Donald Glover jokes about Chevy Chase using the N-word on the Community set

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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...rd-1235341664/

The writer-actor behind 'Atlanta' and the upcoming 'Swarm' made a rare appearance to present 'Atlanta' executive producer and 'What We Do in the Shadows' showrunner Paul Simms with an honorary award at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards.

BY HILARY LEWIS

MARCH 5, 2023 10:15PM

Donald Glover made a rare appearance at the 2023 Writers Guild Awards in New York on Sunday night where he used some of his time onstage, presenting Atlanta executive producer Paul Simms with an honorary award, to joke about Community co-star Chevy Chase using the N-word.

The Atlanta writer-actor, whose upcoming series Swarm hits Amazon’s Prime Video later this month, recalled how the award Simms is receiving was named after former Saturday Night Live writer Herb Sargent, who came up with the Chevy Chase-hosted “Weekend Update.”

“Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television,” Glover said onstage at the WGA Awards. “Chevy Chase once called me. You know what? This is about Paul.”

Later, when Glover recalled hearing about Simms after working on Girls, he was more explicit about what happened with Chase.

“I was on the set of Girls after filming a sex scene for like eight hours, which they cut down to two minutes. I’ve never seen any of the rest of that footage,” Glover recalled. “I asked Lena [Dunham], ‘Hey, what made you decide to work with Paul [Simms, an executive producer on the HBO hit]?’ And she goes ‘Honestly, this N— lets me do whatever I want.’ And I remember thinking two things. One, Lena is using the N-word extremely liberally. Who does she think she is, Chevy Chase? And two, that’s the kind of producer I want.”

Glover was joking about Dunham. But his quip about Chase seemed more consistent with reports about Chase’s behavior.

In 2012, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that Chase “apologized immediately” to his Community colleagues for using the N-word on set as he expressed frustrations with his character. He reportedly used the slur in questioning the dialogue in a scene with Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown, but the source told THR the slur was not directed at them.

In a 2018 interview with the New Yorker, it was reported that Chase would try to disrupt Glover’s scenes and “make racial cracks between takes.”

“Chevy was the first to realize how immensely gifted Donald was, and the way he expressed his jealousy was to try to throw Donald off,” Community creator Dan Harmon said in the New Yorker piece.

“I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-PC verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it.’”

“I just saw Chevy as fighting time — a true artist has to be OK with his reign being over,” Glover said of Chase. “I can’t help him if he’s thrashing in the water. But I know there’s a human in there somewhere — he’s almost too human.” To the magazine, Chase said, “I am saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light.”

At the Writers Guild Awards, Glover praised Simms’ “calm, zen-like” management style, comparing it to that of former NBA coach Phil Jackson.

“He never freaked out about the script,” Glover said of Simms. “He never tried to push his version of the show on us. He wanted what we wanted. Anytime he gave us a joke it’d be one of the funniest ones of the season. He always reminded us it’s just a show. If you don’t live your life, you’ll have nothing to write about.”

After teasing Simms for stealing one of “the Black talents” he worked with on Atlanta, Stefani Robinson, for What We Do in the Shadows, Glover quipped that the show is “about something Paul knows very well: Sucking the life out of younger people to survive.”

Turning serious, he added, “I love Paul. He’s really like a comedy dad. He never pressed me to do anything with the show. He was always there to listen and he made things better just by being around.”

During his acceptance speech, Simms shed some light on the experience of working with Glover on Atlanta. Specifically, he said he fielded calls from concerned FX executives about a risqué scene in an Atlanta script involving Mickey Mouse. Simms said he called Glover, who told him, “We just put that in there to mess with them. It doesn’t have to be Mickey Mouse. It could be Donald Duck.”

Simms also let the Shadows team write some of his speech, reading what they penned — while Simms was out of the office and that they placed in a sealed envelope.

Predicting it would “go great,” Simms only got a few words into the first entry, “My darling, Beth,” before he realized what he’d gotten himself into, muttering “Jesus.”

