Kevin Hart has reiterated that he will not host the Oscars again.
Hart was due to host the 2019 Oscars but stepped down after an outcry over previous anti-gay tweets, and comments he’d made during stand-up routines a decade ago. He later told Variety that he’d never do it again and is sticking to his stance.
Speaking to Sky News, Hart said: “Whatever little hope you had, I want to destroy it right now. Those gigs aren’t good gigs for comics. It’s no shot to the Oscars, no shot to the Globes or anything else. Those just aren’t comedy friendly environments anymore. I think they got it right one year where it was like just a bunch of personalities acting as the hosts and that’s a nice thing. It’s a collaborative thing, different people get to be responsible for act one, act two, act three, but you know, the days of it being a room for a comic, those days are done.”
Hart, who has previously hosted the BET Awards, the MTV Video Music awards and the MTV Movie Awards, praised his fellow comics who have had successful hosting gigs.
“Shout out to those that have cracked the code and done it right early on, you know, the Chris Rocks of the world, the Billy Crystals of the world, the girls we’ve had like Tina Fey, Amy Poehler. Ricky Gervais. There’s a lot of people that understand that if you’re not an industry comic, meaning a comic that has the relationships of all, then those rooms are very cold. So, me doing it is, of course, at an advantage, because I know the room and for me, and familiar with so many. But, for others it’s not the same,” Hart said.
“It’s not the gig that it was of old. It’s too much pressure on the idea of a comic and what’s jokes and not jokes. So, it’s tough,” Hart added.
Hart stars in Netflix film “Lift,” which began streaming Jan. 12.