Steven Spielberg Flew to New York for Every Episode of ‘SNL’s First Season
Gabriel LaBelle was under strict instructions from Saturday Night director Jason Reitman: No talking to Lorne Michaels before playing him in the movie. “I wanted to meet everyone and interview everyone,” LaBelle told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. But “Jason wanted us to do as minimum work as possible. He didn’t want direct re-creations of these cast members and of these people.”
Okay, fine. LaBelle wouldn’t talk to Michaels. But Reitman didn’t say he couldn’t talk to Steven Spielberg. And if you don’t think such a conversation would be useful, you’d be wrong.
LaBelle was on the Universal lot doing costume fittings when he stopped by the Amblin office to see his Fabelmans director. “I just walk into his office, and it was good to see him,” LaBelle said. “And as soon as I sit down, he’s like, ‘So this is what I know about Saturday Night Live.’”
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SNL trivia that Spielberg picked up from Aykroyd and Belushi when they made 1941? Nope, Spielberg was actually there at 30 Rock when it all began. “Jaws had just come out that summer,” LaBelle told Fallon. “So he was connected. Everybody had heard of this thing that was happening in New York, so he was there for the first episode.”
Spielberg was living in Los Angeles, of course, but “he became such good friends and loved the show so much that every Friday of that first season, he would fly to New York, watch the show on Saturday, and then fly back to L.A. on Sunday,” LaBelle claims. “The whole first season.”
Spielberg “told me stories of everyone,” he says. “It was amazing, but I was uncomfortable because Jason didn’t want me to talk to anybody who was there. But I’m not going to tell him to shut up.”
Of course not. “It’s Steven Spielberg!” boggled Fallon.
LaBelle eventually did get a chance to meet his on-screen alter-ego, Michaels: “He gave us his blessing and invited us all to watch the actual show.”
LaBelle and the rest of the Saturday Night cast were backstage for last March’s Josh Brolin episode. The visit was the day before Saturday Night began filming, “which is nuts because you’re tired and you’re nervous and you want to do a good job,” LaBelle said. “And you go, ‘I’m making a movie about this.’”
LaBelle told Fallon that he loved Saturday Night Live as a kid, growing up with compilations like The Best of Will Ferrell and The Best of Chris Farley.
“Who else was your favorite?” asked Fallon, a kidding/not-kidding attempt for some second-hand hero worship.
“Some of my favorite sketches are with you,” LaBelle conceded — before talking about how funny Will Ferrell was in them.
