Kevin Hart Steps Down on Hosting the Oscars

Kevin Hart Steps Down on Hosting the Oscars

Kianna Montano, Beat Investigator-ELL/Foreign

Kevin Hart has stepped down on hosting the 91st Academy Awards show last week on Thursday night. Hart stepped down from the position because the “Oscars” required him to make a public apology for anti-gay tweets and comments he made over 10 years ago, which he has already apologized for. He told everyone via Twitter that he was not going to host the Oscars. Later on that day, the 10-year-old tweets were deleted. Then an Instagram video only made matters worse for him.

“My team calls me, ‘Oh my God, Kevin, everyone’s upset by tweets you did years ago,’” he said in the video. “Guys, I’m nearly 40 years old. If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you. If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify the past, do you. I’m the wrong guy, man.”

Those words were a defiant non-apology for most people. Later that day Hart made another video stating that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had given him an ultimatum to apologize or they would find a new host for the show.

Kevin then said, “I chose to pass on the apology, the reason why I passed is because I’ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up. I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it. I’ve said where the rights and wrongs were. I’ve said who I am now versus who I was then. I’ve done it. I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I’ve moved on and I’m in a completely different place in my life.”

That video caught people off guard, and less than two hours later, Hart announced on Twitter that he was going to remove himself from the gig. He also offered the apology people were looking for.