Cory Michael Smith in films such as 1985 and May December. So he had good reason to doubt his ability to play the wisecracking, often swaggering Chevy Chase in Jason Reitman’s comedy. saturday nightrecording the first live performance saturday night live 1975.
“I didn’t see myself playing this role,” said Smith, 37 THR. “this [audition] The process went on and on, and in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘I can’t be the best person for this.’ ”
Smith ultimately landed the role, tasked with playing one of the most colorful members of that kaleidoscopic inaugural class. saturday night live. This filled him with anxiety.
“I’m both excited and scared that I’m going to make this movie because it’s a big, exciting movie that multiple generations will care about,” he said. “They care about this institution. They know these actors. So the responsibility does feel heavy and daunting.
Smith took on that responsibility. For two months, he didn’t look at any narrative material that didn’t involve Chase, noting the actor’s tics and mannerisms in a spreadsheet and then applying them to scenes in the script. “I guess it’s like learning a language,” he said. Looking at photos of Chase and other actors and their costumes also helped prepare Smith for the role, as did reading books about the setting of the show.
Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin, Cory Michael Smith Michael Smith (right) plays Chevy Chase Saturday night.
Hopper Stone/Sony
He also watched the first season saturday night live Learn the style and look of that era over and over again. “The feel and color of the first season was a lot different than it is today,” he noted. “Today, it’s like a very bright, shiny production. Back then, it was grays and browns and muted colors and it felt very grungy, but you could really feel the change in New York. Co-written with Gil Kennan The script’s Reitman also recommended that actors watch certain movies, especially those Fletcher Director Michael Ritchie believed it was an excellent display of natural behavior.
His preparation for playing Chase gave him the confidence to pitch ideas for his character to Reitman, and he said the director was more than receptive. “I was writing jokes and refining them in a way that I had never done in my life,” said Smith, who grew up in Ohio and was actively involved in musical theater and made his Broadway debut in 2013. Asking about the band, I said, “Is this a band?” It wasn’t scripted, but it became a very important thing and a big symbol of Chevy and his state of mind.
While Chase was meeting with executives in the green room in one scene and performing stand-up comedy, Reitman wrote some jokes as a starting point. But Smith came up with six or seven jokes of his own that day, some of which made it into the final cut. “A lot of our early conversations were about how we weren’t looking for the best Chevy Chase imitator,” Reitman told THR The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Each character has a very core essence that we’re looking for. In Chevy Chase, it’s the ego that needs to be humbled.
That humility proved to be Smith’s biggest challenge. The actor said he was most nervous about his scene with JK Simmons, who plays Milton Berle in the film. In this scene, Burleigh is hooking up with Chase’s girlfriend (played by Kaia Gerber) and confronts Chase, who then tells Chase that he’s nothing.
“I’m nervous about it because it’s the most foreign to the way we know Chevy Chase,” Smith said. “It’s easy to look back at his work and try to identify his confidence and charisma – he had a real quiet strength and swagger – but it’s rare to see him humiliated.” To capitalize on that humiliation, Smith relied on what he could One found video of Chase in a similar state of mind: When he first appeared on Johnny Carson’s show in 1977, he was humiliated by Carson at the beginning of the show. “He tried to recover, but it was so painful. It was really the only time I felt truly humiliated with Chevy.
While Matt Wood, who plays John Belushi in the film, “deliberately remained very secretive to everyone due to the nature of the role,” Smith and co-star Dylan O’Brien Lane (who actually called Smith during this interview) became good friends. O’Brien plays Dan Aykroyd in the movie.
“With such a large cast, the odds of at least one being a jerk are pretty high, but everyone is great,” Smith said. “Everyone took this very seriously and prepared a lot because no one wanted to screw it up. We didn’t want to ruin our careers by not being able to pay tribute to a beloved actor. So we had real pursuits. (Excellent spirit.saturday night Starring Gabriel LaBelle, Ella Hunt, Rachel Sennott, Lamorne Morris and Nicolas Braun Nicholas Braun).
Saturday Night Live actor Chevy Chase.
NBC/NBCU Photo Library/Getty Images
Smith’s film credits include carol and first person TV programs include Transatlantic and Oliver KitteridgeFresh off filming Joachim Trier’s drama with an international perspective emotional value With Renate Reinswey, Inga Ibsdot Lillias, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning. But he hopes to do more comedies. “I feel like I’ve had a taste of this,” he said.
He said he also learned the value of studying tapes. “When I’ve created characters in the past, I might have taken inspiration from people from the past to inject some quality into the character, but I’ve never sat back and watched other shows to develop my own performance. I love doing that here, and I Thinking in the future I might try to get some inspiration from very specific people and performances.
This story first appeared in the November issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
