It's been more than a decade since an infamous on-set incident involving Chevy Chase's purported use of the n-word precipitated the end of his time as a cast member on Community, with the truth about that moment and its aftermath now coming to light.
Talking on CNN's I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not documentary, director Jay Chandrasekhar said he "was there, directing, the night that Chevy Chase got fried from Community."
The official line had been that Chase exited the cult NBC comedy midway through its fourth season as part of a "mutual agreement" with the network and creator Dan Harmon. Chandresekhar's comment makes it sound more as if that narrative was a way to massage his exit, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Chandrasekhar opened up about the 2012 incident, which he said led to a "full meltdown" by Chase, with the comedy icon "storming on the set" after the alleged n-word incident was purportedly leaked to the press. "He goes, 'Who f--ked me over?'" Chandrasekhar recalled. "'My career is ruined!' Like, it's a full meltdown. 'F--k all of you!'"
According to the director, he tried to keep the show on track, awkwardly telling the cast, "Alright, let's shoot the scene," adding that Chase "ended up never coming back after that." The actor famously refused to return for the final scenes of Season 3, resulting in a huge clash with Harmon during the hiatus.
Ironically, according to Chandrasekhar, Chase was apparently railing against what he saw as a growing overt racism in his character Pierce Hawthorne. The character had always been an oafish, boorish, buffoon, a pampered rich white person with racist tendencies, but apparently things reached a head with a "blackface hand puppet" storyline that Chase thought was going too far.
According to multiple reports at the time, as noted by EW, Deadline, and Us Weekly, Chase railed on set that next his character would be using the n-word toward the show's Black characters -- only Chase used the word. Sources at the time told The Hollywood Reporter that both Yvette Nicole Brown and Donald Glover were present when Chase made the comment, but that it was not directed at them, which Chandrasekhar confirmed.
There was already some tension between Chase and Brown, Chandrasekhar recalled, and he said that Chase "said something" to Brown in that moment, but he did not hear what it was. Though Brown has never officially revealed what was said, it is believed that it was in this conversation with her that he used the word in his lament about the "blackface hand puppet" and where he thought writers might take his character next.
"I know that there was a history between [Chevy and Yvette] around race," the director said in the documentary, "and she got up and stormed out of there." He said that Chase stormed off, as well, which left the producers scrambling as the next scene they needed to film included Brown.
"Well, she won't come out unless Chevy apologizes to her," Chandrasekhar recalled a producer telling him.
When Chase returned, Chandrasekhar said that Chase told him he "didn't say anything" to Brown before she stormed off. Further, he didn't appear to understand why there even was an issue, telling a story about a previous time he'd used the n-word with a Black costar.
"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,'" Chandrasekhar recalled Chase telling him, referring to an infamous SNL sketch where Chase and Pryor escalated insults to one another, including both of the aforementioned words.
"I'm like, 'I know, man, I love that bit," Chandresekhar recalled, before asking Chase, "You know, can we just have a little apology?' He goes, 'For what?'" Chase did ultimately apologize for the purported incident.
The on-set tension was just one of many with Chase and the show; he clashed regularly with Harmon over the direction of his character and the quality of the show itself. Their feud climaxed at the close of the third season, shortly after the alleged n-word incident.
In CNN's documentary, Chase's daughter Caley said that both she and her mother Jayne were in attendance for the Season 3 wrap party. She recalled, "My dad was super excited to bring me and my mom to the wrap party. We walk in, Dan, he had had some drinks. He had gotten the whole cast and crew to yell, 'F--k you, Chevy!' 'F--k you, Chevy!'"
"I'm there, he's showing his daughter, like, 'This is the show I did,' and we walk in to 'F--k you, Chevy!'" Caley added. "That's rough. And mean."
Following this purported wrap party stunt, Chase blasted Harmon and the show in a profanity-laced voicemail that Harmon then opted to share on stage and ultimately online. This ultimately led to his firing from the show he'd created. Harmon later apologized for what he called a "horrible, childish, self-obsessed, unaware, naive and unprofessional decision" to publicly blast the voicemail.
After the voicemail leak, Harmon was replaced for Season 4 by writers David Guarascio and Moses Port, with this season also proving to be Chase's last with the series. The veteran comic left midway through the season amid declining quality complaints among cast and fans, and his ongoing friction among the show's cast and crew.
The outcry, including from star Joel McHale, helped bring Harmon back with Season 5, and Harmon was able to bring Chase back for a cameo in the season premiere before he was written out of the show for good. Community would go on to run six total season with a pending movie in the works to fulfill its own "six seasons and a movie" prophecy.
