The upcoming – and authorized – CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not is still days away from its January 1 premiere even as it continues to make news. The latest: New details about the notorious 2012 incident that led to Chase’s sudden departure from the hit sitcom Community.
According to People magazine, Community director Jay Chandrasekhar says in the new doc that Chase had an on-set “meltdown” following the incident in which the former SNL cast member apparently used the N-word in a conversation with co-star Yvette Nicole Brown.
While he didn’t actually hear the conversation between the two actors, Chandrasekhar says in the doc that he “was there, directing, the night that Chevy Chase got fired from Community.” Chandrasekhar says the event stemmed from a scripted “blackface” hand puppet bit involving Chase’s Community character Pierce Hawthorne.
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Chase, as detailed in a Deadline report at the time, was unhappy with his character’s racist development, and said something along the lines that soon the writers would be having him say the N-word. Only he didn’t say “N-word.”
In the CNN film, Chandrasekhar, according to People, says, “I know that there was a history between [Chase and Brown] around race, and she got up and stormed out of there. Chevy storms off, so the producer is like, ‘We need Yvette in the scene, right?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, she’s in the next scene.’ And he goes, ‘Well, she won’t come out unless Chevy apologizes to her.’ ”
Chandrasekhar said Chase then claimed he “didn’t say anything.”
“He goes, ‘You know, me and Richard Pryor, I used to call Richard Pryor the N-word, and he used to call me The Honky, and we loved each other.’ And I’m like, ‘I know, man, I love that bit.’ I said, ‘You know, can we just have a little apology?’ He goes, ‘For what?’”
When word about the incident soon leaked to the press, Chase, according to Chandrasekhar, had a “full meltdown.” The director says Chase came “storming onto the set, and he goes, ‘Who f*cked me over?’ … ‘My career is ruined! I’m ruined!’ Like, it’s a full meltdown. ‘F*ck all of you!’ ”
Adds Chandrasekhar, “And I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s shoot the scene.’ He never ended up coming back after that.”
While Chase later apologized, he left Community after 2013’s Season 4 (save for one brief appearances in 2014).
Chandrasekhar also recalls a rather ugly real-life scene during a Community wrap party. “It was out in the open that Chevy Chase was a little difficult on Community, and I’m being nice,” the director says. “People were talking about it, enough that Dan did that thing at the wrap party.”
“That thing” was when Community creator and director Dan Harmon allegedly got party guests to chant “F*ck you, Chevy!” as the actor walked in. That, in turn, led to Chase’s leaked profanity-laden voicemail directed at Harmon.
As People reports, Chase’s daughter Caley Chase recalls the moment for the documentary (both she and mother Jayni Chase were in attendance). “My dad was super excited to bring me and my mom to the wrap party,” Caley Chase, now 40, says. “We walk in, Dan, he had had some drinks. He had gotten the whole cast and crew to yell, ‘F*ck you, Chevy!’ ‘F*ck you, Chevy!’ “
Caley continues, “I’m there, he’s showing his daughter, like, ‘This is the show I did,’ and we walk in to ‘F*ck you, Chevy!’ That’s rough. And mean.”