Emmys 2019: Bill Hader Addresses 'Saturday Night Live' Firing Shane Gillis
Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader is weighing in on Shane Gillis' brief hiring and abrupt firing from the sketch comedy show after racist and homophobic comments surfaced.
After claiming the prize for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Barry, which he also co-created, the 41-year-old actor headed into the press room, where he was asked if he'd like to weigh in on the controversy.
After attempting to sidestep the question, Hader stated, "I feel like you shouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, you know? But, I think also, especially in comedy, you do stuff six or seven years ago that wouldn't be OK now and probably for good reason."
"I only speak for myself, but like everybody, you have to grow," he added, before seemingly sharing his approval of Gillis' firing. "So, I think it's a good thing. I'm never into upsetting anybody."
On Sept. 16, just days after announcing that Gillis would be joining SNL alongside fellow newcomers Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman, the show released a statement revealing that Gillis would not be joining the cast for its 45th season.
"After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL," a spokesperson for the show said on behalf of executive producer Lorne Michaels in a statement to ET. "We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as a comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard."
Following SNL's statement, Gillis tweeted, "It feels ridiculous for comedians to be making serious public statements but here we are. I'm a comedian who was funny enough to get SNL. That can't be taken away."
In a since-deleted video from 2018, which was shared on Twitter by writer Seth Simons, Gillis makes racist jokes about Chinese people, calling them offensive names.
"Chinatown's f**king nuts," Gillis tells comedian Matt McCusker on Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast. "Let the f**king ch*nks live there," he added, later saying that he was at a restaurant "full of f**king Chinee [sic] in there."
ET's Kevin Frazier also chatted one-on-one with Hader following his win on Sunday, where he discussed what the award means to him and how winning is going to effect his days ahead.
"When you win the Emmy, in L.A., it's like your birthday for a week and everybody knows it's your birthday and they're all like, 'Hey!'" he joked.
Check out the full interview above!
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