Lorne Michaels Tried to Convince Jack Nicholson to Star in ‘MacGruber’

One of the most memorably brilliant creative choices behind the MacGruber movie was the casting of Val Kilmer as the dastardly Dieter von Cunth. Not only is Kilmer an icon of ‘80s and ‘90s action movies, but as Airplane! proved, putting dramatic actors in absurd roles is often way funnier.

But Kilmer wasn’t the only name that was floated for the awkwardly-named villain. Apparently MacGruber came very close to battling the legendary actor who faced off against Batman, Adam Sandler and his own wife and child after a few stiff drinks served by a ghost: Jack Nicholson.

In the most recent episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, the trio discussed their work on “People Getting Punched Right Before Eating.” It wasn’t a metaphor or anything, it was literally about people getting punched right before eating. 

The episode aired on October 13, 2007, with host Jon Bon Jovi, and musical guest Foo Fighters. Despite the fact that he was just the host, Bon Jovi still worked a few musical numbers into the show (suck it, Grohl), first in his monologue, and eventually during the closing credits, replacing the traditional awkward hug-fest.

Instead of just having, say, Chris Parnell, throw to Bon Jovi’s band, the show randomly roped Jack Nicholson into make the introduction, despite the fact that he was in no way involved in the rest of the show that week.

The moment was so fleeting that Akiva Schaffer didn’t even recall that Nicholson had ever visited the show during his tenure. “If you had asked me, ‘Was Jack Nicholson ever on the SNL stage while you worked there?’ I would’ve been like, ‘No way,’” Schaffer mused. “And I would’ve said, ‘I would remember if I had seen Jack Nicholson in person on our stage.’ And yet…”

The reference to Nicholson prompted Meyers to share another story about the Shining star, asking the Lonely Island guys: “Do you remember that Lorne originally thought that Jack Nicholson was gonna be in MacGruber? In the Val Kilmer part?” While Meyers noted that he would have been “super bummed” if the role hadn’t gone to Kilmer, he loved the idea that “Lorne thought he could convince Jack Nicholson to play a character named ‘Cunth.’”

“That’s just a testament to their friendship,” Jorma Taccone speculated. “It’s a testament to their friendship that Jack was like ‘no,’” Meyers added.

The Nicholson idea never made it too far beyond Lorne Michaels’ brain, but another iconic actor actually participated in a MacGruber table read. The late Ray Liotta played the role of Col. Jim Faith, which ultimately went to Powers Boothe. But as Taccone recalled, he and Liotta “didn’t talk before the read,” which proved to be a mistake when the Goodfellas star went on to launch into an exaggerated, cartoon-like voice. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is the most bizarre take ever. I wish I had talked to that guy.”

Who knows, maybe in some parallel universe, MacGruber starred Jack Nicholson and Ray Liotta — with Eric Stoltz as MacGruber, naturally.

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