendrick, who are deciding whether to have kids.

Miller Rogen said the film is very personal. She and Seth Rogen chose not to have kids.

“The idea for this movie — scenes, lines — has been a living document on my phone for probably seven or eight years,” Miller Rogen said on the carpet. “And so a lot of it went in there in real time. A friend would say something, I’d write it down. Someone would say to me, and I’d write it down.”

Issa Rae, Zach Cherry and Ed Helms were also at the premiere of the film.

Another buzzy screening was Peter Farrelly’s “I Play Rocky,” which is about how Sylvester Stallone made the classic sports flick. It stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone, as well as Stephan James and Matt Dillon.

“The message is, you know, you never give up, and you never give in, and you can’t be bought out. And in this day and age, everybody’s bought out. Everybody goes for the money. And he didn’t,” Farrelly said of Stallone.

James, from Toronto, portrays actor Carl Weathers. “I watched the movie a hundred times,” James said, on preparing for the role.

“I was training for the role by doing two a day. So I would work out in the gym during the morning, and then I’d go to the boxing gym in the afternoon.”

Other celebrities who walked the red carpet Saturday include Michelle Yeoh, who was in town to promote “The Surgeon,” which sees the Academy Award-winner play a kidnapped doctor, while Mahershala Ali was at the premiere of his latest, the thriller “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.”

The closed-off portion of King Street, known as Festival Street, has been bustling with film enthusiasts from near and far in the opening days of the event that bills itself as “the people’s festival” because of its accessibility to the public.

– with files from Kaitlyn McGrath

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2026.