“You are my cozy bunny and my cutie patootie,” Simms continued reading. “My whole body tingles when we kiss. Your womanly touch.… You make me want to boogie boogie.”

Other memorable quotes from the Shadows team included the following: “Herb Sargent, more like Herb suck it. Paul Simms bows to no man.” “Hail caesar, no croutons,” “now that I’ve become a man, please congregate in the center of the room and lift me high in a chair” and “my work is ultimately a meditation on grief.”

Speaking to THR on the red carpet before the WGA Awards, Simms said, “This award really means something because the people who won it before are all people that I admire.”

And he seemed particularly touched that Glover was presenting him with it.

“Atlanta was one of the best shows I ever worked on and a great experience, so it really touched me that he flew all the way out here from L.A. to present the award,” Simms said.

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Chevy Chase Had 'Full Meltdown' on “Community” Set After N-Word Incident: ‘My Career Is Ruined’

More details about the incident that led to Chevy Chase‘s exit from Community are coming to light.

In I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not — a new, authorized documentary about the 82-year-old actor and comedian — director Jay Chandrasekhar recalls witnessing the 2012 incident, in which Chevy used the N-word, and what went down in detail, including the on-set “meltdown” that it inspired.

Chandrasekhar said in the CNN documentary, out Jan. 1, that he “was there, directing, the night that Chevy Chase got fired from Community.” The events can be traced back to a “blackface” hand puppet bit written for Chevy's character, Pierce Hawthorne, Chandrasekhar said.

While working, Chevy “said something” to costar Yvette Nicole Brown, Chandrasekhar recalled, though the director claimed he did not hear what exactly was uttered.

At the time, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Chevy was “frustrated” with the direction Pierce was going as a character and used the N-word "when questioning the dialogue.” THR also clarified that while stars Donald Glover and Brown, 54, who are both Black, were present for the scene and incident, “The slur was not directed at them.”

Recalling his side of what happened in I’m Chevy Chase, Chandrasekhar said, “I know that there was a history between [Chevy and Yvette] around race, and she got up and stormed out of there. 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.’ ”

Chandrasekhar said Chevy then returned to the set but claimed he “didn’t say anything."

“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.’ 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?’ ” Chandrasekhar recounted of Chevy's words and reference to the late stand-up comedian and actor, who died in 2005.

After filming that day, Chandrasekhar recalled someone leaking that there was a “racial incident” on set to THR. And when the cast returned to set after the leak, the director said Chevy had a “full meltdown.”

Chandrasekhar said Chevy came “storming onto the set, and he goes, ‘Who f----- me over?’ … ‘My career is ruined! I’m ruined!’ Like, it’s a full meltdown. ‘F--- all of you!’ "

"And I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s shoot the scene.’ He never ended up coming back after that,” added the director.

Following the 2012 incident, production was consequently halted, and Chevy was later reportedly forced to issue an apology. The actor left Community after season 4, which aired in 2013, though he returned briefly for one episode in 2014.

Chevy's exit came after the headline-making incident, as well as a very public feud with creator Dan Harmon over creative and on-set disagreements, which are also discussed in I’m Chevy Chase.

"It was out in the open that Chevy Chase was a little difficult on Community, and I’m being nice. People were talking about it, enough that Dan did that thing at the wrap party,” Chandrasekhar said in the documentary, referring to when Harmon, 52, got party guests to say, “F---- you, Chevy!” — which led to the infamous and profanity-laden leaked voicemail the comedian left for the show creator.

One of Chevy's daughters, Caley Chase, recalled the contentious moment — for which she and her mom, Jayni Chase, were both present — in the forthcoming documentary.

“My dad was super excited to bring me and my mom to the wrap party,” Caley, 40, says. “We walk in, Dan, he had had some drinks. He had gotten the whole cast and crew to yell, ‘F---- you, Chevy!’ ‘F---- you, Chevy!’ "

"I’m there, he’s showing his daughter, like, ‘This is the show I did,’ and we walk in to ‘F---- you, Chevy!’ That’s rough," she adds. "And mean.”