During an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, 48-year-old comedian and actress Sarah Silverman revealed that she had recently been fired from a movie after a 2007 picture of her wearing a blackface mask during an episode from The Sarah Silverman Programme emerged.
“I recently was going to do a movie, a sweet part, then at 11 p.m. the night before they fired me because they saw a picture of me in blackface from that episode", said Silverman. “I didn’t fight it. They hired someone else who is wonderful but who has never stuck their neck out. It was so disheartening. It just made me real, real sad, because I really kind of devoted my life to making it right".
The sketch that the crew of the unnamed movie found offensive showed Sarah wearing blackface, while saying “I look like the beautiful Queen Latifah” after which she entered a baptist church and stated “I’m black today”.
The actress already commented on the sketch during an interview with GQ in 2018 when she stated that she “did not stand by the blackface sketch” and is now “horrified” by it, but it cannot be erased.
“That was such liberal-bubble stuff, where I actually thought it was dealing with racism by using racism. I don’t get joy in that anymore. It makes me feel yucky. All I can say is that I’m not that person anymore".
In her conversation with Bill Simmons she, however, also discussed the problems of “cancel culture” and the difficulties of being a comedian in 2019 for those who've made some “mistakes” in their careers.
“I think it’s really scary and it’s a very odd thing that it’s invaded the left primarily and the right will mimic it. It’s like kind of 'we are not okay with this, we are going to say we are offended by this'. I call it 'righteousness porn'. It’s like, if you’re not on board, if you say the wrong thing, if you had a tweet once … everyone is, like, throwing the first stone. It’s so odd. It’s a perversion”.
Sarah Silverman became famous in 2007 for producing and performing in The Sarah Silverman Programme. Her work on TV has even garnered her two Primetime Emmy Awards. She also hosted I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman in 2017, but that was cancelled after one season. During the 2016 US presidential elections, she was an outspoken supporter of Hilary Clinton.