When an arrogant, aging, iconic comedian of yesteryear met an overly confident, young up-and-coming comic beginning to make his mark on the biz, it was pretty much a given that their worlds would clash. And in Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night” — a “based-on-a-true-story” account of what happened 90 minutes before the 1975 debut of “Saturday Night Live” — that is exactly what happened between Milton Berle and Chevy Chase when they met. It was less a passing of the baton and more of a “mine is bigger than yours.”
J.K. Simmons plays Berle, a superstar of his time as a funny man on radio and TV who ultimately became known as Mr. Television, to Cory Michael Smith’s Chase in the biographical comedy-drama. When Reitman approached Simmons about the role, the Oscar winner says he was intimidated but was assured they weren’t looking for an impressionist to tackle the role, but rather a good actor to “get the flavor of the guy.”
Although Simmons hadn’t seen the script before accepting the job, he knew it was going to be a supporting part that would pop in two or three times, and he was fine with that. And when he finally read the script for the first time, he couldn’t have been happier. “It’s like a snowball rolling downhill, and people are either jumping on it or trying to get out of the way of it,” he says, describing the chaotic, kinetic energy of the film from start to finish. And the way Berle is sprinkled in is well conceived. “Along with the execs at NBC, he’s everything that all these young wacky, counterculture people are aiming to replace and are disdainful of,” Simmons says. “Berle was, as you know, by this time in his life, a pretty miserable son of a bitch and not ready to admit that he’s on the way out, but he knows it deep down.”
Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase in “Saturday Night”
And there is one particular scene in the film with Smith as Chase that was “a little icing on the cake,” he says. The scene has Chase catching Berle flirting with Chase’s fiancé (played by Kaia Gerber), and the two men begin to volley barbs back and forth at each other. Chase digs Berle about his age in a “you’re a has-been” sort of way, and Berle tossing it back that, more or less, Chase is a showbiz nobody and that he has much more to give Chase’s fiancé than Chase does. And then he unzips his pants and pulls out his penis to prove it.
Berle was a notorious womanizer and for many, many decades was said not to be the most pleasant person to work with. It was also common knowledge that he was, as they say, “well hung.” It wasn’t just a rumor because an abundance of stories have circulated through the years — by eyewitnesses, nonetheless — that Berle would very proudly whip out his penis and show people. “It was one of those scenes that the ball was put on a tee for Cory and I to take turns knocking it out of the park,” Simmons recalls. “Jason had directed us through several sort of subtly different, and sometimes not so subtly different, versions of how to play it.”
The scene is icy cold with a twist of snark and a splash of bitters. In it, Berle wasn’t just calmly and coolly blowing steam, but he was getting off on telling this young kid who was trying to replace him that he was messing with the wrong guy. “Whatever respect there may have actually been for each other, there’s no way they’re going to admit or show any of it,” Simmons explains. “It’s that pissing contest on different levels. I think Chevy’s disdain for Milton Berle and that world is just typical youthful arrogance. You know, ‘Nobody was funny until my generation came along.’ Berle walks in with his cigar and his overcoat and his tuxedo and, you know, still considers himself king of the hill, even though inside he knows he’s sliding down. So many comedians have that sad, dark side. And as I researched, I found out what his childhood was like — this poor guy never had a chance to be a decent human being. He was not a happy guy.”
Smith, for his part, had never heard the stories about Berle and his private parts. “I was not familiar with all of these rumors and the sort of pride he had over his, uh, ‘situation,’” Smith laughs. “But, after the fact, it’s actually amazing how many stories have been told to me already since the movie’s been out from people who have either firsthand or secondhand heard other stories. There was a critic that I had met who told me a story of being at a urinal next to him when he said, ‘Now don’t peak.’”
For those who see the film — and yes, you really should — Smith talks about how they played the scene… and the prosthetic mishap that happened during one take. “J.K. had a full silicone, um, ‘apparatus’ attached to him that he had to, you know, authentically pull out each take. It went very well, except for one take when it fully fell out and slapped the floor… when, by the way, the cameras were on my face.”
A prosthetic penis was not on Simmons’ bingo card, and he was, in fact, surprised when it arrived. “I didn’t know about it until I got to Atlanta for my few days [shoot],” he says. “I just assumed the camera was going to be belt-high and everything else left to the imagination. And obviously, you know, it’s not. We’re not looking for an X-rating, but I didn’t even think there would be a prosthetic involved. When Jason first said something about, ‘You need to go fit that,’ I was like, ‘Ha!’ Plain joke. And then the prop guy brought it in its box, like it was a violin, you know, velvet-lined case.” He adds laughing, “And the rest is history.”
Wait — there’s more. Smith shares: “Jason said there were only two reasons they used visual effects: One was to change the time on some of the clocks in the background because test audiences were hyper aware of inaccuracies on the clocks. And the second was to match color of his prosthetic to his skin color.”