He was a little embarrassed to admit it, but Nicholas Podany saw it first when harry met sally He was preparing to audition for the role of classic romantic comedy star Billy Crystal.
Podany is out for Jason Retiman saturday night (In limited release in theaters this weekend before a wider release on October 11.) Told in real time, it tracks the maddening first 90 minutes of the first episode saturday night live 1975.
Podany trained at the Juilliard School and has performed on Broadway Harry Potter and the Cursed Childthe first person to audition was saturday night live Actor Dan Aykroyd. In a self-recorded tape, he recreated Aykroyd’s “Super Bass-o-Matic” sketch, in which the actor smashes a bass in a blender. Podany was then asked to audition for the role of young Lorne Michaels and got a callback, but Michaels did not. Instead, he was sent a few pages of the script to read for young Crystal.
Crystal, then an up-and-coming stand-up comedian in his 20s, was booked to appear on the first episode of Stand-Up. saturday night live. Eventually, he was cut from the broadcast because the show he was doing – which included him traveling around Africa with potato chips being crunched to create the effect of footsteps – was too much for an already overcrowded show , the playback time is too long. (Krystal performed the segment in front of audiences multiple times, including on the Comedy Relief TV special he co-hosted with Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams.)
Going into the audition, Bodani watched the opening monologue as Crystal hosted saturday night live 1980 (“He wore great leather pants.”), and yes, Nora Ephron’s beloved classic, the pinnacle of romantic comedy. The main question he asked himself after trying the crystal work was: “I don’t know if I can do that sound?”
Even though it was already June, Bodani wore an oversized sweater to the audition, having just finished watching Fall Standby and thinking when harry met sallyit is crystal type. Reitman recalled Bodany’s audition: “When he came in, Billy Crystal’s performance was spot-on. John [Papsidera, Saturday Night casting director] I said, ‘Wow, you must be a big Billy Crystal fan. He said, ‘No, I just watched a bunch of their videos over the weekend.
“I’m embarrassed to say that the only contact I had with him before this was monster power company…” recalled Podany, referring to the Pixar film in which Crystal voices a small, one-eyed creature named Mike Wazowski.
If you’re wondering how to make a crystal impression, Bodani explains, “You take all the bass out of your voice and put it here,” the actor said, pointing to his nose and sinuses. Plus New York dialect.
Under normal circumstances, Bodani’s uncanny talent for imitating Christo would be a niche party trick at best, but for saturday night This helped him land his biggest film role to date.
“Jason sent me an email very quickly and said, ‘Hey, I’m Jason. Please don’t do any research on this character, you already own it. You’re great as you are,'” Podani explain. “I spent about two days going, OK, I’m not really going to do any research, really. And then I did a lot of research. He watched Crystal on the Johnny Carson show and the ABC sitcom performance Soap. He watched Christo’s directorial works and listened to his autobiography, still follow themon audiobook. Podany laughed: “Look at my Letterboxd. Leave this world.
The research proved useful because despite the film’s strict running time, the actors were given room to improvise. “We just wanted to throw out ideas, which is a bold thing to do when you’re shooting on 16mm [film],” Bodani said. “But Jason just trusted us and then, you know, if it got too far, he would control us.”
Bodani grew up in this era saturday night live Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island comedy group created a digital short that featured Tina Fey lampooning Sarah Palin’s ability to see Russia from home.
When he got the show’s script, a note from Reitman on the front changed the actor’s perspective on the show. It was red, Bodany remembers, “Yes, it’s a story about the origins of humanity. saturday night liveBut it’s also a story about what young people are capable of doing in rebuilding culture.
With Michaels as part of the attack center, saturday night is a true ensemble that shifts the focus away from characters in crisis, including Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Jim Henson. Since there isn’t much screen time, saturday night Before that, Crystal faced one of the biggest rejections of his career. Yet just a few years later, he launched a career that would make him one of the comedy icons, a movie star and a former Oscar host.
“He was a substitute teacher at the time, and that was his big deal,” Podany explained. “You’re going to see a very, very sad ending for Billy Crystal. He didn’t get a full ending. I hope people see that and think, ‘Wow, that guy probably thought his career was over. Universe Tell me to go fuck myself, so I go fuck myself and I really want people to watch. [Saturday Night] And realize not to give up. You’re going to get a lot of no’s – Billy Crystal got a ‘no’ from this old fat guy too – but keep going.
