Donald Glover joked about legendary comedic actor Chevy Chase using the n-word on the set of Community while presenting the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence to Atlanta executive producer Paul Simms at the Writers Guild of America Awards on Sunday night. Glover and Chase starred in the cult classic NBC sitcom together for years before both leaving the show.
“This award was named after Herb Sargent, a writer who worked on Saturday Night Live and came up with the ‘Weekend Update’ with Chevy Chase,'” Glover said. “Chevy Chase once called Herb one of the funniest writers working in television. And Chevy Chase once called me… you know, this is about Paul.”
Donald Glover At The Writers Guild Awards
Glover wasn't done with Chase yet either. He also brought his behavior up while reflecting on his appearance in Season 2 of Girls, which Simms also produced. “I was on the set of ‘Girls’ after filming a sex scene for like eight hours,” Glover said. “Which they cut down to two minutes, I’ve never seen the rest of that footage. Afterwards, I asked Lena, ‘Yo, what made you decide to work with Paul?’ 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.”
In 2018, Community creator Dan Harmon claimed that Chase was one of the first on set to realize how immensely talented Glover is and that this prompted him to lash out. Glover recalled to The New Yorker: “I just saw Chevy as fighting time—a true artist has to be O.K. with his reign being over. 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.” A spin-off film for Community is currently in the works at Peacock.
[Via]
