Comedians Kevin Hart, left, and Chris Rock have passed on...

Comedians Kevin Hart, left, and Chris Rock have passed on hosting this year's Academy Awards telecast. Credit: Composite; Getty Images for The Wall Street Journal and WSJ Magazine / Phillip Faraone, left; Getty Images for Time / Brian Ach

Despite an endorsement from talk-show host and gay-rights advocate Ellen DeGeneres last week, Kevin Hart has indicated that he has no plans to host this year's Academy Awards. The comedian has also apologized again for the past homophobic tweets and jokes he has made, and said it would be the last time that he addressed the controversy.

"You have to understand two things,” explained the comedian, 39 — who stepped down as host following controversy over past homophobic remarks, for which he has previously apologized — on his SiriusXM podcast "Straight From the Hart" Monday. "First of all, I would like to think that I'm a perfectionist in my craft … and when I step on that stage, it's going to be … the best opening monologue that I could have possibly delivered and the rest of that show is going to follow suit."

However, "You're talking about two weeks," he said of this year's Feb. 24 Academy Awards ceremony. "I got two weeks, we leave, I go do promotion for 'The Upside,' " his movie with Bryan Cranston that opens this Friday. "I don't have time to prepare and do it correctly."

When asked by a co-host, "If it wasn't for the time, would you do it?," Hart replied, "I don't think I would." Saying that while he and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are on good terms, "The only thing for me is, this [issue] doesn't go away. The Academy and the Oscars and hosting it, in my mind, just amplifies it. … The microscope on me is so … thick that they're looking for everything. So anything, anything that I say that's not appropriate, that's wrong, any joke that rubbed [someone] the wrong way, any star that I pick on … [critics] are going to pick me apart."

Hart also apologized once more for his past remarks. "I’m sure that after this interview, they’ll cut this up and find things that I said that wasn’t enunciated correctly," the comedian said. "I will say this, and I want to make this very clear ... once again, Kevin Hart apologizes for his remarks that hurt members of the LGBTQ community," Hart said.

Meanwhile, comedian Chris Rock, 53, also has said he has no interest in hosting. "If it was five years ago, I could say something really offensive and funny right now, but I can't do that anymore, so … heyyyy!," he told the New York Film Critics Circle at its awards dinner in Manhattan Monday, Variety reported. 

Rock, who hosted the Oscars in 2005 and 2016, went on to say, "Steve Martin is here. You should host the Oscars. You're the best," Rock told the comedy legend. "Steve Martin should host the Oscars! Because I'm not doing it ... [expletive]! You're not getting me."

SUBSCRIBE

Unlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 6 months

ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME