Kevin Hart recently addressed the way he handled the controversy surrounding his Oscars hosting gig last year, admitting: “I did fuck up.”
During an interview with Men’s Health published Wednesday, the “Jumanji” actor reflected on the debacle, in which his old homophobic tweets and jokes resurfaced in December 2018, shortly after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Hart was tapped to host the 2019 Oscars.
“With the whole Oscars thing, there was a big gap between what I thought the problem was versus what the problem really was,” Hart told the publication.
He later added, “It wasn’t until close friends like Wanda Sykes, Lee Daniels, and Ellen [DeGeneres] talked to me and explained what they didn’t hear me say that I understood. Then I was like, ‘Oh, shit — I did fuck up.’ ”
Shortly after Hart’s old remarks were widely reported, the comedian posted a video on Instagram saying that he refused to apologize, claiming that he had already addressed his problematic comments in years past. The next day, he tweeted an apology to the LGBTQ community and announced his decision to step down from the hosting gig.
The 2019 Oscars ran without a host after Hart stepped down. On Sunday, the 2020 Oscars will again go hostless.
Hart has previously addressed his response to the Oscars hosting gig debacle, which included him declaring on ABC’s “Good Morning America” last year in January that he was “literally over” discussing the controversy.
In his Netflix series, “Kevin Hart: Don’t F**k This Up,” which was released last December, the comedian conceded that he was being “immature” about the backlash to his past homophobic remarks.
“I missed an opportunity to say simply that I don’t condone any type of violence in any way, shape or form to anyone for being who they are,” he said.