Kevin Hart may have just forced himself to take on a gay role sooner than his "insecurities" would allow. In an interview Friday with New York’s Power 105.1 radio station, the black comedic actor said that he had turned down the role of a gay character, Alpa Chino, in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, which led to him explaining why he wasn’t comfortable taking on a gay role.

When asked if he had turned down any roles, Hart said that one role he regretted turning down was the Chino character. Hart—who is engaged to his long-time girlfriend, model Eniko Parrish—prefaced his remarks by telling the gay community that he loved and appreciated them. the disclaimer complete, he then told host that he turned down the Chino role in part because the draft of the script he read had him doing “real flagrant” things that he did not feel comfortable doing:

The dude, he was doing a lot of stuff in the draft that I read. It was real flagrant... It was a lot of stuff... I was like, “I can't do this.”

When asked directly if he would ever play a gay role, Hart said, “No. I can’t,” following that up by citing his own insecurities as the reason:

Not because I have any ill will or disrespect. It's because I don't think I'm really going to dive into that role 100 percent because of insecurities about myself trying to play that part. Does that make sense? Like what I think people are going to think while I'm trying to do this is going to stop me from playing that part the way that I'm supposed to.

Hart said that after he has more experience under his belt and finds a role that makes sense to take on, he might change his mind about playing a homosexual character.

The comments begin around the 32:45 mark.

H/T THR.