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.
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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. What was that like and
00:31how do you feel like it contributed to your performance and helped you all bond as a cast?
00:35I think for me what was really interesting about all being together in Cast Camp,
00:39which was basically this massive dormitory that our set design team had designed like it was
00:471975, it was kind of amazing, was getting to share downtime with each other. Because so much of the
00:52movie is about what these people, who these people are when they're off and getting to like
01:00mess around playing ping pong in our giant Billy B suits or like playing like the New York Times
01:06games in the morning together. We were just constantly together for two months and it was
01:12just amazing. Everyone got along and everyone could share and be vulnerable with each other about,
01:19this is scary, we all have to play these people and we're all comparing notes of
01:24the 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. What sort of research and prep work did you do leading up
01:40to filming? Well, I got to talk to Rosie, which was really, really cool. Reading the script is
01:46when I first learned a lot about her and so getting to talk to her and hear her perspective
01:54and her, just hear her voice and hear like she has such an amazing laugh and she just seems like
02:03someone who is able to be cool in chaos and is smart and quick and I don't know,
02:11it was just fun to get to play someone like that. I screamed, I cried, I panicked,
02:18and then once I got a hold of myself, I sat down and I turned on hundreds of hours of Chevy. I
02:25spent about two months pretty much just exclusively watching Chevy and so I just kept watching this
02:32man, getting all of his mannerisms, hearing, you know, how he phrases things, watching interviews,
02:40listening to personal stories. Eventually, I read the script again and I'm like, I know,
02:47I actually know how Chevy would say this and I know that he would do his little blank thing
02:51after this to emphasize that joke because that's the kind of joke where he would do that
02:56and that was like, it just felt nice. I heard you were able to talk with Garrett before filming
03:03began. What was that conversation like and did he give you any advice? Yeah, first of all,
03:08the conversation, I was very nervous originally but it's funny, his niece said to me when they
03:16were trying to get the Zoom to work and before Garrett was sitting down in front of the Zoom
03:20and she goes, you better portray my uncle right and I was like, oh no. Wow, gauntlet.
03:28Oh my gosh and then when I got a chance to speak to him, he calmed my nerves. He was telling me old
03:36stories about his life and the one thing that he really wanted me to get across was that he didn't
03:43quit. I mean, he didn't give up and you know, he had his troubles on the show. He would say things
03:50like, he said, no, Lorne would have every right to fire me but he never gave up on me and Lorne
03:58was my biggest, he was championing him, you know what I mean and so I learned that about that
04:04dynamic between Lorne and Garrett and Garrett would give it to me straight, you know what I
04:09mean and so, I don't know, I just, I took that into this character, the idea of wanting to achieve
04:17something but not feeling like you belong. We're just not ready. Doesn't matter that we're ready,
04:21it matters that it's 11 30, that's when we go on. Reitman co-wrote the film with Gil Kennan based
04:26on interviews they did with the original stars, writers and crew of SNL. Reitman opened up about
04:31how he approached casting the film and revealed which role he cast first. I approached it with
04:37absolute fear. The, you know, whenever I would tell people that I was making a movie about the
04:42opening night of Saturday Night Live, the first thing people would say is, well, the casting is
04:45going to be impossible and it was really intimidating, more than anything I've ever done
04:50before. The first role we cast was Garrett. Lamorne came in with his Garrett and I frankly, I feel
04:58like I looked at three people, got to Lamorne's tape and I said, okay, we're done and I think
05:02part of me was like, oh, this is going to be easier than I thought but then finding our Chevy,
05:07finding our Ackroyd, I mean, I feel like I was looking for Ackroyd for a year and then one day
05:13Dylan O'Brien walked in and I was like, oh, thank God. Saturday Night is now playing in select
05:18theaters. The film hits theaters nationwide on October 11th. For more on the film, head to THR.com.
05:24For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.