I think it was right after I hosted the Oscars,
we went to dinner.
Yes.
And we talked about you hosting the Oscars.
Mm-hmm.
That it was a dream of yours, you've always
wanted to host the Oscars.
I said you should host the Oscars, then you get asked to--
I mean, it must have been amazing
when they asked you to host this year.
Unreal.
You know, there's a lot of goals that I have on my board.
I've got a vision board.
And on a vision board is so many things
that I want to do that I check off as they get done.
And Oscars was up there.
Oscars was one of the highest of highs,
simply because there hasn't been a lot
of African-American comedians that have been able to do it.
I would have been the fourth.
So to get the moment, celebrate the moment, oh my God, I
can't believe it's happening, and then
the next morning after a day full of congratulations
and celebrations I'm hit with an onslaught
on social media of my past coming back up again.
Literally, the next morning.
Mm-hmm.
Not even a full 24 hours to glow in the glory of,
Kevin Hart is hosting this year's Oscars.
And when it happened, my first thought
is, I'm going to ignore it.
I'm going to ignore because it's 10 years old.
This is stuff I've addressed.
I've talked about this.
This isn't new, I've addressed it.
I've apologized for it, I'm not going to pay it any mind.
Because when you feed into that stuff,
you only add more fuel to the fire.
Right.
I'm not going to do--
I'm going to leave it alone.
Another day goes by, the fuel is now--
it's growing, this fire is angry.
It's all over the place.
Now the headlines are starting to change.
The headlines are, Kevin Hart refuses
to apologize for homophobic tweets from the past.
The word "again" was left out.
Everybody took those headlines and started to run with it.
So now the slander on my name is all homophobia.
Now I'm a little upset.
I'm a little upset because I know who I am.
I know I don't have a homophobic bone in my body.
I know that I've addressed it, I know that I've apologized.
I know that within my apologies I've
taken 10 years to put my apology to work.
I've yet to go back to that version
of the immature comedian that once was.
I've moved on.
I'm a grown man, I'm cultured, I'm manufactured,
I'm a guy that understands now.
I look at life through a different lens.
And because of that, I live it a different way.
So now I'm kind of upset because these 10 years are just
being ignored, they're being brushed past.
Nobody is saying, guys, this is 10 years.
No headlines are saying, 10 years ago he apologized.
Nobody is finding the apologies, nobody is finding the footage
from where I had to address it.
I had to address it when I did Get
Hard promo with Will Ferrell, because of my joke
that I had about my son.
I had to address those tweets in 2012
in a very, very heavy junket where I was asked questions,
and asked questions about homophobia
based on those tweets.
And I had to address it and apologize,
and say I understand what those words do and how they hurt.
I understand why people would be upset,
which is why I made the choice to not use them anymore.
I don't joke like that anymore, because that was wrong.
That was a guy that was just looking for laughs
and that was stupid.
I don't do that anymore.
So to be put in a position where I was given an ultimatum,
I was given an ultimatum, Kevin apologize or we're going
to have to find another host.
I mean, I was given an ultimatum,
this is now becoming like a cloud.
What was once the brightest star and brightest
light ever just got real dark.
The Oscars is no longer about Kevin Hart
stepping on his stage and taking a intense night
where people are so uptight and making it loose and fun.
That's my reason for doing it, I'm
going to bring fun to the Oscars.
I'm going to make the Oscars fun.
Now all of a sudden it's a little darker,
because the conversation isn't about me hosting the Oscars,
conversation is about Kevin Hart's tweets from 10 years ago
and homophobia.
I don't want to step on a stage and make that night about me
and my past when you got people that have worked hard
to step on a stage for the first time and receive an award.
I'm now taking away from all those moments
because the night is it's focused on something else now.
That's how I see it.
Because I saw it like that, I said
I would much rather step down and apologize again
while stepping down.
Once again, I'm sorry if these words hurt.
I'm sorry.
But either my apology is accepted or it isn't.
Either I can move forward or I can't.
But you can't grow as a person without mistakes.
You don't know what perfection is unless you've
experienced imperfection.
So I don't know the perfect individual
that society is now looking for.
It's not me.
I'll be the first to say it, I'm an open book.
There is no perfect bone in my body.
I have made several mistakes and I embrace them all
because I'm a better man today because of them.
In this case, I just said I'm going to walk away,
because I felt like it was a conversation that was just
going to continue, and continue, and continue.
I would much rather say I'm sorry again
and walk away, because I want to be done with the conversation.
I don't want to have to have this conversation anymore,
because I know who I am.
I'm not that guy.
I know you're not that guy, because I know you.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm going to take a break, because I have thoughts.
But I want that to stay exactly as it is.
So I'll take a break and then I'll give you my thoughts.
OK.
Because I think that the night will be about you,
and it should be about you, and you should host the Oscars
and I'm going to talk you into it after this.
We'll be back.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, I'm Andy.
Ellen asked me to remind you to subscribe to her channel
so you can see more awesome videos, like videos
of me getting scared or saying embarrassing things,
like ball-peen hammer.
And also some videos of Ellen and other celebrities,
if you're into that sort of thing.
[SCREAMING]
[BLEEP]
God [BLEEP].