As certain as death and taxes is Ryan Gosling breaking character on Saturday Night Live. Fans of the Project Hail Merry star have come to expect for him to be laughing through his sketches, but during his most recent hosting stint last month, he had a partner in crime, cast member Ashely Padilla, who chuckled with him.
SNL boss Lorne is known to dislike members breaking character so did Padilla get yelled at for losing her composure?
“I did not get yelled after that,” Padilla told Deadline during NBCUniversal’s Emmy Kick-Off luncheon Wednesday. “I, of course, afterwards was terrified that I would lose my job entirely. But I think it was celebrated. Lorne said to me, this show takes on Ryan’s spirit. Ryan shows up, and he goes, This ismine in a way that’s enlightening, and it made me have fun and loosen up. I did not get in trouble; it was celebrated.”
The “celebration” culminated in the “Passing Notes” sketch, in which Padilla plays a teacher and Gosling a principal who intercept notes passed among students and proceed to read their contents, which, as a chyron explained, had been changed since rehearsal.
“I wrote that sketch with Streeter [Seidell] and Mikey [Day] and Alison Gates,” Padilla explained. “We just wrote the structure, like the teacher and stuff. And I said, you guys write the notes and see if you could make me break essentially. And they succeeded.”
Ahead of Gosling’s SNL return last month many expected a sequel to the mega viral sketch from his previous SNL hosting stint, in which he and Day played audience members at a NewsNation town hall hosted by a journalist (Gardner) who bear a striking resemblance to the cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head.
A follow-up sketch was indeed planned and got to dress rehearsal before getting cut. It didn’t make it to YouTube either, a route SNL sometimes takes with cut-for-time skits.
Padilla confirmed that she was in the new Beavis and Butt-Head sketch, in which Gosling and Day reprised their characters.
“It was my talk show,” she said about her role, a spiritual successor to Gardner from the original.
Why did the followup get cut?
“I think it didn’t trump the other things in the show, because I think Ryan is someone who lives off of that fresh moment, and that’s what makes him break and be who he is,” Padilla said. “And I think because he already lived that one, maybe that’s why it was not as exciting. I have no idea, I’m just making that up, but I think that’s why he wanted things that felt fresh, like Cyclops, when they kept coming towards me, I didn’t know that was gonna happen. So I think he wanted those moments, and he did a great job.”
One thing in the Beavis and Butt-Head sequel fans probably would’ve liked to see is Sarah Sherman as another cartoon character, Tina Belcher from Bob’s Burgers.
“She looked amazing,” Padilla said.
But possibly telling about the sketch’s potential impact was Padilla’s reaction during dress rehearsal.
“I did not break character in that one, I think because I also knew that I had the “Passing Notes” sketch gonna happen, so I was trying very hard not to break in the show because I didn’t want to get in trouble. But then “Cyclops” happened.”
“Cyclops” featured Gosling as one of three dimwitted cyclopes and Padilla as a guardian of a hidden treasure who started cracking up as Gosling kept approaching her.
In her second year on SNL, Padilla has emerged as the show’s MVP with most screen time this season and a good chance to become only the second SNL cast member after Bowen Yang to score an Emmy nomination while still a featured player.
Here is the original Beavis and Butt-Head sketch:
