Abby Elliott Reacts to Shane Gillis Getting Fired From 'SNL' for Past Racist, Homophobic Remarks (Exclusive)
Abby Elliott is opening up about Shane Gillis' recent firing from Saturday Night Live.
The show announced on Monday that Gillis would no longer be joining the new season after racist and homophobic remarks made by the stand-up comedian surfaced on the internet almost immediately after his casting was revealed. Speaking with ET's Brice Sander at NBC's Comedy Starts Here event at NeueHouse in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Elliott reacted to the recent news.
"I thought they made the right decision," said Elliot, who was an SNL castmember from 2008-2012. "I mean, the line between comedy and just blatant racism, it was just very clear that what he said and did was racist on the podcast. So I, you know, fully support it."
Gillis was announced last week as the newest cast addition to the legendary sketch show's 45th season, along with Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. ET also spoke with Joel Kim Booster at the event, where he reacted to The Hollywood Reporter accidentally using a photo of him to announce Yang's casting.
"I'm sure that the Hollywood Reporter thing was a simple computer mistake, not at all institutional racism at work in social media," Booster said. "But, yeah, I mean -- it happens all the time. Bowen and I have been friends for close to, like, six or seven years, and this happens on a monthly basis, I would say, people confusing us, confusing our work."
"I have been on vacations with Bowen where I've had people literally gaslight me and be like, 'You're Bowen Yang!' and I have to point to Bowen and be like, 'No, that's Bowen,'" he added. "So, it's a big, confusing situation for me. But I'm really happy for him. I'm glad that NBC is now the home of two of the finest Asian-American talents in the country."
Booster continued on, praising NBC for being "one of the only networks right now that's sort of reflecting America" and diversity.
"If you look around Los Angeles, New York, Chicago -- like, it's there, you know?" he said. "And that's where the largest sort of parts of the population are living now. If you're sort of resisting that, I think you're sort of resisting what the real world looks like."
As ET previously reported, almost immediately after the new casting announcement went public, clips surfaced of some of Gillis' old podcast episodes. In a since-deleted video from 2018, which was shared via Twitter, Gillis made a series of racist jokes about Chinese people and their culture.
As people continued to go through Gillis' past work, even more anti-Asian comments surfaced, including one in which he referred to Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang as a "Jew ch*nk." Meanwhile, Vulture noted that Gillis allegedly has a history of making derogatory remarks, pointing out that he also made fun of Judd Apatow and Chris Gethard's style of comedy, calling them "f**king gayer than ISIS" in another podcast episode.
Gillis later issued a non-apology for his previous slurs.
"I'm a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss," he wrote on Twitter last week. "If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I'm happy to apologize to anyone who's actually offended by anything I've said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks."
Booster's show, Sunnyside, premieres Sept. 26 on NBC at 9:30 p.m. ET, while Elliott's show, Indebted, will premiere midseason. In the meantime, hear more on SNL in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
'SNL' Fires New Cast Member Shane Gillis After Racist, Homophobic Remarks Surface
New 'SNL' Cast Member Shane Gillis Speaks Out After Slurs Resurface
'Saturday Night Live': How Bowen Yang's Casting Is Making History
Related Articles:
