During an interview with Michael Strahan on Good Morning America today, Kevin Hart yet again addressed the controversy surrounding his homophobic tweets and his interview with Ellen DeGeneres about it last week. You’ll of course remember that the tweets resurfaced when he was announced as this year’s Oscars host back in December (he has since stepped away from the job). In the nearly 11-minute GMA clip, Hart says multiple times (14, to be exact) that he’s over it and has decided to move on. He also repeats his earlier unverified claim that he already apologized for his homophobia in 2008 or 2009 — several years before his most recent homophobic tweets.
“I’m done with it. It gets no more energy from me … There’s no more conversation about it. I’m literally — I’m over that, I’m over the moment, and I’m about today. So if it’s accepted, great, if it’s not, it’s nothing I can control. Some things are left out of your hands, so I’m done with it. I’m over it,” Hart says early in the interview. When asked by Strahan how he has evolved since the tweets, Hart replies, “I have explained how I evolved, which makes me say I’m over it. I’m not saying how I’ve changed anymore.”
Still, Strahan tries to press Hart to get more introspective about the whole experience. At one point Strahan asks him, “Do you have an understanding for the LGBTQ community how the youth out there may feel about this — how this may have affected them as well?” But Hart essentially repeats his earlier point: “I have an understanding that I’ve addressed it, and I’ve said everything that I can possibly say, so I’m over it … You will not hear me say anything else about it. I’ve done all that I can do. So that was done within hopes that people can hear and understand how heartfelt and authentic it was. If you didn’t, then I don’t know what to tell you or do. I don’t know what you’re looking for. So, I’m over it.”
Later, Strahan asks Hart for his thoughts about the backlash to his Ellen interview, and Hart says, “It shows me that there is no ending to it. If you keep feeding this energy, then it’s going to grow. You’re not getting no more of my energy from it. I’m not giving no more, because it shows that it’s endless. So I’m not shutting down the questions — I hear everything you’re saying — but I want everybody to know I’m done with it. It’s a choice that I personally made to say I’m not addressing it anymore.”
Near the end of the interview, Hart confirms to Strahan that he’s definitely not hosting the Oscars, but he has no hard feelings toward the Academy. “Unfortunately I can’t do it this year. It’s not gonna happen. In the future, if it does, it does. But it’s not the conversation of today. The public has made it a conversation of today, but I’ve removed myself from the conversation.”
