Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers hilariously imagine a world where Daniel Day-Lewis was on 'SNL' (original) (raw)
The Saturday Night Live alums reminisced about their auditions for the sketch show 20 years ago and the surprising people who were also there that day.
Published on July 14, 2021 11:16AM EDT
When Amy Poehler visited her old Saturday Night Live buddy Seth Meyers on his NBC late-night show, it happened to be almost 20 years to the day that the two actors auditioned for the famed comedy series.
Meyers immediately took Poehler on a trip down memory lane by sharing a list of people who auditioned with them. Meyers read off some surprising names, like Daniel Day-Lewis, who he noted auditioned with impressions of all the Friends characters. (This was 2001, after all.)
And, as Meyers recalled, Day-Lewis was good.
"I don't know how he didn't get it," Poehler lamented. "And I don't know how we did."
Thinking of Day-Lewis doing impressions of Monica, Chandler, and Joey is almost too good to be true — so did Daniel Day-Lewis really audition for SNL, along with prominent names like Natalie Merchant and Boy George?
A representative for the show didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment, but longtime fans of Poehler and Meyers know that Day-Lewis has been a fixture in Poehler's comedy history — and a classic bit between the two SNL alums — for years now.
Matthew Peyton/Getty Images; Jon Ragel/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Back in 2017, when Day-Lewis announced his retirement from acting, Poehler joked about it during another visit to Late Night With Seth Meyers, saying she was "obsessed" with the news.
"I think he's going to come back as another actor and fool us all. There's going to be some young guy on the scene that's in like, a bunch of indies and people are going to be like, 'That's amazing.' And we're like, 'That was Daniel Day-Lewis,'" joked Poehler, who also gave the actor a message: "Daniel, if you're watching in bed right now — you're just getting your salt on, probably eating some chips — don't quit! We need you!"
On Tuesday night's show, Poehler and Meyers imagine a world where Day-Lewis' audition had successfully earned him a spot in SNL's cast.
"I don't know how Lorne [Michaels] and Daniel Day-Lewis would have worked," Meyers mused, referring to the SNL showrunner. "Cause I feel like Lorne is like, non-confrontational so he would've said to someone else, 'Can you tell Daniel Day-Lewis he has to get from that sketch to that sketch in 30 seconds?'"
"Does Daniel Day want to take all Daniel Day?" joked Poheler, referencing the fact that Michaels likes to make funny jokes about people's names — and also poking fun at the actor. "Does he take all Daniel Day to get to set?"
Watch the video below.
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