Seinfeld actor Michael Richards has addressed the racist outburst which effectively ended his career almost 20 years ago, saying he was “immediately sorry” but that he’s “not looking for a comeback”.
The actor – who won three Emmys for his portrayal of Cosmo Kramer from 1989 to 1998 – has stayed largely out of the spotlight since 2006 when he was filmed yelling the N-word at a group of Black people who heckled him during a standup set at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.
“I was immediately sorry the moment I said it onstage,” Richards said about that night in an interview with People magazine, published on Wednesday. “I’m not looking for a comeback.”
“My anger was all over the place and it came through hard and fast. Anger is quite a force. But it happened. Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn’t been easy.”
The interview is the latest in a series of steps back into the public eye as Richards prepares to release his memoir, titled Entrances and Exits, next month.
In April, the 74-year-old actor made a rare appearance at the premiere of his former co-star Jerry Seinfeld’s new film Unfrosted.
“I’m not racist,” Richards told People, of the 2006 Laugh Factory incident. “I have nothing against Black people. The man who told me I wasn’t funny had just said what I’d been saying to myself for a while. I felt put down. I wanted to put him down.”
Richards said that he was advised to do damage control by crisis managers, but he decided to instead spend the past 17 years in “deep analysis” of his insecurities, including his discomfort at becoming a celebrity. This had led him to turn down opportunities, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and multiple offers to host Saturday Night Live, he said.
“I didn’t feel deserving,” he said. “I was never really satisfied with my Seinfeld performance. Fame magnified my insecurities.”
“Somehow I couldn’t connect to the joy of being an artist,” he said, of his time as Kramer on Seinfeld. “I was a good character actor, but I was comfortable being the character, not in being me.”
Since 2006, Richards has been seldom seen on screen, appearing as himself in a handful of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Jerry Seinfeld’s talkshow Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He also played a supporting role in the sitcom Kirstie, which was cancelled after one season in 2014.
