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Chevy Chase has addressed the N-word scandal that led to his abrupt “Neighborhood” exit, telling the New York Occasions, “I’m not racist.”
Chase sat down with Marina Zenovich, the director of this week’s CNN documentary “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” for a joint interview with the Occasions revealed Thursday. In the course of the dialog, Chase was requested about his “Neighborhood” departure, in addition to the scandal that seemingly accelerated his exit from the Dan Harmon-created NBC sitcom.
“It wasn’t a nasty expertise. I simply didn’t assume it was that good, the present,” Chase instructed the New York Occasions, whereas reflecting on his time on “Neighborhood.”
The actor performed Pierce Hawthorne, a tone-deaf millionaire, by the primary 4 seasons of “Neighborhood” earlier than stepping away from the present. His exit got here within the wake of more and more public disagreements between him and Harmon, in addition to a broadly reported incident during which Chase allegedly stated the N-word on set.
The latter incident was reportedly prompted by Chase’s rising frustrations along with his character’s politically incorrect, racially insensitive storylines, certainly one of which concerned him performing a gag with a blackface hand puppet. In response to that bit, it has been reported that Chase requested aloud whether or not or not he would subsequent be anticipated to say the N-word as his character. (He requested stated query by allegedly saying the N-word himself.)
“Neighborhood” director Jay Chandrasekhar claims in “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not” that the second resulted in Chase’s co-star Yvette Nicole Brown, a Black actress, storming off the set. When Chase’s comment subsequently leaked to the press, he purportedly had a “meltdown,” throughout which he declared that his profession was “ruined.” He left “Neighborhood” shortly afterward.
“It was too nice a misunderstanding of what I used to be saying and never saying,” Chase instructed the Occasions about his “Neighborhood” departure. “I believed that there was at the very least one particular person — and one other who, for some ungodly motive, didn’t get me, didn’t know who I used to be, or didn’t understand for one second I’m not racist. They had been too younger to pay attention to my work. As a substitute, there was some type of visceral response from them.”
When requested how he felt about his character’s ending on the present, Chase stated, “I believed it ended nice.”
None of Chase’s “Neighborhood” co-stars, together with Brown, Donald Glover, Joel McHale, Alison Brie and Gillian Jacobs, agreed to take part within the new CNN documentary about him. In response to Chandrasekhar’s feedback within the doc, although, Brown seemingly addressed on-line earlier this week the rumored on-set incident between her and Chase.
“There are issues I’ve by no means spoken of publicly and maybe by no means will,” Brown wrote Monday on Threads. “Anybody at present talking FOR or ABOUT me with perceived authority is talking with out EVER talking to me concerning the issues they declare to find out about. They really don’t actually know me — in any respect. Additionally they haven’t any information of my relationship with anybody I’ve labored with & can not credibly converse on any present or earlier points.”
“I hate that each one this needed to be stated,” the actress concluded. “In East Cleveland converse: Hold my title out your mouth.”
Glover and Harmon, in the meantime, instructed the Nsew Yorker in 2018 that Chase used to routinely make racist jokes on the “Neighborhood” set, generally simply to disrupt Glover’s takes.
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