Apparently Jason Reitman Stood In For John Belushi After Matt Wood Had To Be Rushed To The Hospital On The First Night Of Filming 'Saturday Night'

Cinema Blend

The celebration of "Saturday Night Live’s" 50th anniversary isn’t merely limited to the world of TV, as the 2024 movie schedule is also honoring the occasion with the movie "Saturday Night." Co-written and directed by Jason Reitman, the real-time drama depicts the chaos before the first broadcast of NBC’s landmark sketch show.  In an act of cosmic coincidence, a poignant scene involving actor Matt Wood’s John Belushi saw him rushed to the hospitalma as it was being filmed in the iconic Rockefeller Center Ice Rink. The event would force Reitman to become a last minute stand-in on camera, and in turn would give "Saturday Night" co-star Ella Hunt a moment with one of her favorite directors that only enhanced her performance.

Transcript

00:00Ella the line that sticks with me is, do you ever have nostalgia for a moment that you're still in?

00:05Right.

00:06So beautiful and I'm curious if you felt that on this movie.

00:09Did you end up missing the experience before it was even over?

00:13That scene we shot on our first night of shooting.

00:18We were actually at Rockefeller Ice Ring.

00:22I'm a New Yorker.

00:24So to shoot a scene playing Gilda Radner,

00:28directed by one of my favorite directors ever,

00:33saying these words about having nostalgia for a moment while you're still in it.

00:39Talk about like uncanny meta experience, like dream within a dream.

00:46I felt all those things that Gilda was saying and

00:51God, what a privilege to get to say them.

00:54And weirdly, I ended up saying them to Jason.

00:59That night, we shot Matt playing Belushi, who is just extraordinary in this movie.

01:05I can't even.

01:07We shot Matt on the ice first.

01:09And thank God we got a lot of the scene from his perspective before he fell.

01:16He fell and he hit his head.

01:19And then we were like, we have to keep shooting.

01:22He went to the hospital.

01:24Jason put on skates and did the scene with me.

01:30Get out of here.

01:31Yeah.

01:32First night of shooting was wild.

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