Live From New York - James H. Miller [254]
CHERI OTERI:
It makes me feel good when people say, “Yours was my favorite cast.” Especially older people who have been around. That just makes me feel good. But I don’t feel competitive at all. Why put that pressure on you of what happened before?
CHRIS KATTAN:
Will gets written for a lot because he’s, you know, an Everyman. He’s hilarious, he’s brilliant, and the writers love him more than anybody. I think Will is even better than Phil Hartman in some ways. He’s the utility man, yes, but he also has characters like the Cheerleaders and the Roxbury Guys that I do with him.
RACHEL DRATCH, Cast Member:
Oh my God, I love doing that “Lovers” sketch with Will so much. That comes from when I was in college. There was a professor; my friend had her and kind of got to be friends, and before the break for Christmas, she asked my friend what she was going to do and she said, “I don’t know.” And the teacher goes, “Yes — just take it easy — read a book, take a bath, eat a bonbon, spend time with your luv-uh.” So that became for me and my friend just this big thing we would say all the time, “luv-uh.” Later Will and I were writing something together and he’s like, “What about that ‘lover’ thing that you said in that other scene?” Those are the funniest things, the things you joke around with friends. So then we developed it. We’re like, eeeuughhh, you know, when we write it. I laugh so hard, it makes me sick.
The first time at read-through we could not get through it, just like on the show we cannot get through it. I try not to laugh too much, because I don’t like it when I’m watching TV and I see someone breaking up all the time; it becomes sort of cheap. But sometimes you just can’t help it. I’ve never been chastised by Lorne for it, but I don’t know what happens while he’s watching it. Will will just make a face or go like, “unnhhhh unnhhhhh,” or something, and it just gets me.
WILL FERRELL:
I like to sneak out on the floor a lot of times during the show and watch — you know, when I’m not having to run around somewhere — and I’ll catch Lorne just like chuckling to himself, something no one ever gets to see, and I don’t know if all the times that you don’t see him laugh are just part of a façade he has to wear, like being principal or something.
We have these Tuesday night dinners where we will go out with the host. Lorne’s a fascinating guy to sit and talk to. The times when Lorne gets frustrated is when — the typical thing of, “What is all the fruit doing in the background there?” Or it will be some suggestion where he’s like, “I want you to remove something.” Okay, we’ll cut that. “No, no, no, but I actually like that.” But I thought you said… So he can be very vague at times, and the thing you end up losing from a sketch or a piece is a thing. You’ll be like, “What did he mean?”
JIMMY FALLON:
I got all these zits on my face, as you can see; I’ve broken out from lack of sleep. It’s tiring. It’s just so tiring. Man oh man.
DAN AYKROYD:
Some of the greatest moments in a comedian’s life are when you are dying. Horatio Sanz and Will Ferrell told me they sometimes watch shows or material they have done on the show that didn’t work but that they thought was great, and they sit there and laugh at how dead it is, and at how little the audience is reacting. I remember watching Johnny Carson; Carson was funniest when he was dying.
TINA FEY:
There are a lot of places every week where you’re seeking approval. First you want your piece to kill in the read-through. Sometimes your piece kills in the read-through, and even though it doesn’t end up in the show, you can still hang your pride on that. Then you want it to work in dress and then you want it to air. If you get some of those things and not all of them, I always figure, well, I got two out of three. At least you can walk with your head held