“I’m getting my own Chevy Chase moment,” says the director of the comedy icon’s reaction to his film chronicling the moments leading up to the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live 50 years ago.
Chevy Chase was a character in Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night movie, about the behind-the-scenes tension and chaos leading up to the premiere of the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live, but the real Chase proved even larger than fiction.
The director shared what he’s come to dub as his “own Chevy Chase moment” during a recent appearance on the Fly on the Wall podcast hosted by SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade.
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The Community alum and original SNL “Not Ready for Primetime Player” has long had a reputation of difficulty. Both Carvey and Spade had their own experiences with Chase, who hosted the show eight times after his exit following his breakout first season.
He dropped by Carvey’s first season in 1986 and returned again in 1992 after Spade had joined the cast. Spade was also still a part of the show for Chase’s 1995 return. His final hosting appearance came in 1997, after which there were rumors Chase was banned from ever hosting again. He has, however, made subsequent cameo appearances.
Chase was arguably the first breakout star for the long-running NBC late-night comedy show. After appearing in the first season, where he launched virtually every show with a pratfall and anchored its popular Weekend Update segment, Chase also became the first cast member to jump ship, kicking off a movie career.
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Now, half a century later, Reitman has fictionalized Chase and the rest of the cast’s experiences leading up to that first episode in his critically-acclaimed film, so of course he would be very interested — and anxious — about their reactions.
“So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie, and he is there with [his wife] Jayni and they watch the film,” Reitman shared. “He’s in the group, and he comes up to me after and he pats me on the shoulder and goes, ‘Well, you should be embarrassed.'”
Spade called it “an exact Chevy thing” to say, quipping you “couldn’t even write [it] better.” Carvey’s take was that Chase may have intentionally been trying to embarrass Reitman because he “knows that’s funny, like that’s the roughest thing you could say to a director in the moment, or right up there.”
Reitman said of his own take on the moment at the time, “I’m trying to balance it, because, in my head, I know, ‘Alright, I’m getting my own Chevy Chase moment that’s 1,000 percent only for me right now.’ And from a comedy point-of-view that’s really pure, and that’s kind of cool.”
“But also, I just spent like two years of my life recreating this moment and trying to capture Chevy perfectly, and also even in the ego, find the humanity and give him a moment to be loved,” he continued, adding after a pause, “No, none of that s–t played. He’s not talking about that stuff.”
To portray Chase in his movie, Reitman chose actor Cory Michael Smith, who had previously starred opposite Emilia Clarke on Broadway’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, as well as in films like Wonderstruck and May December.
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Reitman explained that in his approach to each of those original cast members — who have become these larger-than-life personas — he “tried to identify one thing” to latch onto; for Chase, that thing was “an ego that needs to be humbled.”
Smith previously told People he “didn’t have the privilege” of meeting or chatting with Chase before taking on the role for Saturday Night, but he hoped his response to the performance was favorable.
“I do hope that he saw a younger version of himself, which maybe that’s a joyful experience or not,” Smith told the magazine. “But this man played such a huge part in me wanting to be a performer and loving movies, so it was an honor to play him.”
Saturday Night also stars Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman/Jim Henson, and Matthew Rhys as George Carlin. It’s currently streaming on Peacock and other platforms.
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