#1: kristen wiig
“I feel incredibly fortunate to be in this cast. I feel like, in some way, we were all sort of out in the world and found each other.”
#2: bill hader
“People ask me, ‘Did you always want to be on SNL’? No, actually, it never crossed my mind.
It didn’t even seem possible. It would’ve been like saying, ‘Hey, do you wanna go to the moon’?”
#3: seth meyers
“The regenerative qualities of [SNL] are amazing. You drag yourself in on Monday, but then the adrenaline kicks in. The thing about having a host is that you can’t just say, ‘I’ll do this one next week’—because it might
be John Malkovich. What are you going to do—miss a chance to write for Malkovich?”
#4: tina fey
“I was the first female head writer at SNL. It’s very fun to be a writer at SNL,
but it’s more fun to do both (co-anchoring the Weekend Update). On Update, you look like yourself,
and every week you say, ‘Hi, this is me.’ So it’s career-changing.”
#5: amy poehler
“The minute you get on this show, you have to be ready for every single person in America to share their opinions with you because they feel like they own the show—and they do. They own it as much as you do. Everybody feels like they can tell you what sucks now and what was great then.”
#6: jimmy fallon
“I’m twenty-seven and I look thirty. Because I don’t sleep anymore. I feel like I’m getting older fast. That’s one thing they don’t tell you about the job. You hear stories from other cast members like, ‘Hey man, good luck. Hang in there, ‘cause this place will kill you.’”
#7: andy samberg
“My audition for SNL was very silly. You’re supposed to do impressions and characters, and I basically had none. So I did a lot of stand-up and tried to show how I was a dumb@$$.”
