‘Seinfeld’ Star Michael Richards Explains The Root Cause Of His Racist Rant From 2006, Insists He Has “Nothing Against Black People”

It’s been 18 years since Michael Richards upended his career by going on a racist rant against a group of hecklers during a stand-up show at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. While the Seinfeld star is “not looking for a comeback,” he recently told People what he’s learned about himself since that night in 2006.

Richards opened up about his outburst — which consisted of racial slurs including the N-word, which he said multiple times — revealing, “I was immediately sorry the moment I said it onstage.”

According to the actor — who famously played Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld from 1989 to 1998 — his “anger was all over the place and it came through hard and fast” when he confronted the hecklers.

“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,” he said. “It hasn’t been easy. Crisis managers wanted me to do damage control. But as far as I was concerned, the damage was inside of me.”

Richards attributed his anger to his insecurities and feelings of not being wanted, which stemmed from his single mom who wanted to have an abortion when she was pregnant with him but was unable to as it was illegal and dangerous at the time.

“I’m not racist. I have nothing against Black people,” he said to People. “The man who told me I wasn’t funny had just said what I’d been saying to myself for a while. I felt put down. I wanted to put him down.”

This wasn’t the only time the comedian said his insecurities led him to self-sabotage his successful career.

“Somehow I couldn’t connect to the joy of being an artist,” he said of his Seinfeld character. “I was a good character actor, but I was comfortable being the character, not in being me.”

Richards continued, “I said no to the offer of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I didn’t feel deserving. I said no to hosting Saturday Night Live twice because I didn’t feel good enough. I was never really satisfied with my Seinfeld performance. Fame magnified my insecurities.”

These days, Richards — who recently made a surprise appearance at the premiere of Jerry Seinfeld‘s Netflix movie Unfrosted — said he’s “healing and learning.”

“Life is always an up and a down,” he added. “I continue to work through the day and the night, the light and the dark that I am.”