In a revealing new documentary about his life and career, Chevy Chase alleges that he suffered physical abuse as a child at the hands of his mother and stepfather.
In “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” which debuted Jan. 1 on CNN, Chase and his family and friends said he was beaten, locked in a closet and continually woken up with violence.
Chase’s parents divorced when he was about 4 years old, and both of them quickly remarried. He described his stepfather, John Cederquist, as “humorless.” Chase’s half-brother, also named John Cederquist, said, “My father had a flash anger, and he could lash out with a single blow…He did not take to anything that he perceived as insolence. Chevy was insolent.”
Chase’s wife, Jayni, said the first time she stayed overnight with Chase and woke him up, he “shuddered.” “He explained, ‘Well, my mother would wake me up slapping me.’ From the time he was a little guy, wham!” she said.
Chase’s mother, Cathalene Browning, is described in the documentary as “a bag of cats, certainly on the schizoid spectrum.”
“This was an out-of-control woman who I look back on and I say I feel sorry for her,” Chase said. “She had her own issues — bad ones. But, she was physically abusive to me.”
Peter Aaron, a friend of the comedian’s, said Chase told him stories about the “terrible things that would happen to him as a young man — things like being locked in the closet.” Chase’s brother, Ned, added, “There was a cellar, and he was sent down there because of really messing up in school.”
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In an interview with The New York Times published Friday, Chase alluded to being “slapped with a yardstick on your bare ass and on the backs of your legs until they’re so bruised that somebody else notices.”
Chase would get punished for receiving poor grades in school, but, ironically, he said he was failing academically because of the abuse. “Whereas others would concentrate on their homework, I didn’t have a chance at that,” he said. “I was always worried about one thing or another that had to do with my own health.”
Chase detailed one incident in which he and Ned were eating breakfast, and their stepfather came downstairs “and started slapping me across the back of the head.” Ned recalled, “I stood up and made it clear I didn’t think this was a time for corporal punishment. And John Cederquist sat down, and I sat down.”
“I knew at that time that Ned was there for me,” Chase said. “That was a big moment for us.”
When asked by director Marina Zenovich if there was a time when Chase walked away from his mother and stepfather and never saw them again, Chase pretended to swat a fly on his forehead, then licked his fingers as if eating the imaginary bug. “Sorry?” he asked, half-smiling.
Chase’s family and friends described how his trauma informed his comedy — a “coping mechanism” — and how it may have contributed to his struggles with depression in his later life. “It shaped him. He used comedy, he used humor as a way to mask what was going on inside. And that’s continued. It continues to this day,” said Emily Chase, his youngest daughter. “He will joke around from morning until night, and you won’t know what’s going on. … That’s how he always dealt with problems in his life.”
“I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not” is now available to watch on CNN’s streaming platforms.
From Variety US