Donald Glover opened up about his experience working on Community and claimed that costar Chevy Chase made racially insensitive comments toward him on set.
“I just saw Chevy as fighting time — a true artist has to be OK with his reign being over,” the Emmy winner, 34, told The New Yorker in a profile published in their March issue. “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.”
Show creator Dan Harmon also weighed in on the allegations, telling the publication that Chase allegedly often made racial jokes between takes or tried to interrupt Glover’s scenes, telling him, “People think you’re funnier because you’re black.”
Added Harmon, 45, “Chevy was the first to realize how immensely gifted Donald was, and the way he expressed his jealously was to try to throw Donald off. I remember apologizing to Donald after a particularly rough night of Chevy’s non-P.C. verbiage, and Donald said, ‘I don’t even worry about it.’”
Chase, 74, has since commented on the accusations against him. “I am saddened to hear that Donald perceived me in that light,” the Saturday Night Live alum said in a statement to The New Yorker.
Glover left the NBC comedy after season 4, returning for guest appearances in season 5. Harmon reflected on the Atlanta star’s departure from the show while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in August 2017.
“I needed to convince myself that Donald leaving wasn’t the death of the show,” he explained of the series, which ran six seasons from 2009 to 2015. “But now that it’s all over, I think we can agree that it was.”
Glover opened up about leaving the show during an August 2016 Comic-Con panel. “I think everything should have death clauses in them,” he said. “I’m glad things ended because it forces them to progress. It wasn’t like I was running away from it, I was just done with it. I had so much fun on Community, but there’s a reason why Dan ended the show. He likes endings too.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Chevy’s rep for comment.
