Chevy Chase thought “Community” 'wasn't funny enough' for him and he felt 'constrained'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Community may be a beloved cult classic that refuses to die, but Chevy Chase would rather forget he was ever involved. And the feeling is probably mutual.
On the latest episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Chase admits that he didn't think Community was "funny enough" for him and that he felt "constrained."
Lewis Jacobs/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal Chevy Chase in 'Community'
Maron and Chase are having a wide-ranging conversation about Chase's life and career when the host brings up Community, noting that it must have been a big deal for Chase at the time.
"Oh...," Chase responds. "I kinda forget about that."
Maron makes a remark about how "they wanted Chevy Chase" and Chase, rather ambivalent, allows, "Right, they wanted me. So I said okay."
Chase starred as millionaire bigot Pierce Hawthorne for the first four seasons of Community, but left the show after reportedly using a racial slur on set. In March 2018, former Community costar Donald Glover revealed in a New Yorker profile how Chase tried to disrupt his scenes by making racial and insensitive jokes between takes to throw him off.
Maron tries to get Chase to say something positive about his Community experience, but the best he gets is Chase admitting, "Honestly, I felt the show wasn't funny enough for me, ultimately."
"I felt a little bit constrained a bit," he continues. "Everyone had their bits and stuff, I thought they were all good, but it just wasn't hard-hitting enough for me."
Chase clarifies that he didn't mind the character, just that he "felt happier being alone, in a sense. I just didn't want to be surrounded by that table every day with those people. It was too much."
Maron then calls series creator Dan Harmon "intense" and alludes to Chase's long-standing feud with him, asking if things between the two of them are okay.
"I have no idea if we're okay. I've never been not okay," Chase replies. "He's kind of a pisser. He's angry. He called and said he was sorry. I love him now."
When asked about his reputation for being difficult, Chase doesn't seem to know what Maron's talking about.
"I don't think people really felt that way," Chase says.
They do. And to prove it, Maron cites the notorious 2002 Friar's Club Roast, a brutal affair in which Chase was berated by people he barely knew since no one else showed up. "I don't think people knew me on that roast," Chase tells Maron.
Finally, the erstwhile Clark Griswold concedes, "I don't know what my reputation was among people. I just always assumed I was okay." However, that's a different tune than he was singing last year when the question of him being a "jerk" was brought up in an interview with CBS' This Morning.
"I don't give a crap! I am who I am. And I like... who I am," Chase said at the time. "I don't care. And it's part of me that I don't care. And I've thought about that a lot. And I don't know what to tell you, man. I just don't care."
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
