Yvette Nicole Brown is talking out forward of the discharge of CNN’s documentary on Chevy Chase, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, which reopens previous wounds from the set of NBC’s Neighborhood involving allegations of racist slurs and harassment.
Brown, who starred as Shirley Bennett on the comedy, posted an announcement on Instagram which appeared to handle the documentary, although she by no means referenced it by identify.
“These are issues I’ve by no means spoken of publicly and maybe by no means will,” Smith wrote. “Anybody presently talking FOR or ABOUT me with perceived authority is talking with out EVER talking to me in regards to the issues they declare to learn about. They really don’t actually know me — in any respect.”
She continued, “Additionally they haven’t any information of my relationship with anybody I’ve labored with & can not credibly communicate on any present or earlier points. I hate that this all needed to be mentioned. In East Cleveland communicate: Preserve my identify out of your mouth.”
Nobody within the Neighborhood forged agreed to take part within the documentary, directed by Maria Zenovich (2008’s Roman Polanski: Wished and Desired, 2020’s Lance) which particulars the occasions that led to Chase’s firing from the present in 2012, halfway by way of its fourth season.
In response to the documentary, Chase felt ostracized by the tight-knit forged, which apart from Brown included breakout stars like Donald Glover, Alison Brie and Joel McHale.
He additionally clashed with sequence creator Dan Harmon, a feud that culminated with Chase arriving along with his household to a wrap occasion solely to search out Harmon main the room in a chant of, “Fuck you, Chevy!”
The incident that led to his firing concerned a scene, written by Harmon, by which Chase’s character Pierce Hawthorne performs a puppet present by which the hand puppet character performs in blackface.
An argument over the appropriateness of the scene between Chase and Brown allegedly included an utterance of the N-word by Chase, which led to Brown storming off the set.
Director Jay Chandrasekhar, who did take part within the doc, was current for the incident.
“I do know that there was a historical past between [Chevy and Yvette] round race, and he or she received up and stormed out of there. Chevy storms off, so the producer is like, ‘We’d like Yvette within the scene, proper?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, she’s within the subsequent scene.’ And he goes, ‘Properly, she gained’t come out until Chevy apologizes to her,’” Chandrasekhar recalled.
Chase did return to set, in response to Chandrasekhar, however didn’t apologize.
“He goes, ‘You realize, me and Richard Pryor, I used to name Richard Pryor the N-word, and he used to name me The Honky, and we cherished one another.’ And I’m like, ‘I do know, man, I like that bit.’ I mentioned, ‘You realize, can we simply have a bit of apology?’ He goes, ‘For what?’” Chandrasekhar mentioned.
(A tense alternate between Chase and Pryor on The Tonight Present in 1977, by which Pryor mentioned, “I don’t like Chevy,” suggests the pair could not have been as tight as Chase claims.)
The Hollywood Reporter ran a narrative on the incident, main Chase to have “a full meltdown,” the director recollects, shouting, “Who fucked me over?! … My profession is ruined! I’m ruined! Fuck all of you!”
He was fired from the present that night. Chase doesn’t touch upon the incident within the documentary.
Elsewhere, the movie revealed Chase was so unpopular on set that Harmon wrote his character breaking each legs into the plot, in order that Chase may movie his scenes in a wheelchair separate from the remainder of the forged.
Chase’s spouse, Jayni Chase, additionally says Chase was ingesting closely at the moment, and displaying as much as work drunk.
The CNN documentary, which premieres Jan. 1, options archival footage and new interviews with former colleagues and co-stars like Lorne Michaels and Goldie Hawn. It additionally entails new interviews with Chase.
The movie tracks the comic’s rise within the Seventies as one of many unique stars of Saturday Night time Reside, his blockbuster film years with the Nationwide Lampoon’s Trip franchise and his later popularity as a troublesome collaborator.
Brown and Chase didn’t reply to THR’s request for remark.