“The Good Place” Actor Ted Danson Says He’s Willing To ‘Apologize For The Rest Of My Life’ For ’90s Blackface Roast Of Whoopi Goldberg: ‘So Arrogant & Stupid’

Ted Danson, Whoopi Goldberg

“The Good Place” Actor Ted Danson Says He’s Willing To ‘Apologize For The Rest Of My Life’ For ’90s Blackface Roast Of Whoopi Goldberg: ‘So Arrogant & Stupid’

#TedDanson definitely regrets his infamous behavior during Whoopi Goldberg’s roast.

In a candid sit-down on W. Kamau Bell’s podcast “Who’s With Me?,” the “Cheers” and “The Good Place” star revisited his 1993 appearance at a New York Friars Club roast of then-girlfriend #WhoopiGoldberg, where he performed in blackface and delivered jokes laced with racial slurs and explicit references to their relationship. Ted admitted that he and Whoopi had tried to skip the event, but the club had already sold too many tickets to back out.
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“So my brain was going, OK, here is one of the most outrageous, funny Black women in the world. And I’m supposed to be roasting her and I’m not a stand-up, I can’t run with the bulls,” he explained, adding that the blackface felt like it would give him a kind of creative license, a decision he deeply regrets. Ted didn’t hold back when reflecting on his mindset going into that night, calling it “so arrogant and stupid” to think a white man had anything meaningful to contribute to a conversation about race.
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He said he knew almost instantly that he’d made a grave error. For years, he leaned on the defense that his intentions weren’t malicious, but he told Bell that line of thinking no longer holds up for him. “Your intentions do not matter. The impact you have on people is what matters,” he said. “I thought I could run with the big boys, and I couldn’t. And it was stupid and it was not my place, and it was wrong and it was hurtful.”

As for where he stands today, Ted made his commitment clear: “I need to and want to apologize for the rest of my life.”