Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night has earned rave reviews (including from us) from the festival circuit and is now poised to hit theaters. It opens today in limited release before expanding nationwide on October 11th, which actually marks the 49th anniversary of the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live. The movie documents the frantic ninety-minute lead-up to the show’s premiere, depicting how it all very nearly went off the rails for a young Lorne Michaels, who’s played here by The Fabelmans star Gabriel LaBelle.
While the film was playing at TIFF (Toronto International Film Fest), we had a chance to sit down and chat with most of the young cast playing all of the various SNL legends. In addition to Gabriel Labelle, we spoke to rising star Rachel Sennott, who plays SNL writer Rose Shuster, Dylan O’Brien, who makes for a surprisingly uncanny Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith, who is earning raves for his role as Chevy Chase, plus Anna and the Apocalypse star Ella Hunt, who plays Gilda Radner, and the great Lamorne Morris, who plays Garrett Morris (no relation).
Check out the interviews above, and make sure to keep your eyes peeled for the release of Saturday Night. It’s one of the most entertaining movies of the year, and it does a pretty incredible job depicting just how chaotic the behind-the-scenes atmosphere was on SNL before it went on air and how close it came to all falling apart.
Saturday Night has the following synopsis: At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…