Lamorne Morris went against the better wishes of “Saturday Night” director Jason Reitman when meeting with original “Saturday Night Live” cast member Garrett Morris, whom he plays in the upcoming movie about the origins of the famed sketch comedy show.
You see, Reitman wasn’t keen on the film’s sprawling ensemble — Gabriel LaBelle plays Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott plays writer Rosie Shuster, Cory Michael Smith plays Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt plays Golda Radner and Dylan O’Brien plays Dan Aykroyd — interacting with their on-screen counterparts prior to production. “Saturday Night,” which premieres on Tuesday at the Toronto Film Festival, takes place entirely on the night of the first “SNL” episode.
“Garrett was going through similar things that I find myself going through in my career, so it was easy to relate to that ‘fish out of water’ feeling,” he said. “So, I wanted to make sure that that’s actually what Garrett was feeling. I’m very grateful that I did what I had to do.”
Although only some of the cast listened to that advice, Reitman, the director of “Juno” and “Up in the Air,” stands by his assignment to the cast.
“The homework was ‘don’t prep’ because at the end of the day, the idea is to capture one piece of the character,” he said at Variety’s Toronto Film Festival studio, presented by J. Crew and SharkNinja. “You can’t actually replicate a person 100% — and particularly in an ensemble this big. It’s more so, how do you get along as a group?”
He adds, “When I say ‘Don’t prepare,’ I know everyone’s already going to prepare so much. I’m just trying to get them to pull back to a certain extent.”
“Saturday Night Live” has a rich history, serving as a launchpad for some of the biggest comedians and entertainers in Hollywood and enduring for nearly 50 years, but almost none of that is covered in the film. Instead, the countdown clock of a movie, set in 1975, covers the 90 fraught minutes leading up to the moment that “Saturday Night Live” airs for the first time.
“I’ve always been enamored by these moments where greatness come into the world. It’s like that Peter Jackson documentary [‘Get Back’] about the Beatles,” Reitman said. “What was it like when certain songs were written? And ‘Saturday Night Live’ is beyond a cultural institution. I always wondered… what would it have been like to be in that room as they counted down to going live?”
LaBelle, the 21-year-old who portrayed a young Steven Spielberg in the director’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans” before taking on “SNL’s” famed executive producer, admits he wanted to chat with Michaels. But he resisted because Reitman “didn’t think it was a good idea.” LaBelle added, “It took a bit to mourn.”
Hunt chimed in: “To mourn the lack of Lorne? Sorry.”
“Exactly. That was great,” LaBelle said, validating his co-star’s cheesy rhyme. Instead, he turned to published texts to channel the unflappable comedy maestro that fans have come to know. “I read books and interviews. The internet is very abundant with things.” LaBelle eventually met Michaels but it wasn’t until after production had wrapped. “My idea of Lorne was him in his 20s,” he said. “It was very comforting that I didn’t have to meet him before filming and try to figure him out in the present because he’s a different man.”
Since “Saturday Night” takes place before Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Lorne Michaels and company became household names, the cast was focused on channeling their moments on the precipice of celebrity.
“It was kind of freeing, in that we didn’t have to think about them 10 years later, or even them once they’d been affected by fame,” Hunt said. Since Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Hunt instead conversed with the comedian’s key collaborator and close friend Alan Zweibel. He co-wrote one of Radner’s most popular characters, Roseanne Roseannadanna.
“Their partnership in writing was so fiery and loving,” Hunt said. “Best friends share a sensibility sometimes. There were things in Alan’s composure and the way that Alan communicated with me that I thought about in playing Gilda.”
Sennott admits she reached out to Shuster, a writer who was married to Michaels from 1967-1980. The comedian, now 74, gave Sennott insight about staying calm in the storm of live television.
“She’s so fucking cool under pressure, and I am not like that at all. I am anxious, and I freak out very easily,” Sennott said. “It’s such an amazing thing to step into. All this chaos is happening around you, and [she’s] like, “I don’t care. Fuck it.”
In the end, only a few of the stars seemed to heed Reitman’s request. “I did not do a lot of prep,” O’Brien said to laughter from the group. “Yes, I was the only one who did the homework by not doing the homework.
Smith, meanwhile, operated from “a place of utter fear and terror” while preparing to play Chevy Chase.
“I would ruin my career trying to do this,” he said. “I watched compulsively only Chevy Chase for a couple of months. There’s so much out there of Chevy I could watch. I could try to embody what he’s doing and replicate that, but we spend a lot of time in this film watching these people not performing, but living.”
While filming “Saturday Night,” the cast didn’t have trailers and convened in “a big common area” complete with ’70s era furniture, ping pong tables and board games, as well as dressing rooms that were specifically designed for each of their characters’ personalities. There was also a TV on set that just played the first season of “SNL” on loop.
“Well, I wanted it to be 1970s television in general that you were watching while you were there,” Reitman told his cast. He hoped they’d subconsciously absorb the ethos of the Not Ready for Primetime players. As the director saw it: “Gilda was the fairy dust, and Garrett is looking for his identity. Chevy is an ego that needs to be humbled. Aykroyd is this genius that’s like filtering a fire hose through a straw. Each [actor] had one thing to focus on that was their journey.”