David Schwimmer has reflected on his unpleasant experience as a guest-host on Saturday Night Live.
During an interview with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show on Monday, January 13, Schwimmer, 58, recalled the time he was preparing for the 1995 gig amid the height of Friends’ success. (Schwimmer starred as Ross Geller in the comedy series, which launched in 1994.)
Schwimmer, who went to college with Colbert, 60, and studied alongside the TV host as a theatre student, said he made “one big mistake” as the first Friends cast member to be invited to host SNL at the time.
“It was a huge honor … I couldn’t be more excited,” Schwimmer explained. “Friends at that time was shooting on Tuesday nights and we were shooting until sometimes one in the morning, and so I’d fly from L.A. to New York on Wednesday to get there. I really didn’t get to arrive at SNL until Thursday, two days before the Saturday show.”
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Schwimmer, who currently appears in the Hulu/Disney+ series Goosebumps: The Vanishing, continued, “When I walked into the writers’ room, the entire writing staff looked at me as if I had just slept with their mom or something. They were not happy to see me and I had no idea [why].”
The actor detailed how he then “somehow got through” the following two days despite being “kind of traumatized” by his colleagues’ reception.
When asked by Colbert how the hosting appearance wound up going, Schwimmer noted, “I don’t remember how it went, to be honest.”
Schwimmer added that the mystifying writers’ reaction was crystalized “years later.” He explained how he “was talking to somebody else who had hosted the show and they said, no, no, no, you’re supposed to show up on a Monday.”
“No one told me and for years, I had no idea why,” he added.
Despite never resolving the mix-up, Schwimmer said he was recently invited to the show’s 50th anniversary event, to be staged next month.
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“It’s been 30 years and I’m thinking, well, maybe they forgot that they don’t like me? Or, it’s just some intern that’s tasked with emailing everyone that’s ever hosted, but I don’t know what to do,” Schwimmer said.
Colbert then urged his friend “to go” to the event, telling Schwimmer that he had “worked over there for a bit” and failed to receive an invitation of his own.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to be like Charlie Brown with the football, you know, you show up all eager again and, nope, we don’t want you here,” Schwimmer said. “You want to be my plus one?” (SNL is set to mark its 50th milestone on February 16 with a three-hour live primetime special featuring five decades’ worth of popular cast members and fan-favourite guest-hosts.)
A visibly amused Colbert then accepted Schwimmer’s invitation, cementing it with a firm handshake across his desk.
