Actor Terry Crews, who is close with Kevin Hart, has weighed in on the comedian’s defensive response to the controversy surrounding anti-LGBTQ tweets Hart made in the past.
The “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” star and host of “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” visited BuzzFeed’s Twitter show “AM to DM” on Thursday when the subject of Hart came up.
Crews, 50, initially seemed empathetic to his friend, noting he can sometimes be defensive himself when his wife accuses him of wrongdoing.
“Then all of a sudden you can get hardened,” Crews said. “But the hard part is when you put down the defenses and you say, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not listening.’”
Crews then nailed why a lot of people are frustrated with Hart’s behavior.
“He feels like he’s being attacked,” Crews said. “But the truth is, he’s not.”
“The truth is, Kevin, you’re not being attacked,” he continued. “The truth is you have to just acknowledge what went on and acknowledge the pain of other people. That’s all anybody’s asking for. That’s it.”
Last month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named Hart this year’s Oscar host, and soon after, homophobic tweets the 39-year-old had made in the past resurfaced. Following backlash and pressured by the academy, Hart begrudgingly made a non-apology in a self-justifying Instagram video.
“I’m not going to continue to go back and tap into the days of old when I moved on, and I’m in a completely different space in my life,” Hart said. “I’m going to be me; I’m going to stand my ground.”
The next day, Hart stepped down as host of the Oscars and apologized.
Yet, after constant questioning from the media during his promotional rounds for his new film, “The Upside” — and backlash aimed at him and Ellen DeGeneres after she told Hart she forgave him for his tweets and campaigned for the academy to reinstate him as Oscar host — Hart snapped again earlier this week.
On Wednesday, when asked to elaborate on his apology to the LGBTQ community on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Hart lashed out, making his apology on Twitter in December seem insincere.
“I’m done with it,” Hart told “GMA” host Michael Strahan. “It gets no more energy from me. ... There’s no more conversation about it. I’m literally over that. I’m over the moment. And I’m about today.”
He continued: “I have explained how I’ve evolved, which makes me say, ‘I’m over it.’ I’m not saying how I’ve changed anymore. ... I’m not giving no more explanation of who I am. I’ve done it. ... You will not hear me saying anything else about it.”
Due to the controversy, this year’s Academy Awards will be broadcast Feb. 24 without a host for the first time in 30 years.
Yet, regardless of everything that has happened, maybe the best thing for Hart right now is to have a heart-to-heart with his buddy Crews.