‘I Don’t Think People Really Felt That Way’: Chevy Chase Doesn’t Believe His Former Co-Stars Found Him ‘Difficult’

Despite the deluge of disparaging behind-the-scenes stories that have come out about Chevy Chase during his half-century entertainment career, the founding Saturday Night Live star maintains that his reputation among his former colleagues has always been positive. Next he’s going to tell us that he had sex with Eartha Kitt in an airplane bathroom.

The 79-year-old comedy icon’s career has slowed since his unceremonious removal from the cast of Community in 2012, when he allegedly broke the camel’s back by dropping an N-bomb on set, thus getting himself fired and his character, Pierce Hawthorne, killed off. Since then, Chase’s filmography has been filled with bit parts in uninspiring projects while he continues to milk his past success by appearing as Clark Griswold at fan conventions and fast food restaurant openings across the midwest while his former co-workers continue to find success without him — Peacock greenlit the much-anticipated Community movie last September.

Despite the publicity Chase’s clashes with co-workers and superiors on Community garnered, on the most recent episode of WTF with Marc Maron, Chase maintained that he chose to leave the series because, “Honestly, I felt the show wasn't funny enough for me, ultimately." As for his reputation for being a caustic collaborator, Chase remarked, “I don't think people really felt that way.” Donald Glover must have been joking about a different Chevy Chase calling him the N-word.

“Oh… I kinda forget about that,” Chase said of his time on Community when Maron broached the subject of his most recent (and likely last) steady gig, “They wanted me. So I said okay.” Chase told his host that he was never particularly excited about the project, seeing it as mediocre series and an uninspiring role. “I felt a little bit constrained a bit,” he said of the show, “Everyone had their bits and stuff, I thought they were all good, but it just wasn't hard-hitting enough for me.”

Though Chase would later claim that he never had issues with his castmates during his time on Community, he did concede that the chemistry with his coworkers was less than electric. Chase said that he "felt happier being alone, in a sense. I just didn't want to be surrounded by that table every day with those people. It was too much." As for the show’s creator and on-and-off again showrunner Dan Harmon, with whom Chase had an embarrassingly public falling out, Chase said, “I have no idea if we're okay. I've never been not okay,” then adding, “(Harmon is) kind of a pisser. He's angry. He called and said he was sorry. I love him now.” 

As for Chase’s wider reputation among the comedy community, he downplayed his infamous thrashing at a 2002 Friar’s Club Roast, in which Maron was selected as one of the complete strangers to take down Chase since no comedian who ever had a relationship with Chase was willing show up for him. “I don't think people knew me on that roast,” Chase put it lightly. 

“I don't know what my reputation was among people. I just always assumed I was okay,” Chase claimed. 

Sure, Chevy — Andy Dick and Jon Lovitz are on speaking terms, too.