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Sarah Silverman fired from new movie over blackface photo from 2007

The photograph stemmed from a sketch in her 2007 comedy series The Sarah Silverman Programme

Adam White
Monday 12 August 2019 10:12 BST
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Sarah Silverman has revealed that she was recently fired from a film after producers unearthed an old photograph in which she sports blackface.

While appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast, the comedian explained that the photo, taken from a sketch in her 2007 comedy series The Sarah Silverman Programme, convinced the film to drop her the night before she was due to begin shooting.

“I recently was going to do a movie, a sweet part, then at 11pm the night before they fired me because they saw a picture of me in blackface from that episode,” she said. “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.”

Silverman did not name the film in question, but did go on to discuss “cancel culture” with Simmons, and her fears about being a comedian in 2019. “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,” adding that she dubs 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,” she continued. “It’s so odd. It’s a perversion. It’s really, ‘Look how righteous I am and now I’m going to press refresh all day long to see how many likes I get in my righteousness.’”

Silverman did not name the film in question, but was most recently cast in a forthcoming Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy titled Marry Me.

In 2018, Silverman told GQ Magazine that she “[doesn’t] stand by the blackface sketch,” adding: “I’m horrified by it, and I can’t erase it. I can only be changed by it and move on.”

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