John Malkovich/T.I.
Posted April 21, 01:41 PM
Probably one of my favorite shows of the season, I had such a good time. John Malkovich was brilliant in everything. Amy was back for a few weeks. So happy about that.
I loved that Vinny Vedecci. Bobby with the cigarette? John yelling?
Loved it all.
For the Calculator sketch, Tom Broecker, the head of our costume department, picked out these creme colored corduroys for me. They were perfect. I was laughing as soon as I tried them on.
Okay, some photos...
Stack of sketches for read-through
Going over jokes on Friday night for Weekend Update.
Pitch meeting on Monday. That's writer Paula Pell in the green sweatshirt.
Shooting Gas-Rite
Tim McGraw with Ludacris and T-Pain Blog
Posted March 02, 05:03 PM
On Wednesdays we do a table read. This is right before piles of scripts are set in front of the cast, producers, writers, and crew. That seat right there in the middle is where Lorne sits.
This is the rewrite table on Thursday. It's after the sketches have been chosen. The writers go through, piece by piece, changing what didn't work at the table read, making cuts, that kind of thing. I'm making it sound work-y. It's actually really fun being around this part of it.
Rehearsing the Turkey Day sketch.
Sometimes the cast get to go to these fancy events. This was a fundraiser at The Museum of Natural History. It's nice seeing everyone all dressed up. Me and Kristen....
...Bill and Will (Jason in the background)....
...Kenan.
A cue card from the first time I got to say "Live from New York..."
Thanks!
Paul Rudd/Beyonce
Posted January 28, 05:07 PM
The digital short, "Everyone's A Critic" was the closest I've ever come to shooting a horror movie. That was insanely fun and I love how it turned out. We shot another short with writer/director Noah Baumbach that aired later in the show. Bill came up with the concept and we had a great time doing it. Thanks Noah! I thought the "Single Ladies" sketch was so funny. It was Bobby's idea and it was nice to see how huge it got.
Some pictures:
Show day at the studio. Writers Kent Sublette and Rob Klein
Shooting the digital short. Abby.
The cast quick-change booths.
In my dressing room. This is not a set up, it really does look like a mini-Apple store.
Ben Affleck/ David Cook
Posted January 07, 09:09 AM
This was the week right before the election. Everyone at the show was in an intense state of anticipation, but then again so was everyone everywhere. Senator McCain was funny as always. He and his family were gracious and sweet. Having Tina around is always amazing. Aside from how perfect her Sarah Palin is/was, she just makes me laugh all the time. Ben Affleck is a friend of the show and it's always great when he hosts. We did this one sketch way way at the end of the night. It's me and him as these German brothers who have this coat store. I just want to tell you how that came about.
Me, Seth and Darrell had to do the Charlie Rose Show that week. As we were driving up Fifth Avenue, we saw this family crossing the street, and they were all wearing the same exact winter coat. One of those new looking ski jackets with lots of pockets. Orange. (This is where I totally should have taken a picture, but it happened too fast.) The kids had mini-versions of the ski jackets, it was pretty funny. So Seth just saw them and said "hey family, let's all get the same jacket". And I was like "those are totally Europeans." Seth went back to work later that night and wrote it up.
Here are the only pictures I took that week:
Andy going through the choreography with Danielle.
I know it's blurry but I like it anyway. Casey and Will.
Rehearsing "Night School Musical"
From left in the foreground: Lighting designer Phil Hymes, Director Don King, writer Paula Pell.
Jon Hamm / Coldplay
Posted December 02, 01:23 PM
Jon Hamm/Coldplay
We started this week as a total nerd-fest. Monday is the day we pitch our sketch ideas to Lorne and our host. We walk into a small office, sit, and one by one talk about what we want to try that week. It's mainly a way for us to all get together and feel out how the show is going to be. But for this pitch meeting, we all wanted to do something special for Jon Hamm since we are ALL such huge Mad Men fans. So we decided to show up totally dressed up in suits and early 60's style dresses. It's funny because we've never done anything like that for pitch. Many of us had cigarettes and glasses of scotch too. It seemed like he really liked it and I'm glad we did it. Everyone looked great. I can't even remember what the pitches were.
I loved the whole show. We had some special guests. Maya came back to do Michelle Obama. She is one of my favorite people ever and it was amazing getting to work with her again. And Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery from Mad Men appeared as their characters in the A-Holes Mad Men sketch. Everyone was psyched to meet them as well.
I was tempted to go from sketch to sketch and talk about what was cool about them, but you get the idea. I had fun the entire night.
Coldplay played a few extra songs and I thought they were fantastic. I got to meet Chris Martink, who was the nicest ever.
Okay, so the photos below are from after the pitch meeting I just wrote about. Some of us went out to dinner and then ended up in this candy store. I was laughing about how we are these grown men in suits totally excited about getting candy. So I took some pictures.
Writers Erik Kenward and Colin Jost.
Andy and Jorma
This is in the office of Weekend Update. After the dress rehearsal, they decide what jokes go where.
Subscribe to the SNL Backstage Blog
