Iconic lesbian comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has told fans that after her upcoming Netflix special, she will no longer perform in show business.
DeGeneres confirmed the news to audience members at her farewell tour Ellen’s Last Stand…Up.
Ellen DeGeneres: “I’m done”
During her performance at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa on Monday evening, she was asked by an audience member, “Will we see you on Broadway or movies?”
DeGeneres, 66, responded, “Um, no. This is the last time you’re going to see me. After my Netflix special, I’m done,” as reported by The SF Gate.
Another fan asked her to return as Dory, the fish she voiced in Pixar’s Finding Nemo animated film series, but DeGeneres was firm: “No, I’m going bye-bye, remember.”
DeGeneres told the crowd: “Let me catch you up on what’s been going on with me since you last saw me. I got chickens.
“Oh yeah, and I got kicked out of show business for being mean.”
“Old, gay and mean”
Predicting her next challenge, DeGeneres quipped that she might get “kicked out for being old next… Old, gay and mean – the triple crown.”
DeGeneres was referring to rumors of a toxic workplace on the set of her long-running daytime talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“I used to say, ‘I don’t care what people say about me.’ Now I realise I said that during the height of my popularity,” DeGeneres addressed the assembled audience.
“I can be demanding and impatient and tough. I am a strong woman,” she continued, adding, “I am many things but I am not mean.”
After a 19-year run, DeGeneres aired the final episode of her daytime talk show in 2022. She taped over 3200 episodes of the show and won over 60 Daytime Emmy Awards for it.
Allegations of The Ellen DeGeneres show being a toxic workplace
DeGeneres’ brand was always the paragon of kindness, so fans were shocked in 2020 when the comedienne came under fire from former employees who accused her of rudeness and not communicating with them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some said they’d lost their jobs for taking medical leave and were targeted for sexual harassment by powerful producers.
Several producers resigned from the show after Buzzfeed published the allegations.
While DeGeneres took responsibility and apologised to her employees, she told The Hollywood Reporter, ”this culture we’re living is [is one where] no one can make mistakes. And I don’t want to generalize because there are some bad people out there and those people shouldn’t work again, but in general, the culture today is one where you can’t learn and grow…”
Mainstream lesbian visibility
Few would deny that DeGeneres has grown with the culture.
On her final talk show episode she opined: “Twenty-five years ago they cancelled my sitcom because they didn’t want a lesbian to be in primetime once a week.
“And I said, ‘OK, then I’ll be on daytime every day. How about that?’…
“If I’ve done anything in the past nineteen years, I hope I’ve inspired you to be yourself, your true, authentic self.
“And if someone is brave enough to tell you who they are, be brave enough to support them, even if you don’t understand.”
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