'Saturday Night' Stars Talk Portraying Iconic First SNL Cast Members & More | THR News Video - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

The new film 'Saturday Night' chronicles the chaos that transpired during the final 90 minutes before the first-ever episode of 'Saturday Night Live' that aired in 1975. The cast, along with director and co-writer Jason Reitman, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about making the movie.

Transcript

00:00Whenever I would tell people that I was making a movie about the opening night of Saturday Night

00:02Live, the first thing people would say is, well, the casting is going to be impossible.

00:07And it was really intimidating, more than anything I've ever done before.

00:11The new film Saturday Night chronicles the chaos that transpired during the final 90 minutes before

00:16the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live that aired in 1975. Director and co-writer Jason

00:22Reitman and the cast spoke to The Hollywood Reporter all about making the movie.

00:26I heard you had a special dressing room set up on set called Cast Camp.

00:30What was that like? And how do you feel like it contributed to your performance and helped

00:34you all bond as a cast? I think for me, what was really interesting about all being together

00:38in Cast Camp, which was this basically this massive dormitory that our set design team had

00:45designed like it was 1975. It was kind of amazing. Was getting to share downtime with each other

00:51because so much of the movie is about what these people, who these people are when they're off

00:57and getting to like mess around playing ping pong in our giant billy bee suits or like playing like

01:05the New York Times games in the morning together. We were just constantly together for two months

01:10and it was just amazing. Everyone got along and everyone could share and be vulnerable with each

01:18other about, you know, this is scary. We all have to play these people and we're all comparing notes of

01:23the research we've done, the physicality, the voices, and it was just always so much fun.

01:30The stars of the film also opened up about how they prepared to portray the first cast members

01:34of the now iconic NBC sketch show.

01:37What sort of research and prep work did you do leading up to filming?

01:41Well, I got to talk to Rosie, which was really, really cool. Reading this script is when I first

01:47learned a lot about her. And so getting to talk to her and hear her perspective and her,

01:55just hear her voice and hear like, she has such an amazing laugh and she just seems like

02:03someone who is, is able to be cool in chaos and is smart and quick. And, and I don't know,

02:11it was just fun to get to play someone like that.

02:13I screamed, I cried, I panicked. And then once I got ahold of myself, I sat down and I turned on

02:23hundreds of hours of Chevy. I spent about two months pretty much just exclusively watching Chevy.

02:29And so I just kept watching this man, getting all of his mannerisms, hearing, you know, how he

02:36phrases things, watching interviews, listening to personal stories. Eventually I read the script

02:43again and I'm like, I know, I actually know how Chevy would say this. And I know that he would do

02:50his little blank thing after this to emphasize that joke. Cause that's the kind of joke where he would

02:55do that. And that was like, it just felt nice.

03:00I heard you were able to talk with Garrett before filming began. What was that conversation like? And did

03:05he give you any advice?

03:07Yeah. Um, the first of all, the conversation, I was very nervous originally. Um, but it's funny,

03:12his niece, um, his niece said to me, uh, when they were trying to get the zoom to work and before

03:18Garrett was sitting down in front of the zoom and she goes, he goes, you better portray my uncle, right?

03:23And I was like, Oh no, wow. No gauntlet. Oh my gosh. And then, uh, when I got a chance to speak

03:32to him, he calmed my nerves. Um, he was telling me old stories about his life. And the one thing

03:39that he really wanted me to get across was that he didn't quit. I mean, he didn't give up and you

03:46know, he had his troubles on the show. Um, he would say things like, he said, no, Lauren

03:51had what had would have every right to fire me, but he, but he never gave up on me. And

03:57Lauren was my, was, was, was my biggest, he was championing him. You know what I mean? And

04:02so, um, I learned that about that dynamic between Lauren and, and, and, and Garrett and

04:07Garrett would, would, would give it to me straight. You know what I mean? And so, I don't know,

04:11I just, I took that into this character, the idea of wanting to achieve something,

04:17but not feeling like you belong. We're just not ready. It doesn't matter that we're ready.

04:21It matters that it's 1130. That's when we go on.

04:24Reitman co-wrote the film with Gil Kennan based on interviews they did with the original stars,

04:28writers, and crew of SNL. Reitman opened up about how he approached casting the film

04:33and revealed which role he cast first.

04:35I approached it with absolute fear. The, you know, whenever I would tell people that I was

04:41making a movie about the opening night of Saturday Night Live, the first thing people would say is,

04:45well, the casting is going to be impossible. And it was really intimidating. More than anything

04:50I've ever done before. The first role we cast, uh, was Garrett. Lamorne came in with his Garrett.

04:55And I, I, I frankly, I feel like I, I looked at three people got to Lamorne's tape and I said,

05:01okay, we're done. And I think part of me was like, oh, this is going to be easier than I thought.

05:04Uh, but then finding our Chevy, finding our Ackroyd. I mean, I, I feel like I was looking

05:12for Ackroyd for a year. And then one day Dylan O'Brien walked in and I was like, oh, thank God.

05:16Saturday Night is now playing in select theaters. The film hits theaters nationwide on October 11th.

05:22For more on the film, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.

05:27I'm Tiffany Taylor.

'Saturday Night' Stars Talk Portraying Iconic First SNL Cast Members & More | THR News Video

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