Gabriel LaBelle is one of the most talented and exciting young actors of his generation. Fresh off his star-making performance as Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical film, The Fabelmans, LaBelle has stepped into the shoes of another legend Lorne Michaels, creator of Saturday Night Live in the movie Saturday Night. Directed by Jason Reitman, it tells the exciting story of the chaotic 90 minutes before the first live broadcast of the legendary series. LaBelle was recently nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for this film. He spoke to Immersive recently via Zoom about his experience with this unique film.
[This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.]
There is such infectious energy in this movie. It’s such a thrill ride that you are at the center of it as Lorne Michaels. Tell me, what was it like? How did you first get involved with this project?
I got involved, Jason told me about it in January of 2023 in London. It wasn’t until June that I was asked to audition. I flew out to New York and then a couple of days later, he just texted me asking me if I wanted to do it. We were supposed to shoot last October, but because of the writers and the actor strikes, it was delayed.
So I had a year to kind of marinate on it and prep, and I’ve never had that much time for anything. So that was valuable. The research and getting to know Jason so that by the time I was on set, it was the most relaxed I’d ever been going on through a set, which was great.
Did you meet Lorne Michaels?
Once. He invited us to watch the show. We were going to be in New York, shooting outside 30 Rock. So the day before our first day of shooting we watched Saturday Night Live. It was a very lovely gesture, kind of giving us his blessing. But yeah, we didn’t talk too much. I didn’t want to interview him or anything. Jason advised us not to talk to the people we were portraying.
What did your research look like? There have been many books about SNL…
The script is the bible. Jason was like, look, all I need from you is to play a young person who is making something different that nobody believes in other than him. Nobody wants to make this and nobody sees his vision and that’s all I want from you.
I read the major books. There’s tons of information and footage of Lorne on the internet that I watched. It was just to give context to the stakes of the film when things go wrong, how he feels, and his expectations. Ultimately, if there’s a piece of research that doesn’t serve what’s written, get rid of it, and let it go.
That makes a lot of sense. What was some interesting sort of little details that kind of went into your psyche while you were going through this? What had been written about that specific night before?
I think it was the relationships he had with each character, how he knew Dan Aykroyd from Toronto when he taught him improv, when Dan was a teenager, and how Dan crashed at his house whenever he needed a place to stay. How his relationship with Rosie Schuster was nuanced and detailed how long they’d known each other or how he hired everyone and brought everyone in why he values them as artists and why they frustrate him as people.
This is your second major movie where you’re playing a larger-than-life public figure. Do you view any challenges in that or is that something that you thrive on?
It’s funny because there’s a rubric that you have to hit on the accuracy of these people. Steven Spielberg was very clear, “I don’t care what you do physically or vocally, just all you have to focus on is his emotional story.” I’m interviewing him about his parents, and I want to get his experience. I had fun with the posture and the smile and the physicality and all of that, and that was just for my benefit.
Then with Lorne, the same thing. Jason said, I don’t care what you do physically or vocally, I’m just telling the story of a young artist who’s being prevented and wants to make his stuff. I wanted to get his posture and his vocal stuff, and it’s just his accent. Nothing too audacious, but subtle enough that people who knew him might feel like I got it right.
All of my favorite people come from SNL and I would never want to let them down. So there’s definitely like, yeah, there are certain things that you have to get right in playing these people. It’s not as up to your interpretation as an actor as let’s say an original story would be.
What was it like being on this particular set? In this film, the set is pretty wild in that it is literally like a living thing, almost like another character.
It was just so much fun. It was summer camp. We were on the same set every day and everything was pre-lit. We did not take a lot of time to shoot, which allowed us to have 10-hour days. The crew was in such a groove, and so was the cast. It was just fun. Whenever I wouldn’t be needed, I’d go and I’d either take a nap or do some work, not in my dressing room, but in Lorne’s office that was built. So I’d go up to a PA and be like, I’ll be in my office and I’d walk away and it was great.
Immersing yourself in the world of the 1970s must have been pretty interesting.
The seventies were cool. That informed so much of Lorne’s insight and his attitude toward pop culture, art, and politics. It was just going to show how united that generation was. There was so much change from the 60s. Nobody of that generation wanted to watch TV anymore even if they were the first people to grow up on TV. They were raised by it, but they’re bored by it because it wasn’t speaking to them.
Lorne is such a genius, he saw what people of that era were drawn to and he moved that to TV. That required fighting an ancient system that did not know at all what he was talking about. That’s why we have Saturday Night Live, and it was some of the most culturally impactful entertainment we’ve ever experienced.
I love the scene when Lorne articulates what the show is after struggling with it the whole film…
He doesn’t have an idea of the show. He has a feeling of the show. He has an intuition about it. How does it make him feel? And he just wants to capture a feeling. And how do you articulate that to someone?
What’s it like being on the other end of this now? This seems like it’s already a cult classic or it’s going to be a cult classic. What’s it like being on the other end of this now?
Give it five, or ten years. We’re proud of the movie. I’m proud of everyone involved, the crew, and the cast. I think we made something great and I’m proud of what I did. I enjoy watching it. I’ll watch it any chance I can get. I think that, at the end of the day, getting people into a movie theater is very unpredictable. You never really know what’s going to happen or who’s going to see what, and so that’s kind of a variable you can’t focus on. But as long as the work’s good and you do what you intend to and you believe in it, then that’s what it’s all about.
Saturday Night is now available to buy or rent and in theaters.
