Ellen DeGeneres’ final stand-up special has premiered on Netflix, in which the comedian discusses her experience of being ‘kicked out of show business’ following allegations of a toxic work environment.
In 2020, DeGeneres was at the heart of a Buzzfeed News report that accused her former talk show of fostering a toxic work culture, with claims of racism, sexual misconduct, and intimidation levied against three executive producers.
Warner Bros. conducted an internal investigation, which resulted in the removal of three executive producers and one co-executive producer from the show. DeGeneres issued a public apology for the workplace culture on her talk show, which concluded in 2022 after 19 seasons.
In her Netflix comedy special, For Your Approval, DeGeneres directly addresses the controversy, updating her audience with, “Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business.”
“Yeah, ’cause I’m mean. You can’t be mean and be in show business. No, they’ll kick you out. No mean people in show business. I’m out,” she continues.
DeGeneres then recounts her experience dealing with the repercussions, saying, “Everywhere I go, I know everyone’s heard that I’m mean. I know when I walk into a restaurant, people are watching, waiting to see if I’ll be mean.”
She shared the initial shock she felt upon learning about the allegations, revealing that the first headline she saw read: “How Ellen DeGeneres Became the Most Hated Person in America.”
“It’s a horrible thing to say about somebody, and to make it worse, there was no trophy, no awards banquet, nothing,” DeGeneres quipped. “Just the title. Just, you know, I made a sash at home and I wore that around just to feel like I had something, you know?”
The Finding Dory star admitted that seeing these headlines and stories was ‘quite a shock’ and disclosed that she sought therapy to cope with the backlash.
“I was in therapy for a while, trying to deal with all the hatred that was coming at me, and it was not a common situation for a therapist to deal with,” DeGeneres explained. “At one point my therapist said, ‘Ellen, where do you get this idea that everyone hates you?’
“And I said, ‘Well, um, New York Times, Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, Us Weekly, I think Elmo may have said something recently on an episode of Sesame Street.”
The former talk show host went on to say that by ending every episode of her show with ‘be kind to one another,’ she inadvertently created a ‘one-dimensional character’ that she felt confined by.
“I became a brand, a one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced every day up steps. Do you know how hard it was to dance up steps?,” she remarks. “Would a mean person dance up steps? I don’t think so. Had I ended my show by saying ‘Go f**k yourselves,’ people would’ve been pleasantly surprised to find out I’m kind.”
For Your Approval is now available for streaming on Netflix.