Michael Richards Unpacks 2006 Racist Comedy Club Tirade, Reveals Prostate Cancer Battle

Ahead of his new memoir Entrances and Exits, hitting shelves June 4, the actor and comedian talked with People about the incident, which he says was driven by anger. "My anger was all over the place and it came through hard and fast," he told the outlet.

It was a combination of a heckler and his own feelings of apparent self-loathing that led to his outburst that night in 2006 at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.

"The man who told me I wasn't funny had just said what I'd been saying to myself for a while," Richards explained. "I felt put down. I wanted to put him down." That put-down included use of the n-word and racial insults.

"I was immediately sorry when I said it," Richards admitted, with People noting he's not looking for forgiveness or for anyone to forget what he did.

Despite being part of one of the biggest sitcoms around, Richards makes it sounds like he was living with a form of imposter syndrome. He told the outlet he turned down multiple offers at that time, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a hosting opportunity on Saturday Night Live -- twice!

"I didn't feel deserving," he shared. "I didn't feel good enough." He also said he was "never really satisfied" with his work on Seinfeld, despite Cosmo Kramer being one of the nation's most beloved characters. "Fame magnified my insecurities," he explained.

"Anger is quite a force. But it happened," he added of the incident at the Laugh Factory. "Rather than run from it, I dove into the deep end and tried to learn from it. It hasn't been easy." While his team wanted him to do damage control -- and he did apologize on David Letterman's Late Show -- Richards said "the damage was inside of me."

As a result, he said he spent years trying to "figure out where all the anger was coming from," lamenting that he wasn't able to "connect to the joy of being an artist." He also realized that he would hide behind characters like Kramer because he was "comfortable being the character, not in being me."

"I'm not racist," he told People. "I have nothing against Black people." He didn't then, either, he said -- adding that he's has spent the years since "learning and healing."

He's also been healing from a physical ailment as well, with the 74-year-old comic opening up to the magazine about a terrifying prostate cancer battle. "I thought, well this is my time. I'm ready to go," he said. This was the summer of 2018, and it was thoughts of his son Antonio (then 9) that sparked a defiant attitude against the disease.

He said that because of the biopsy results, removal of the entire prostate was recommended. "It had to be contained quickly," he told the outlet. "I had to go for the full surgery. If I hadn't, I probably would have been dead in about eight months."

Somewhere between that brush with death and the thought of turning 75 led to Richards thinking about writing his memoir. "Maybe wanting to do that is something that comes with being my age," he said. "I wanted to connect with feelings and memory."

Michael Richards shares those memories in his memoir Entrances and Exits, out June 4.