Chevy Chase was once at the top of his game and loving it, but somewhere along the line, he lost everything he had going for him. How does a star with a meteoric rise fall so hard and bounce when he hit the bottom? The truth to that question might just lie in the character he played on Community, Pierce Hawthorne.
When fans of Community first got to know Pierce, he was sexist, homophobic, racist, and arrogant about it. He was the oldest of the study group by a longshot, and some of the things he said could be attributed to the era in which he grew up. However, Pierce often pushed the envelope and seemed clueless about why he wasn’t appreciated the way he wanted to be.
Does that sound like someone you know?
Chevy Chase rose to fame as a standout in the early days of Saturday Night Live. For a show based on The Second City, which tries to give everyone a chance to shine, he became a powerhouse. He could easily be considered the most popular of all the performers at the time. As everyone knows, if comedians are loved figures on SNL, they’ll have great career opportunities when they decide to leave. It’s just that most of them give it a few years.
After SNL‘s first season, Chase was prepared to leave. He was ready for Los Angeles and for his career to soar to new heights. He definitely did experience that for a while, but if he had stayed on with SNL a little longer, he might have had a more powerful launch pad from which to take off. Doesn’t that sound like Pierce’s arrogance?
Oh, but the story gets worse
Imagine shooting a film, and there’s a stunt that goes horribly wrong. So wrong in fact that two children and a man tragically die. The film in question is The Twilight Zone directed by John Landis.
Now imagine working on Three Amigos with Chase and there’s a stunt in that movie as well. How would it feel if that particular star cracked a joke about the last film’s failure to keep everyone safe? That would be like a punch to the gut, but the saddest part about this incident is that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks about it.
This is just winding up
Terry Sweeney has several stories to tell that shed light on the kind of person Chase is. His first one starts with an interaction Chase had with Robert Downey, Jr. when the future star was an SNL cast member. Without missing a beat, Chase blurts out, “Didn’t your father used to be a successful director? Whatever happened to him? Boy, he sure died, you know, he sure went to Hell.” What a way to talk about a man’s father.
Sweeney wasn’t finished telling his story. When it came to him, Chase had a low blow that was very uncalled for when he asked bluntly if Sweeney was gay. When the young comedian answered in the affirmative, he gracefully added, “Yes, what would you like me to do for you?”
Chase responded, “Well, you can start by licking my balls.”
And yet, it still gets worse
To capture the sort of character Pierce Hawthorne was supposed to be, the writers literally had to go no further than the man behind the character. It’s reported that Dan Harmon would listen to the actors talking between scenes and much of his material to create Pierce came from the things Chase was saying to the other cast members.
Yvette Nicole Brown had to endure sexist and racist remarks from Chase throughout the shooting. It got so bad that during an interview, she was being asked whom she would fire from the show if she had the chance. Before the interviewer was finished with the question Brown had already answered with a resounding, “Chevy Chase!”
The racist explosion
Donald Glover was also a victim of Chase’s racism. He would often make remarks between cuts to throw the young actor off his game. Chase thought it was funny; Glover didn’t. Pierce and Troy were supposed to have a dynamic onscreen relationship that never happened because it just wasn’t there. The writers drew to Abed to be the other member of the dynamic duo and that worked out just fine.
The worst of Chase’s racism came out during an argument with Dan Harmon. They were in a screaming match, and words were flying back and forth. Out of Chase’s mouth reportedly came a highly offensive racial slur, and that’s the story that hit the headlines the next day. Nothing else that was said mattered. The actor had fully revealed his true colors with that one.
Chevy Chase still has fans, but it would be easy to speculate they are unaware of the many incidents that have driven his career deeper and deeper into the toilet. His fame plateaued after only a few years and burned out quickly. Community could have been his rebound, but true to his nature, he screwed that one up, too, and there just might not be any coming back this time.
