Brett Ratner resigned from his position as co-producer of next year’s Academy Awards Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed.
Ratner's resignation comes a day after he apologized for using a gay slur at a screening of his most recent film “Tower Heist,” the Associated Press reported.
“He did the right thing for the Academy and for himself,” the Academy’s President Tom Sherak said in a statement.
“Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable,” Sherak added.
It was during a question-and-answer session of a "Tower Heist" screening in Hollywood that he used the pejorative.
The director-producer also garnered attention after discussing his sexual exploits on a recent episode of "The Howard Stern Show," according to the AP.
“Being asked to help put on the Oscar show was the proudest moment of my career,” Ratner said in a statement of apology. “But as painful as this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show were to be a distraction for the Academy and the high ideals it represents.”
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Ratner plans to work with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to convene public discussions on LGBT images in Hollywood, GLAAD reported.
Hollywood has the power and responsibility to grow acceptance of all communities,” said GLAAD Acting President Mike Thompson in a statement. “We look forward to working with Ratner and the industry in promoting positive, culture-changing images of our community and sending a message that such slurs, used to belittle gay and lesbian youth and adults every day, have no place in mainstream popular culture or the industry that creates it.”
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