Head of State (2003)
Trivia
Chris Rock got the idea for this story from the 1984 Walter Mondale/Geraldine A. Ferraro ticket, in which the Democrats thought that since they had no chance of winning against Ronald Reagan/George Bush, they might as well make a historic first so they can win support for the next election. So they ran Ferraro as the first ever woman vice president candidate for their party (and lost).
Part of the presidential debate is a verbatim repeat of Monty Python's Argument Sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Money Programme (1972).
Tina Fey was one of the five uncredited writers who did a re-write on the screenplay.
During the Chicago speech a man stands up and yells out " Get your hand out of my pocket" in homage to Malcolm X where the same thing happened before he was assassinated.
Chris Rock admitted that he didn't know the electric slide and was taught on the set of the movie.
The name Mays Gilliam is a combination of two famous New York baseball players from the 1950s: Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Jim Gilliam (aka Junior Gilliam) of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Tamala Jones (Lisa Clark) and Tracy Morgan (Meat Man) play husband and wife on The Tracy Morgan Show (2003).
Shares five actors from The Wire (2002), Delaney Williams, Clarke Peters, Reg E. Cathey, Doug Roberts, and an uncredited Tray Chaney.
Back in 1999, actor Chris Tucker was working on a competing project called 'Mr. President', in which he was going to star as an average guy who unexpectedly becomes the first black President of the United States. However, Head of State (2003) made it to theaters before 'Mr. President' even started production. Chris Tucker still insisted that his movie was going to be made however and he actually did quite a bit of research for the role. He visited troops in Virginia, volunteered to promote voter registration, and consulted with Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, and Jesse Jackson, the first major black presidential candidate. By 2008, Barack Obama was elected president in real life, and the movie was scrapped altogether.
Stephanie March, Ned Eisenberg, and Delaney Williams all featured on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999).
Meatman (Tracy Morgan) asks in one scene when Martin (1992) was coming on, Morgan, played acclaimed Hustleman in Martin from '94-'96.
Spoilers
In the end credits, Mays Gilliam is seen advocating that the alcohol drinking age be lowered, saying, "if you're 18, you can go to war, but you can't have a drink." In 2012, real life presidential candidate Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) said the same thing while advocating that the alcohol drinking age be lowered to 18.
