Comedian Drew Michael won't say he regrets using the word "faggot" in a 2011 blog post but said that he has since deleted the post and "grown past" using the word.
Speaking to host Audie Cornish on Profile, BuzzFeed News' interview show on Facebook Watch, Michael responded to a question about a post he wrote to give advice to young aspiring comedians in which he wrote, "Don't be a faggot."
"Obviously what I meant was don't be, like, don't be a loser, or don't complain, don't whine," he said.
"And in doing that I used that word instead of 'loser' and I actually took the blog down from my own website because I thought the whole thing was something that, I don't want this up," he said. "So not even because of one particular thing, I was like, I don't stand by it. I've grown past this whole thing, including the word in question."
Pushed on whether he has regrets about writing "Don't be a faggot," Michael said, "It's hard to say 'regret,' because I said it."
Michael went on to say that he thinks "it's okay to be wrong" when speaking in "the arts space," including stage shows, podcasts, and interview shows.
"The stage especially — when I say something on stage, I don't even necessarily believe everything that I'm saying. It's a way to experiment with what I actually believe," he said.
Michael said he doesn't believe people should be held accountable for everything they said or wrote in the past, and that people's careers should not be affected by things they said years ago.
"I mean Leslie Jones was just on The View talking about this ... She said, like, I'm so glad social media didn't exist when I was in my twenties because the stuff I was saying was crazy. And it's like, yeah," he said.
He added that he thinks holding people accountable for things they said 10 years ago, for example, is "anti-human, anti-art, anti-life.
"It takes people out of the present moment and it disincentivizes people from experimenting in the present, because they're worried this might not play in 10 years, and it's going to hurt me," he said. "It's like again, that's anti-human, anti-art, anti-life."
Michael also talked about the #MeToo movement in response to a question about comedian Louis C.K.'s attempt to make a comeback after sexual misconduct allegations.
He told Cornish he doesn't "chime in" on sexual assault allegations or the #MeToo movement, but that it's important for "unrepresented" and "unheard" voices of survivors to be heard.
"I don't chime in on like other people's personal lives whether it's either side. Like, I don't know any of the people involved, so it's very difficult for me to say," he said. "But when you hear the discussions ... and you hear what people are saying with all the Me Too stuff and people are sharing their experiences, that to me is, it's vital."
He said the conversations that have come out of the #MeToo movement have made him think about women's perspectives and how he can be better in his day-to-day life.
"I think about what that means and you start to like, you know, internalize other people's experiences, and you start to go, 'Is there anything that I'm doing?' ... 'Am I contributing to this?' Or does knowing the fact that these people are dealing with these types of things on a daily basis change the way that I'm going to approach a situation?" he said.
Michael stars in a new comedy special on HBO. It was filmed without an audience and consists of him pacing in a dark, empty space as he does his routine. One part of that routine that has been particularly controversial is a segment about suicide.
Michael said that he began practicing the set with a live audience before including it in his current show. "It started by not working, and I had to take it on myself to go, no, there is something there regardless of how the audience responded in that particular moment, and it's something I want to find the truth of," he said.