{"id":392798,"date":"2026-01-07T09:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/392798\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:31:09","slug":"chevy-chase-sparks-backlash-after-telling-documentary-director-shes-not-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/392798\/","title":{"rendered":"Chevy Chase sparks backlash after telling documentary director she\u2019s \u2018not bright\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chevy Chase<\/a> has sparked uproar online after a clip from a new documentary about him went viral in which he tells the film\u2019s director that she is \u201cnot bright enough\u201d to understand him.<\/p>\n

The 82-year-old comedian and actor, who was part of the inaugural Saturday Night Live cast in 1975, is the subject of the CNN documentary I\u2019m Chevy Chase and You\u2019re Not<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Near the start of the film, director Marina Zenovich tells him: \u201cI\u2019m just trying to figure you out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chase replies: \u201cNo s***. It\u2019s not going to be easy for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Zenovich asks why it won\u2019t be easy, the National Lampoon\u2019s Vacation<\/a> star snaps back: \u201cYou\u2019re not bright enough. How\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChevyChevy Chase has been criticized for telling the director of a new documentary about him that she is ‘not bright enough’ to understand him (Getty)<\/p>\n

After the director responds with surprise to the insult, Chase appears to backpedal and adds: \u201cWell, you asked. I know you\u2019re not gonna put that on the air, and I hope not.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cBut my answer is, I\u2019m complex, and I\u2019m deep and I can be hurt easily. And I react spontaneously to people who want to figure me out, as it were. As somebody who will hold up my guard, I\u2019m not gonna let anybody figure me out, per se.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clip has been met with shock and derision online, with one X user<\/a> captioning the clip: \u201cI\u2019m sorry but what an insufferable old goat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another opined<\/a>: \u201cMaybe just me but enough with the Chevy Chase coverage. He was funny for one year on SNL and made a number of enjoyable movies. Forty years ago. Enough. He\u2019s not that interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, other users came to his defense. One wrote<\/a>: \u201cHating on Chevy Chase is an IQ test. If you hate, you fail. You can’t hold a job with any meaningful responsibility. If you recognize he’s funny and his personal failings are none of your business because you’re not 12 with a need to personally relate to celebrities, you pass.\u201d <\/p>\n

In an interview with Variety<\/a>, Zenovich said about the interaction: \u201cI\u2019d never done an interview where someone was so rude to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that it had been useful for her as a filmmaker, saying: \u201cBut I was so worried going into that first interview with him about how I was going to say to him, like, \u2018Everyone thinks you\u2019re an asshole.\u2019 I thought if I did, he would throw me out of his house. So the minute he said that to me, I had a way in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the documentary, Chase says that he was \u201churt\u201d by not being given a speaking role in the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary celebrations.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-392798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}