Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic Kevin Hart
Kevin Hart understands the importance of allowing people the opportunity to change after a controversy.
The 43-year-old comedian appeared in a new episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast Monday with host and licensed therapist Amy Morin to talk about her Audible Original book Monsters and how to tame them.
Asked if he should be “more careful” about the jokes he makes in the “world of ‘cancel culture'” these days, Hart replied: “absolutely.”
“Let’s be honest, I think a lot of changes were needed, right? And I think being aware is something that we should all prioritize. Just being aware,” Hart said. “We’re learning to understand each other better, and in doing so, we need to respect each other.”
“There’s a heightened level of sensitivity now,” she continued. “There’s a heightened level of opinion in today’s day and age because social media has presented the world with a lot of platforms for people to express themselves and say what they feel. So now we’re hearing things that we didn’t normally hear. Conversations that you might not have been aware of, well, you’re hearing them because they’re happening in real time.”
Hart added: “That said, we can’t lose the idea of laughing at ourselves.”
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He Personal time The actor said he does his best to be an example of “transparency” and “being authentic and talking about things that some people don’t think are funny or don’t consider funny.”
“I think there’s a line that’s already been drawn, and some people are skirting it and some people are aggressively crossing it,” Hart said. “What we need to do is find a balance where we can all stand on that line, regardless of which side we’re on, and hold hands knowing that we mean no harm. That, I think, is the goal ahead.”
He said, “We forget that there has to be a world that presents the opportunity to improve. Without that, what the hell? Where do we go? If everything is considered bad once it’s done and there’s nothing more you can do because you’ve already done what you’ve done and that’s it for you, well, what the hell? … You have to make mistakes in order to learn and basically have real-life examples of what you’re supposed to learn.”
Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images Kevin Hart
Hart faced controversy in 2018 when he was announced as the host of the Oscars. The announcement sparked backlash, with Twitter users bringing up homophobic tweets Hart had posted nearly a decade earlier, along with a controversial comedy joke he made about the gay community. He eventually stepped down from hosting the Oscars.
Last year, the comedian told the sunday time“I’ve been cancelled, how many times? Three or four? I never got upset. If you let it affect you, it affects you. Personally? That’s not how I act. I understand that people are human. Everyone can change.”
“If someone has done something truly harmful, then there should certainly be consequences,” Hart said at the time. “But when you talk about… nonsense, when you say, ‘Someone said we should take them down!’ Shut your mouth. What are you talking about?”
(tags to translate)Kevin Hart
