A legendary Seinfeld star has revealed why he went on a horrific racist rant that ended his career.
Michael Richards was a fan favourite as he was skyrocketed to global fame as Kramer on the hit sitcom. But a moment of madness, which was also caught on camera, saw his world come crumbling down.
It came during a stand-up show at the Laughter Factory in Los Angeles in 2006, when Richards was told by an audience member that he wasn’t funny. Despite being a standard heckle most comedians have probably faced at one point or other in their careers, Richards’ comeback shocked the world.
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Richards went on a racial tirade, which included calling someone the n-word.
(Image: BBC)
The actor did his due diligence on news programmes, apologising for the outburst, but the damage was done and his career was in tatters.
Now the 74-year-old has revealed what led to his extreme reaction in his upcoming memoir, Entrances and Exits. In it he says he was hurting from the failure of his follow up to Seinfeld, The Michael Richards Show.
His self-titled sitcom lasted only eight episodes in 2000, which was six years ahead of the Laugh Factory incident.
Michael says he heard talking on the balcony before he erupted in anger, and yelled: “Shut the f**k up!” – much to the amusement of the crowd. But then he heard someone fire back: “You’re not funny. We don’t think you’re very funny!”
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Michael says he took the comment pretty badly and described it as a “solid punch below the belt”.
Although not detailed in the book, his tirade included saying: “Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass.” He then went on to call one of his hecklers the n- word.
In his book Michael says: “Of course, looking back at all, I wish I had just agreed with [my heckler]. He went low and I went even lower. We both ended up at the bottom of the barrel.”
Michael said the words “you’re not funny” kept running through his mind at the time of the incident, saying: “He laid it out so clearly, so simply, my biggest fear – not being funny.
“Later, I’ll come to realise that all of this, everything he said, is me. His voice is my voice. This is all ME going on. My inferiority sets in. My anger erupts.”
Michael appeared on the ‘Late Show with David Letterman’ to apologise for the incident days after footage of it spread.
He added his ‘Seinfeld’ co-stars Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus reached out during the controversy, but he was “embarrassed” and “concerned about the mess spilling onto them”.
The actor also confesses he has had “some regrets” but believes in the “continuity of the soul”, saying: “Screw-ups in life are necessary.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
