pink slip
Sarah Silverman says she was recently fired from a movie for wearing blackface in a 2007 sketch
Sarah Silverman's old sketch in which she wears blackface recently came back to haunt her and cost her a movie role, she has now revealed.
The comedian recently appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast and during a discussion about online criticism over old comments and jokes brought up an experience from her own life that had not been previously revealed. According to Silverman's account, she was recently set to appear in a small role in a "little" movie but was fired the night before over a photo of her wearing blackface from a 2007 episode of The Sarah Silverman Program.
"It was so disheartening," Silverman said. "It just made me real, real sad, because I've really kind of devoted myself to making it right."
While Silverman said she is "not that person anymore" and has previously expressed regret over the sketch, she also noted the context, saying that she didn't go to a "Halloween party in the '80s in blackface" but was "doing an episode about race," also saying the show was supposed to be making fun of an "ignorant" character trapped "in a liberal bubble."
Silverman went on to decry the fact that the person who was ultimately hired to replace her on the movie is someone who has "never stuck her neck out." She did not name the actress nor the movie itself. More generally, Silverman on the podcast spoke against the idea of holding a comedian accountable for old material "if they've changed with the times," adding, "if you're putting yourself out there, it's not going to be timeless. It's just not." Listen to the full interview with Silverman on The Ringer.