Kevin Hart, who stepped down as host of the Oscars following criticism over past anti-gay tweets, said he is evaluating his decision after popular comedian Ellen DeGeneres revealed she supported him in the role.
In an interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” released on Friday, DeGeneres said she recently called the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to advocate for Hart.
DeGeneres, who is openly gay and hosted the Oscars in 2007 and 2014, said the Academy, which organizes the ceremony, had responded that they would be “thrilled” to have him host the Feb. 24 awards.
The Academy on Friday did not return a request for comment.
In December, Hart said he was stepping down from hosting the Oscars and wanted to “sincerely apologize to the LGBT community for my insensitive words from my past.”
Hart told DeGeneres on Friday “I know I don’t have a homophobic bone in my body.”
DeGeneres called Hart “one of the smartest people I know, one of the funniest people I know,” and told him to ignore the backlash from what she called “haters” who highlighted the decade-old tweets.
“That’s a small group of people being very, very loud,” she said. “We are a huge group of people who love you and want to see you host the Oscars.”
