Fine, but too bad we can't hear the complete interview. It's only a minute or two, a teaser clip, for those curious.
I think Chase's problems go beyond just narcissism. He's also abusive towards women: he was so cruel and openly abusive towards Jane Curtin when he came back to SNL in the late 70s that he and Bill Murray--who gallantly came to Curtin's rescue--got into a fistfight.
Whatever his problems are, I would not work with him if I could possibly avoid it. I am amazed why people in Hollywood keep re-hiring him. He was a star for a period because he was very handsome and he came across onscreen as very affable. But he's lost his looks and everyone knows now he's not at all affable in real life, and he brings all his psychological baggage and bullshit to every project he does.
He doesn't need the work either--even without the millions he made from the Vacation movies and the Fletch movies he's a trust fund brat. He should just retire.
Do you have any more details about the Jane Curtin thing? Why did he pick on her?
Some of the more insecure male comedians in the original SNL cast did not behave well to Curtin because she was quiet and did not hang out with the rest of them to do drugs. They were more comfortable with Gilda, who was everybody's adored buddy, or Laraine, who was incredibly insecure and wanted to fuck all the men so they'd like her more. Jane was considered the prettiest of the women at the time but she was married and had a quiet and happy home life. The women liked her, and men like Ackroyd respected her (although eh didn't understand her), and Bill Murray had a big crush on her (he was younger than the rest of them).
The other thing is that Curtin's real gifts were subtler than most of the men's or Gilda's--she is probably the best 'straight women" in the business since Margaret Dumont, and so her best gifts were in making the real clowns (like Gilda, Belushi, and Ackroyd) seem all the funnier by reacting to them so brilliantly. (Think of the Roseanne Roseannadanna sequences, for example.)
Ackroyd and Gilda got that at the time, but Belushi was puzzled by it--it wasn't until he left SNL to do movies that he recognized that, except for when you're doing stand-up, comedy depends as much upon reaction and interaction as it does on just getting up there and being funny. And Chase has never been a team player--everything is always about him and him alone.
Jane was the grown up among the bunch. Didn't she also negotiate with management on behalf of the cast at some point?
Chase came back to host SNL after quitting and assumed he'd be doing Weekend Update alone as he had when he was still a cast member. Jane Curtin replaced Chevy as host of WU and was rightfully upset that he expected her to step aside. He made disparaging remarks about her abilities and that combined with all his other asshole-ish behavior that week and the built up resentment about him leaving the show for Hollywood set Murray off.
