Just as “Saturday Night Live” celebrates its 50th season on the air, Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” is hits theaters, chronicling the humble beginnings of the legendary late-night sketch show.
Premiering in 1975, “NBC’s Saturday Night” featured eight original cast members dubbed the “Not Ready for Prime-Time Players”: Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and George Coe. “Saturday Night” picks up 90 minutes before the show’s premiere on Oct. 11, telling the story of the chaotic lead-up to “SNL’s” first night on air.
See who plays Lorne Michaels, Belushi, Aykroyd, Radner, Chase and the rest of “Saturday Night Live’s” founding cast and crew.
-
Lorne Michaels
Gabriel LaBelle (“The Fabelmans,” “Snack Shack”) plays Lorne Michaels, the storied executive producer and co-creator of “Saturday Night Live.” In 1975, Michaels created the late-night sketch show with NBC colleague Dick Ebersol and network president Herb Schlosser. “SNL” has won over 100 Emmy Awards during its 50 years on air.
LaBelle stuck mostly to “books and interviews” for his research on Michaels. Despite never having a lengthy one-on-one chat, LaBelle briefly talked to Michaels while visiting the “SNL” set with his “Saturday Night” castmates.
“We met him in his office right [after the show], and it was very lovely and very brief,” LaBelle told Variety at the Toronto International Film Festival. “It was interesting because my idea of Lorne was him in his twenties, and here’s a 79-year-old man. It was very comforting. Right before filming [I thought], ‘Oh, I didn’t have to meet him, and I didn’t have to try to figure him out in the present because he’s a different man.’”
-
Chevy Chase
The Actors Playing SNL Icons
The post “The Actors Playing SNL Icons” by Jack Dunn was published on 10/12/2024 by variety.com