18 years after repeatedly yelling the laborious N-word on stage, Michael Richards has insisted, “I’m not racist.”
With a brand new guide to advertise, the actor not too long ago spoke with Individuals journal and addressed the 2006 incident on the Giggle Manufacturing unit when he responded to hecklers by shouting racial epithets and making references to lynching and Jim Crow legal guidelines.
“I’m not racist,” Richards stated. “I’ve nothing towards Black individuals. The person who advised me I wasn’t humorous had simply stated what I’d been saying to myself for some time. I felt put down. I needed to place him down.”
Richards added that he was “instantly sorry the second” he stated the racial slurs. He additionally doesn’t count on forgiveness in any case this time: “I’m not on the lookout for a comeback.”
“My anger was in all places and it got here by way of laborious and quick,” he continued. “Anger is sort of a drive. However it occurred. Quite than run from it, I dove into the deep finish and tried to study from it. It hasn’t been simple. Disaster managers needed me to do injury management. However so far as I used to be involved, the injury was inside me.”
Again in 2006, CNN spoke to Kyle Doss, one of many viewers members whom Richards had addressed, after footage of the tirade was leaked by TMZ.
“He stated, ‘Take a look at the silly Mexicans and Blacks being loud up there,’” Doss remembered. “After which he saved on together with his bit. And, then, after some time, I advised him, ‘My good friend doesn’t suppose you’re humorous.’ After which after I advised him that, that’s when he flipped me off and stated, ‘Fuck you N-word.’ And that’s how it began.”
For his half, Richards appeared on Late Present with David Letterman by way of satellite tv for pc following the incident and stated, “For me to be at a comedy membership and to flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry. I’m not a racist, that’s what’s so insane about this.” Not less than he’s constant.
Since 2006, Richards has largely been out of the highlight and primarily solely landed roles because of his Seinfeld connections. Apart from a voice function in Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Film, he’s appeared in a number of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld’s Comedians in Vehicles Getting Espresso.