Chevy Chase "apologized immediately" to his Community colleagues for using the N-word on the set while venting his ongoing frustration with his character, a source tells The Hollywood Reporter.
The actor has been frustrated with his character, Pierce Hawthorne, a frequently bigoted curmudgeon, and on Friday, used the slur when questioning the dialogue in a scene where castmates Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown, both African-American, were present. The slur was not directed at them, says the source.
A rep for the NBC comedy did not immediately respond to THR's request for comment.
Earlier Saturday, TV Line reported that production was briefly halted before Chase apologized.
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Chase famously clashed with ousted showrunner Dan Harmon, and Harmon was dismissed from the show weeks after leaking an angry voicemail from the 69-year-old former Saturday Night Live star that surfaced online last spring.
Community is now being run by David Guarascio and Moses Port.
"Everything's been going great," the source says, adding that Chase thinks highly of his co-stars.
On Friday, the day the fourth season was supposed to premiere, the cast (Chase included) addressed the delay in a video posted on YouTube via Community's fake talk show Troy and Abed in the Morning.
"Even though the powers that be agreed to put the premiere on October 19th, they couldn't decide where to put October 19th," explained Abed (Danny Pudi).
NBC originally scheduled Community for an Oct. 19 return with Whitney, before slotting the latter for mid-November to replace the freshly-canceled Animal Practice and taking Community off the schedule. This is the second time Community has been bumped from the primetime roster; last season, the network kept it off its initial midseason schedule before the show officially returned that March.
Twitter: @ErinLCarlson
Email: erin.carlson@thr.com
