Hart stepped down from hosting after his years old, anti-gay tweets resurfaced.
Kevin Hart is apparently shutting the door on hosting the Oscars, despite seeming to suggest otherwise while talking to Ellen DeGeneres.
In an interview with Variety -- which, the publication says, was recorded prior to Hart's interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that aired Friday -- Hart said that he's "done" with the prospect of hosting the annual awards show, something he initially thought was "a dream job."
“Would I ever do it? No, it’s done. It’s done,” Hart said. “The moment came and it was a blessing and I was excited at the opportunity and I still am. In my mind I got the job, it was a dream job, and things came up that simply prohibited it from happening. But I don’t believe in going backwards.”
Though he stayed firm on his stance that he won't host the show, he does believe that he'll be on the stage one day, and insisted that "there's no ill will toward the Academy."
“When I go on that stage, it will be because I’ve somehow figured out a way to win the Oscar,” Hart said. “Somehow I’ll get to the stage but it’s not going to be in this way because it just comes with such a weird cloud at this point.”
Hart's hosting opinions in the magazine are vastly different from those he expressed on Friday's The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where the host told Hart that she'd still like to see him helm the show.
"You have said a lot of amazing things," he told DeGeneres. "You have put a lot of things on my mind. I know where our relationship stands. So leaving here, I promise you I’m evaluating this conversation. This is a conversation I needed to have. Let me assess, just to sit in the space and really think and you and I will talk before anything else.”
In the Variety interview, Hart further spoke to the resulting scandal itself, which dates back to old homophobic tweets that resulted in him stepping down from the hosting gig.
“You’re living in times where words and points of view can be misconstrued because of how strong the internet is,” Hart noted. “The manipulation of headlines is what was amazing when this whole thing hit. It was, ‘Kevin Hart steps down because he refuses to apologize for homophobic tweets.’ This was what was said and it was blasted all over the internet, and the word ‘again’ somehow got lost, which was a major word. I’ve addressed this several times.”
Hart previously insisted that his refusal to apologize for the tweets -- reportedly an initial requirement from the Academy if he wanted to keep his job -- was due to the fact that he had already done so years prior. Fans, however, haven't been able to locate an apology.
“It’s easy not to find the good,” Hart explained. “When me and Will Ferrell did Get Hard, and we did the promo tour, that’s when Kevin Hart was hit with so much stuff… I remember the span in 2011 when this came up, and I had to say to a person in the LGBTQ community, ‘Hey, I understand. And you know what? I’m wrong. But I can’t do nothing about that joke because it was done. I can’t do nothing about the tweets because they’re out there. I was wrong. It’ll never happen again and I’m sorry. Please accept my apology.’"
"So when people say, ‘Yo, I can’t find it,’ well, go ask the individual who dug up the stuff from 2009 to go do the same," Hart continued. "I can’t put that energy into something that’s in my past. I can’t put that energy into negativity.”
Hart is just one comedian to be criticized for his remarks as of late. Louis C.K. recently took heat online for mocking Parkland shooting survivors and others in a leaked comedy set.
“Comedians are some of the biggest risk-takers,” Hart said. “Comedians are the people that are going to say what you think but never say. It’s our job to put humor in the world. That job can be done distastefully. It can be tacky. Someone’s approach to that job can be a little edgy and rub people wrong. But that’s where the art of comedy comes in and that’s where the individual that’s performing said jokes has to maneuver the way they feel is best for them."
"Where I was at that point — an immature comic. It’s 2008, 2009, I’m figuring it out," he said of the time period when he posted the tweets. "I’m just now getting there … Within a 10-year span of my career you don’t see any blemishes. You don’t see any signs of me going back to that young comedian that I was then that was looking for an ignorant laugh.”
Despite everything -- possible previous apologies, headlines he thinks are misleading and the thought that comedians are "risk-takers" -- Hart did tell the magazine that he's "sorry" for the tweets themselves.
“I stepped down because I’m not going to allow this to tarnish an amazing night for the other actors and actresses that are going to be on stage that night,” Hart admitted. “It shouldn’t be about Kevin Hart and his tweets of old. And I’ll state it again, to anybody I’ve hurt, I’m sorry.”
Watch the video below for more on Hart:
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