Saturday Night Star Gabriel LaBelle on Playing Lorne Michaels and Trying Not to F

Posted by Artie Phelan on Tuesday, July 16, 2024

The famous phrase “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” holds new meaning for Gabriel LaBelle.

And on a Thursday night in Los Angeles at Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood party, the actor reflected on stepping into the role of “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels for Jason Reitman’s upcoming movie “Saturday Night,” about the first broadcast of the NBC comedy show.

“Last time I saw you, we were talking about ‘The Fablemans’ and how you mastered a young Spielberg. Now you’ve mastered a young Lorne Michaels,” Variety’s Angelique Jackson said, referencing the actor’s 2022 breakout role.

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“We’ll see, it’s not out yet. I could fuck everything up,” LaBelle cut in, adding, “I saw the movie a couple weeks ago. It’s really good. Jason did such a good job. I’m so proud to be a part of that.”

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So how did LaBelle prepare to play the legendary “SNL” boss?

“I met him once briefly,” LaBelle said. “I was reading books, a lot of books, the internet’s endless. I looked at impressions — not to do a caricature of him, but define what mannerisms kind of pop up that the people closest to him remember. Just toning it down, and working on his Canadian accent.”

The film, penned by Reitman and Gil Kenan, chronicles the nerve-racking and chaotic 90 minutes that led up to that first show. The first trailer for the film was released earlier Thursday and shows LaBelle fighting tooth and nail to get the show off the ground smoothly under immense pressure. And things aren’t going well, with unpredictable cast members and nagging studio executives standing in his way.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Reitman explained that having a 21-year-old LaBelle play Michaels, who was 30 when “SNL” started, added to the sense that the character is in over his head. “We meet Lorne as he’s still forming, ” Reitman told the magazine. “He is a genius, and he has a vision beyond anyone else there — and anyone his age. It’s a lot for an actor to carry.”

Alongside LaBelle, the film’s ensemble cast includes Dylan O’Brien (Aykroyd), Cory Michael Smith (Chase), Rachel Sennott (Rosie Shuster), Lamorne Morris (Morris), Nicholas Braun (Jim Henson), Finn Wolfhard (an NBC page), Jon Batiste (Preston), Ella Hunt (Radnor), Cooper Hoffman (Ebersol), Andrew Barth Feldman (Neil Levy), Naomi McPherson (Ian), Willem Dafoe (David Tebet), J.K. Simmons (Milton Berle) and Kaia Gerber (Jacqueline Carlin), among others.

When asked if hosting “Saturday Night Live” might be in the cards for him (perhaps the Oct. 12 episode, which coincides with the Sony movie’s Oct. 11 release date), LaBelle said that he’d love the opportunity.

“I grew up on SNL, so it would be another dream come true,” he said. “I didn’t know I would ever get the chance to experience it.”

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