Photo Courtesy of Instagram/@KevinHart4Real
The biggest comedian on the planet earth, Kevin Hart said early Friday he had stepped down from his role as host of the 2019 Academy Awards amid criticism over his history of homophobic comments and jokes.
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s….this is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists,” Hart wrote on Twitter. “I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
Kevin Hart received a call from the Academy asking him to apologize for his actions, but said he refused to do so.
“So, I just got a call from the Academy, and that call basically said, ‘Kevin, apologize for your tweets of old or we’re going to have to move on and find another host,’” Hart, currently on tour in Australia, said in a video posted to Instagram. “I chose to pass, I passed on the apology. The reason why I passed is because I’ve addressed this several times.”
The comedian was announced as the host of the 2019 Academy Awards this week, what he had called the “opportunity of a lifetime.”
“I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on, and I’m in a completely different space in my life,” the actor said. “I’m going to be me; I’m going to stand my ground. Regardless, Academy, I’m thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. If that goes away, no harm, no foul.”
Earlier in the day, in a separate video, Hart told angry commenters to “take your negative energy” somewhere else.
“Stop looking for reasons to be negative…Stop searching for reasons to be angry,” Hart wrote on his social media account. He elaborated on those comments in a video, saying: “Guys, I’m almost 40 years old. if you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as people get older, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Many journalist lit the 39-year-old on fire due to his past several anti-gay tweets in 2010 and 2011, including one in which he said a fellow actor looked “like a gay bill board for AIDS” and another in which he said he’d tell his son “Stop, that’s gay” if he caught him playing with a dollhouse.
Kevin started to delete these offensive tweets off his Twitter page, according to Deadline.
Some were quick to note that Hart’s comments Thursday didn’t include an apology or address the LGBTQ community. It looks like Kevin Hart will not apologize because he already explained himself multiple times during the years.
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