Kevin Hart walks away from Oscars
Anger at homophobic tweets, won’t apologise
KEVIN Hart announced on Twitter early yesterday morning that he was stepping down from hosting next year’s Oscars ceremony after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences asked him to apologise for a number of his old tweets that used homophobic language, which he initially refused to do.
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s,” Hart tweeted. “This is because I do not want to be a distraction on a night that should be celebrated by so many amazing talented artists. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
Earlier in the evening, he posted an Instagram video in which he refused to apologise for the tweets.
Some quick background: this week, it was announced that Hart would host the 91st Oscars ceremony on February 24 – so naturally his Twitter account found itself under the microscope. Anyone wanting to disqualify Hart, at least in the court of public opinion, had a cornucopia of homophobic tweets to choose from.
Several of those tweets began surfacing shortly afterwards. Around the same time, it appears that some of them were deleted.
“Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay,’ “read a 2011 tweet that Hart deleted this week, according to Buzzfeed News.
Several other tweets using various homophobic slurs remain on Hart’s account, including one asking “why does (Damien Dante Wayans’s) profile pic look like a gay billboard for AIDS,” with this strange brag tacked on at the end: “Booom, I’m on fire tonight.”
In another that remained online as of publication time, Hart says, “Lmao @ all of the woman asking me where the pic is, I’m not passing along a pic of a naked man!!! That would make me gay by association.”
In a video posted to Instagram on Thursday night, Hart boldly announced that he refused to apologise – even though the Academy requested one of him.
“So I just got a call from the Academy, and that call basically said, ‘Kevin, apologise for your tweets of old or we’re going to have to move and find another host,’” he says in the video. “They’re talking about the tweets from 2009, 2010.”
“I chose to pass, I passed on the apology,” he continues. “The reason I chose to pass is because I’ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it. I’ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I’ve said who I am now vs. who I was then… I’m in a completely different space in my life.”
“The same energy that went into finding those old tweets could be the same energy put into finding the response to questions that have been asked years after years after years.”
Many articles have noted a 2015 Rolling Stone interview in which he addressed homophobic jokes from his stand-up routine – but not his Twitter account.
“We feed internet trolls and reward them. I’m not going to do it, man. I’m going to be me. I’m going to stay on my grind,” Hart concluded. “Regardless, Academy, I’m thankful and appreciative of the opportunity...”
“I know who I am & so do the people closest to me. #Livelovelaugh,” read text accompanying the video.
Earlier in the day, Hart posted an Instagram video with a caption saying, “Stop looking for reasons to be negative . . . . If u want to search my history or past and anger yourselves with what u find that is fine with me. I’m almost 40 years old and I’m in love with the man I am becoming.”| The Washington Post