Chevy Chase is under the spotlight in a new documentary, warts and all — and he's OK with it

NEW YORK (AP) — Insulting the director who is making a documentary about you might not be the most diplomatic of choices. Then again, Chevy Chase has never been very diplomatic.

The comedian gets snarly at the top of filmmaker Marina Zenovich's “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” which airs Thursday on CNN. During their very first meeting, he warns her it isn't going to be easy to figure him out. She asks him why.

“You’re not bright enough, how’s that?” he replies.

That the exchange made the film says a lot about Zenovich and also about Chase, a gifted physical comedian who starred in classic 1970s and ’80s comedies like “Fletch,” “Three Amigos,” “Caddyshack” and the National Lampoon’s “Vacation” franchise.

“He’s one of those people everybody thinks they know,” says Zenovich. “He has a reputation that precedes him and there’s something underneath that you want to get to. So it was a great challenge to try to get there.”

“I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not” follows Chase's life and career, from his dark childhood to the dawn of “Saturday Night Live” and then Hollywood, ending with his messy time on the TV series “Community.” There are perspectives offered from Dan Aykroyd, Beverly D’Angelo, Goldie Hawn, Lorne Michaels, Ryan Reynolds, Martin Short, his wife Jayni Chase and three daughters, and brother Ned.

A portrait emerges of a sharp and often cutting comedian who has a deep fan base but can rub some people the wrong way with a blunt inelegance. “I’m complex and I’m deep and I can be hurt easily,” he tells the filmmaker.

The documentary shows footage of his film and TV work alongside home movies, cuddling a cat, playing a piano, playing chess, reading fan mail — including a birthday card from Bill Clinton — and visiting a flower shop.

The movie has the endorsement of a tough critic: Chase, himself. “It’s just like a massage. I think of it that way: I love the massage. Sometimes it hurts, but the massage is so lovely,” the comedian tells The Associated Press.

Chase is just the latest profile by two-time Emmy-winner Zenovich, whose previous documentary subjects have included Roman Polanski, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams and Lance Armstrong.

“I make films about these complicated men,” she says. “I’m just fascinated by humans and their behavior and Chevy just seems to fit in my oeuvre.”

Zenovich points to Chase's early years to help explain how he became who he became. Chase, as a boy, was locked in the basement for days, hit across the face and shut in a closet as punishment at the hands of his stepfather and mother.

“I think the whole key to Chevy is his childhood. I hate to use the word trauma, but I think he’s traumatized,” she says. “Humor is his way of dealing with it.”

Chase famously feuded with many comedians, including “Community” co-star Joel McHale, “SNL” castmate John Belushi and Bill Murray, who had replaced him at “SNL.” He left “Community” following reports he'd used a racist slur and directed insults at co-star Donald Glover. He had also quarreled with the show's creator Dan Harmon , who was pushed out for a time.

“The old Chevy could make you laugh putting you down and there was a little bit of a wink there, so you were in on the joke,” writer and actor Alan Zweibel says in the film. “Now it just comes off as mean.”

The film argues that Chase's darkness was amplified by his drug use. “In his mind he doesn’t think he’s mean,” says Zenovich, who interviewed Chase twice and then followed him around for a few days.

“What was really interesting about Chevy is that he really wants to try to figure himself out. He wanted to go there, but then something stops him,” she says. “He goes to a certain point, and then something stops him.”

Chase, now 82, says he's aware that there's a long list of people who consider him contemptible, but insists he doesn't care. “It’s just Hollywood stuff,” he says. “It never really bothered me.”

The movie digs into his short-lived TV talk show and his eye-opening first and only season at “Saturday Night Live.” He concedes leaving “SNL” was a mistake and shows how hurt he was not to be invited onstage when the show celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year.

The documentary also shows him basking in the applause of fans as he attends a recent screening of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and it also reveals that his three daughters are insightful, funny and sweet.

“I think the one thing he really did was he was able to break that generational trauma,” says Zenovich. “There I go again, using the word. But that’s quite a feat, right?”

FILE - Comedian Chevy Chase, second from left, joins cast of NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live," Feb. 16, 1978 in New York, where he first got his start with the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players." Others are, from left, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Laraine Newman. Chase is doing a guest shot on the program. (AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, File)

FILEW - Colin Quinn, from left, Chevy Chase and Norm Macdonald appear onstage at The 2012 Comedy Awards in New York, Saturday, April 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)

FILE - Actor Chevy Chase, center, sits on the front row during the second half of an NBA basketball game between the Atlanta Hawks and Dallas Mavericks in Dallas on April 4, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

FILE - Steve Martin, Randy Newman and Chevy Chase rehearse a musical number at the NBC studios in New York's Rockefeller Center, Dec. 5, 1986, in preparation for their reunion on "Saturday Night Live." (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE - Chevy Chase attends the SNL50: The Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File )

DENVER (AP) — A Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during takeoff, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate.

The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday," the airport's official X account wrote.

A spokesperson for the airport said the pedestrian, who jumped a perimeter fence, has died. They said the unidentified person was hit two minutes after entering the airport. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.

“We're stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”

The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”

The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now" before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”

Frontier Airlines said in a statement flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the pedestrian.

“The Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members,” the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”

Passengers were then evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. The airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to local hospitals.

Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, will remain closed while an investigation is conducted. It is expected to open later today.

The pedestrian death came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident nor the name of the employee.

“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. "We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”

FILE - A Frontier Airlines jetliner taxis down a runway for take off from Denver International airport on Nov. 25, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)