Chevy Chase has addressed his abrupt exit from Community back in 2012.
Chase departed the cult favourite series in its fourth season due to conflicts with show creator Dan Harmon. He played bored millionaire Pierce Hawthorne, and was killed off in the fifth season.
Now, following the release of his new documentary, I’m Chevy Chase And You’re Not – which premiered on CNN on Thursday (January 1) – he’s spoken about his reasons for leaving the show.
In a joint interview with The New York Times, Chase and director Marina Zenovich discussed his firing from the series for reportedly using a racial slur on set.
When asked how he felt about his role ending, Chase replied, “It was too great a misunderstanding of what I was saying and not saying. I thought that there was at least one person — and another who, for some ungodly reason, didn’t get me, didn’t know who I was, or didn’t realise for one second I’m not racist.”
He added, “They were too young to be aware of my work. Instead, there was some sort of visceral reaction from them.”
According to the article, the documentary covers allegations that Chase, who had become frustrated with his character’s escalating bigotry and a scene in which the character uses a hand puppet wearing blackface, said a racial slur when asking whether his character would be made to say it next.
In the documentary, Community director Jay Chandrasekhar mentions co-star Yvette Nicole Brown when recalling the incident. Brown appeared to address the comments in a recent Instagram post, writing, “These are things I’ve never spoken of publicly and perhaps never will. Anyone currently speaking FOR or ABOUT me with perceived authority is speaking without EVER speaking to me about the things they claim to know about.”
She added, “In East Cleveland speak: Keep my name out your mouth.” In the caption, Brown wrote, “And when someone chooses to sully or defile themselves, I let them — BIG age or not. And they need to fully own what they alone have done without placing blame or looking for scapegoats. Don’t smear any of that mess over here for clout or reputation rehabilitation. This side of the street remains clean.”
Chase was previously accused of making “racial cracks” at Donald Glover on the set of the series. According to a 2018 New Yorker profile on Glover, Chase “often tried to disrupt his scenes and made racial cracks between takes”.
In response, Chase said: “I am saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light.”
Since departing the show, Chase has been critical of it, saying in 2023 that it “wasn’t funny enough”.
“I felt a little bit constrained,” Chase said at the time. “Everybody had their bits, and I thought they were all good. It just wasn’t hard-hitting enough for me.”
His former co-star, Jo McHale, later responded to these comments, saying: “He stopped hurting my feelings in 2009.”
Chase’s reputation for being blunt with his colleagues and co-stars is well established, and last year the director of Saturday Night, the behind-the-scenes drama about the first-ever SNL episode, revealed that Chase told him he “should be embarrassed” by the film.
Elsewhere in the documentary, Chase also shared that he spent eight days in a coma due to heart failure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In other news, a Community spin-off film was announced in 2022, which will reunite original stars McHale, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover.
The film was delayed due to the Hollywood writers’ strike, but in 2024 Glover issued an update, sharing that the script for the film adaptation of the hit sitcom is actually “done”.
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