Chevy Chase says he doesn't care his old Community and SNL cast mates thought he was a "jerk"

There have always been rumors of Chevy Chase being notoriously difficult to work with— it even led to his departure from Saturday Night Live in its second season, and from Community, too. Things got particularly heated on the Community set, with Donald Glover alleging Chase made racist comments towards him. Chase reportedly told Glover, “People think you’re funnier because you’re Black.” To make matters more fraught, a nasty voicemail left to Community creator Dan Harmon that leaked in 2012 gave fans a peek behind the curtain of his alleged problematic behavior.

But a decade after the voicemail went viral, Chase has no regrets over his behavior.

In a new interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the comedic actor looks back at his prolific career post-SNL, half-jokingly asserting that he was the funniest out of his SNL co-stars.

When asked if people calling him a “jerk” throughout his career boils down to “unfounded cheap shots,” Chase responds, “I guess you’d have to ask them. I don’t give a crap. I am who I am. And I like who I am. I don’t care. And it’s part of me, that I don’t care. And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I don’t know what to tell you, man. I just don’t care.”

Throughout the interview, Chase avoids giving straight answers; instead, he deflects with jokes. However, at one point, he manages to get serious and opens up about his tumultuous childhood. He notes that after his parents’ divorce when he was still a kid, his mother married an abusive man who would beat her and Chase.

“I was afraid all the time growing up, and I still have a lot of that fear in me. So, in a sense, it did shape my path [into comedy],” he admits.