Just two days after the announcement of Kevin Hart as the host of the 2019 Oscar awards, the comedian has stepped down. He did this after issuing apologies for homophobic comments he made about a decade ago.
Hart made the announcement via his twitter account saying, “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. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.”
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. I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past.
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 7, 2018
In continuing Hart said, “I’m sorry that I hurt people, I am evolving and want to continue to do so. My goal is to bring people together not tear us apart. Much love & appreciation to the Academy. I hope we can meet again.” Efforts to get comments from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have however proven abortive.
In a video Hart posted on his Instagram page on Thursday night, he said, “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.’ They’re talking about the tweets from 2009, 2010. I passed, I passed on the apology.”
The comedian had already apologized for the same comments in 2015 and so he refused obliging what he saw as an ultimatum by the Academy to apologize. In his video he said, “The reason why I passed is I’ve addressed it several times. That’s 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 versus who I was then. I’ve done it, I’m not gonna continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I’ve moved on. I’m in a completely different space in my life.”
There was an uproar on the internet on Wednesday after the old tweets resurfaced along with an old routine on the same subject. Hart took down the tweets on the same night before posting a video on his Instagram account. In the video Hart said defiantly, “I swear man, our world is becoming beyond crazy. I’m not going to let the craziness frustrate me. I’m almost 40 years old, if you don’t believe people change, grow evolve as the get older, I don’t know what to tell you.”
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