Seinfeld actor Michael Richards opened up about his new memoir in an interview with People magazine.
Richards, known for playing wacky neighbor Cosmo Kramer in Jerry Seinfeld’s phenomenally successful sitcom, tells the story of his life and career in Entrances and Exits, scheduled for publication by Permuted Press on June 4. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Kramer was Seinfeld’s ‘hipster doofus,’ but his average memoir shows how serious Richards was about being funny.”
While Richards won three Emmy Awards for his performance on Seinfeld, he derailed his career in 2006 with a disastrous stand-up set at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, during which he directed a racist rant at a heckler. He later apologized for his words, but his career never recovered.
Kirkus’ critic says that in the memoir, Richards “sort of yadda-yaddas past” the incident. The actor told People, “I was immediately sorry the moment I said it onstage. I’m not looking for a comeback. My anger was all over the place and it came through hard and fast. Anger is quite a force. But it happened. Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn’t been easy.”
Richards said that since the incident, he has engaged in “deep analysis” to determine the source of his anger.
“Somehow I couldn’t connect to the joy of being an artist,” he said. “I was a good character actor, but I was comfortable being the character, not in being me.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
