Kate McKinnon Talks Hosting SNL for the First Time Since Leaving the Show
"I'm so jealous of everybody who works on that show—that they get to get one more week with Kate McKinnon, because nobody did it better," Meyers told his fellow Saturday Night Live alum.
Emmy-winning actress Kate McKinnon is set to host Saturday Night Live for the first time on December 16 with musical guest Billie Eilish. Fittingly, she visited her fellow SNL alum Seth Meyers on December 12 to chat about her hosting debut after leaving the show in 2022.
Meyers also asked McKinnon about her role as Weird Barbie in the 2023 Barbie movie, revealing a fun fact complete with photo evidence: McKinnon and Barbie director Greta Gerwig were suite-mates in college. Years later, Gerwig called McKinnon to ask if she wants a role in the Barbie movie—and, as McKinnon told Meyers, she initially thought she was up for a more glamorous role.
"She was like, 'I'm doing the Barbie movie, and I have a character for you.' And I was like 'Ohhhkay!'" McKinnon said, making an exaggerated "flattered" facial expression. "And she was like, 'It's Weird Barbie.'"
"And I was like, 'okay so it's a documentary'," McKinnon joked. "My portion will be a biopic of me."
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Kate McKinnon talks hosting SNL for the first time since leaving the show
"First time hosting SNL," Meyers said. "Nervous?"
"No," McKinnon said. "It's something I always wanted to do. The dream was to be on the show, and the exponential dream was to host the show—which is like, beyond the imagination."
"They're going to be very happy to have you back," the Late Night with Seth Meyers Host replied. "You have a large breadth of characters I'm sure people are going to want to see again (McKinnon replied to this with a cryptic "who knows?" shrug.)
Meyers has only hosted SNL once himself since leaving the show after 13 seasons, on October 13, 2018. "When you left, did you feel that sort of phantom show starting at 11:30 on Saturday?" he asked McKinnon.
"Oh gosh, I mean, I don't know, because I'm asleep," McKinnon replied.
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"I'm so jealous of everybody who works on that show—that they get to get one more week with Kate McKinnon, because nobody did it better," Meyers said. "And I'm so excited to watch on Saturday."
Watch Kate McKinnon host Saturday Night Live on December 16 at 11:30/10:30c on NBC and Peacock, with the full episode streaming the next day on Peacock.
