He told DeGeneres that he was re-evaluating whether to host the Oscars (it’s unclear if that decision is up to him). But on Friday, Variety posted an interview it conducted with Hart, before he had spoken to DeGeneres, in which he shut the door on ever hosting the Oscars.
“Would I ever do it?” Hart said, according to Variety. “No, it’s done. It’s done. In my mind I got the job, it was a dream job, and things came up that simply prohibited it from happening. But I don’t believe in going backwards.”
Hart stepped down as Oscars host two days after it was announced that he got the job. Hosting was one of his top career goals, he told DeGeneres, because “there hasn’t been a lot of African-American comedians that have been able to do it.” As old comments resurfaced, Hart was initially defiant, declining to apologize.
“If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you,” Hart said in an Instagram video. “If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify or explain the past, then do you. I’m the wrong guy, man. I’m in a great place. A great mature place where all I do is spread positivity.”
But six hours later, he stepped down.
“I have made the choice to step down from hosting this year’s Oscar’s,” the 39-year-old said on Twitter. “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 L.G.B.T.Q. community for my insensitive words from my past.”
Hart said on “Ellen” that he initially didn’t address the criticism because “when you feed into that stuff, you only add more fuel to the fire.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/arts/television/ellen-degeneres-kevin-hart-oscars-host.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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