The Community Cast Thought Chevy Chase Was A Jerk, But He Couldn't Care Less
Chevy Chase has spent most of his showbiz career trying to end his career.
The tall, seemingly affable comedic actor was the first breakout star of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," and left before the conclusion of the series' second season to pursue movie stardom. He met with instant success in "Foul Play," "Caddyshack" and "Seems Like Old Times," and, despite the occasional flop, proved to be a relatively reliable star throughout the 1980s. But the star struggled with substance abuse issues and often rubbed his collaborators the wrong way. When he returned to host "SNL" in 1978, his smug demeanor provoked a physical altercation backstage with Bill Murray (who, according to filmmaker John Landis, called Chase a "medium talent"). While hosting "SNL" during the 1985-86 season, he wondered aloud to Robert Downey Jr. why his father's directing career "went to hell." John Carpenter had a miserable experience directing Chase in 1992's "Memoirs of an Invisible Man," which, like most of the star's output during that decade, was a box-office disappointment.
This is just a sampling of Chase's off-handed cruelty, which, sadly, hasn't abated over the years.
After two decades' worth of misfires and barely-releasable movies, Chase was suddenly thrown a lifeline by Dan Harmon, who wanted the washed-up star to play millionaire curmudgeon Pierce Hawthorne in the NBC sitcom "Community." Chase took the part and, for the first time since Bob Saget's "Dirty Work," he was legitimately funny again. His career appeared to be resurrected. So of course he screwed it all up.
I'm Chevy Chase, and you, thankfully, are not
Perhaps the problem was that Pierce was too much like Chase: a rich, proudly aloof old white dude who feels entitled to broadcast his politically incorrect opinions in blended company. Though Chase was hilarious and, at times, oddly affecting onscreen as the painfully lonely outsider, behind the scenes he evidently reverted to the kind of insulting behavior that earned him the desert.
According to "Community" co-star Donald Glover in a 2018 profile for The New Yorker, Chase told the young actor "People think you're funnier because you're Black." He also made racial cracks that, in Harmon's view, were intended to undermine Glover's burgeoning confidence.
Ultimately, Chase's unpleasantness — and most notably, use of the n-word — resulted in a mutual parting of ways with the show during the fourth season. For those of us who grew up adoring Chase as a comedy superstar, this was both disappointing and inevitable. He Chevy-ed himself yet again. Even more dispiriting, he seems to have learned nothing from yet another exile.
Chevy Chase just likes being a jerk
During a 2022 interview on "CBS Sunday Morning" (if nothing else, the man knows his demographic), Chase shrugged off the whole episode. When asked how he felt about his time on the show, Chase glibly remarked:
"I guess you'd have to ask them. I don't give a crap! I am who I am. And I like where — who I am. I don't care. And it's part of me that I don't care. And I've thought about that a lot. And I don't know what to tell you, man. I just don't care."
I don't buy that. I think he does care, but, as he nears his 80th birthday, he still can't get out of his own way. Glover seemed to echo this notion when speaking with The New Yorker. "I just saw Chevy as fighting time — a true artist has to be ok with his reign being over," he said. "I can't help him if he's thrashing in the water. But I know there's a human in there somewhere — he's almost too human."
Chase is running out of time to mend fences and prove he can work and play well with others. But if he hasn't figured this out at the age of 79, there's no reason to believe he'll have a come-to-Jesus moment in his dotage. Chevy's gonna be Chevy. Enjoy the movies and the television and tune out the rest, or don't tune in at all.