Kevin Hart Apologizes To LGBTQ Community On ‘Straight From The Hart’ SiriusXM Show
In the ongoing saga of Kevin Hart, his years-ago anti-gay jokes, and what it means for his aspirations to host the Academy Awards, the comedian has launched his most emphatic apology to date.
On his SiriusXM show Straight From the Hart on Tuesday, the comic once again apologized.
“I will say this, and I want to make this very clear. And I’m going to say it just in case you guys try to take this s–t and chop it up, I will rebuttal with this f–king piece right here,” Hart said on the show, as reported by E! Online. “Once again, Kevin Hart apologizes for his remarks that hurt members of the LGBTQ community. I apologize.”
“Because now we’re in a space where I’m around people of the LGBTQ community,” he continued. “I’m now aware of how these words make them feel and why they say, ‘That s–t hurt because of what I’ve been through,'” Hart said. “So then we say, ‘Ay man, as a group, let’s erase this s–t. We don’t talk like this no more. Let’s not do this. We don’t post this s–t on social media and, more importantly, within my comedy act, I’m going to make sure that I don’t do anything else offensive because I talked to some friends of mine.'”
The apology came as Hart is promoting his new movie The Upside, in which he co-stars with Bryan Cranston. The film, in which Hart stars as an ex-con hired as a caregiver to a wealthy paraplegic, was filmed in early 2017 but delayed after the implosion of the Weinstein Company, which had been scheduled to release it. The film finally opens Friday.
After Hart was announced as the host of the Academy Awards in December, he withdrew less than two days later, once the old anti-gay comments came to light. Hart was at first reluctant to apologize but did express remorse in his announcement that he was pulling out of the Oscars.
Then, last week, Hart appeared on Ellen, which can be seen on YouTube, apologized again, and host Ellen DeGeneres revealed that she had lobbied the Academy to reinstate Hart as host and that there was interest from their end in bringing him back. However, there has been no announcement since then to that effect.
Hart’s new movie, The Upside, includes an extended scene in which he has a homophobic reaction to having to change the Cranston character’s catheter.
