Community director Jay Chandrasekhar has shed light on the 2012 incident in which Chevy Chase used the N-word on the set of the show and the ensuing fallout of the news leaking to the press.
In the upcoming CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not (via PEOPLE), Chandrasekhar spoke about being “there, directing, the night that Chevy Chase got fired from Community” and the actor’s subsequent “meltdown” after the news was leaked to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I know that there was a history between [Chevy and Yvette Brown] around race, and she got up and stormed out of there,” said Chandrasekhar. “Chevy storms off, so the producer is like, ‘We need Yvette in the scene, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, she’s in the next scene.’ And he goes, ‘Well, she won’t come out unless Chevy apologizes to her.’”
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When Chase returned to the set, however, he feigned innocence and claimed that he “didn’t say anything” to Brown.
“He goes, ‘You know, me and Richard Pryor, I used to call Richard Pryor the N-word, and he used to call me The Honky, and we loved each other,’” Chandrasekhar recalled Chase saying. “And I’m like, ‘I know, man, I love that bit.’ I said, ‘You know, can we just have a little apology?’ He goes, ‘For what?’”
After filming wrapped, THR published a story about a “racial incident” on the set, Chandrasekhar added. This led to Chase’s “full meltdown” upon the cast’s return to production.
Chandrasekhar said Chase came “storming onto the set, and he goes, ‘Who fucked me over?’ … ‘My career is ruined! I’m ruined!’ Like, it’s a full meltdown. ‘Fuck all of you!’” The director added that Chase “never ended up coming back after that.”
Production of Community was halted after the incident, and Chase reportedly was forced to issue an apology. At the time, THR’s report stated that Chase used the N-word while expressing frustration with the direction of his character, Pierce Hawthorne, during a scene with Brown and Donald Glover, though he did not direct the slur at them personally.
However, Glover later opened up to The New Yorker in 2018 about Chase’s history of racism on the Community set. This included Chase allegedly telling Glover, “People think you’re funnier because you’re black.”
For his part, Chase told CBS Sunday Morning in 2022 that he “[doesn’t] care” that his former castmates on Saturday Night Live and Community hated working with him.
Despite this claim, Chase confesses in the documentary that he was hurt by being left out of the SNL 50th anniversary celebration earlier this year.
I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not is out on January 1st.
