Why the 'Saturday Night' version of Lorne Michaels is no Dr. Evil (original) (raw)

Daddy Lorne is not in the building.

Saturday Night director Jason Reitman says fans should toss out any preconceived idea of what Saturday Night Live mastermind Lorne Michaels sounds like in his new movie, chalking up most Michaels impressions as more paternal than precise.

"It's almost like when kids do an impersonation of their dad, because in a weird way, he's like all of their dads," Reitman tells Entertainment Weekly, whilepromoting Saturday Night at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. "Lorne created this orphanage for wayward comedians. And so when I hear people do those impersonations, it's like, 'This is how my dad talks.'"

Reitman didn't name-check any comedians, but arguably the most famous Michaels impressions belong to two SNL alums: Mike Myers as Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies, which is thought to be based on his former boss though the star has played coy about it, and Dana Carvey, who has claimed to have originated the "Lorne" that his Wayne's World costar co-opted for the groovy spy franchise. But as listeners of Carvey's Fly on the Wall podcast can attest, just about everyone who has passed through the halls of Studio 8H over the last five decades seems to have their own take on Michaels.

Current day Lorne Michaels and Gabriel LaBelle as Michaels in 'Saturday Night'.

Getty;Hopper Stone

But none of those will be the Lorne character viewers get in Saturday Night, which chronicles the tense 90 minutes leading up to the iconic sketch show's Oct. 11, 1975 premiere.

Gabriel LaBelle, who plays then-30-year-old Michaels in the film, tells EW he did research those impersonations, but not to mimic them. "I did look at the impressions, not to do the impressions, but trying to find little mannerisms that were recurring in the people who had spent so long with him," LaBelle says. "Obviously the misconception is, he doesn't actually sound like those impressions. That is a caricature. It's a voice that comedians do to make each other laugh."

Instead, the actor says he studied old footage of Michaels. "The cadence of his voice and his accent were from a Tom Snyder interview he did," LaBelle explains, saying he also looked at old photos to observe the SNL architect's posture and expressions.

This isn't the first time LaBelle has taken on playing a younger version of a Hollywood legend. His breakout role came in 2022's The Fabelmans, in which he played a dramatized version of teenage Steven Spielberg — while being directed by the Oscar-winning filmmaker himself.

"I think playing Steven was viscerally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually a lot more intimidating" than playing Michaels, LaBelle admits. "That was the biggest and most important-feeling job I'd had in my life and he's right there. It's his life. You don't want to ruin his life. And I hadn't been validated yet as an artist or an adult. I just graduated and spent a year in [quarantine], so I was very much like, 'What am I getting myself into?'"

Lorne Michaels on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1976.

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

LaBelle, who was 21 at the time of shooting Saturday Night, observes that the real Spielberg and Michaels share several similar qualities.

"I think the feeling of being an outsider, especially Lorne, he's a Jewish Canadian who moved to the States to make comedy, and that's just two double whammies of being an outsider looking at the world in a unique perspective, putting distance from it and wanting to satirize it and make fun of it," the actor says. "And I think both of them were just really intelligent people who knew exactly what they wanted to do at a young age, and I relate to all of them in that regard. I just think that with anybody wanting to do good work, that's very relatable to myself. They're different roles. I think the drive of, 'I know exactly what I want out of life,' that's the first thing that I connected to, because that's really inherent for me."

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SNL stars also portrayed in Saturday Night include: Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O'Brien), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Jane Curtin (Kim Matula), and Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn).

'SNL' cast members in 'Saturday Night'.

Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube

Reitman, whose father, the late filmmaker Ivan Reitman, had close ties to early SNL royalty like Belushi, Aykroyd, and Bill Murray, admits finding actors to bring the Not Ready for Prime Time Players to life seemed a daunting task.

"Casting this was the scariest part of the process," he says. "The moment I would tell people we're making a movie about the opening night of Saturday Night Live, people would go, 'Oh, great idea. How the hell are you going to cast this thing?' And I was really intimidated."

He credits casting director John Papsidera with helping find up-and-coming stars who "capture the essence of their character."

"It's not about doing a 100% recreation or an impersonation," Reitman says. "It's about that one thing that made that actor who they were, particularly on opening night."

Saturday Night is in select theaters in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto now, followed by a limited release on Oct. 4, and a wide release on Oct. 11, the anniversary of _SNL'_s first broadcast.

Listen to Reitman and LaBelle's full interview on The Awardist podcast below.

—Reporting by Gerrad Hall.