50 ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Members Recall Their Most Unbelievable, Thrilling, and Embarrassing Guest-Host Encounters


And then I went back to my Long Island moral humble self. And I went, “I got to be dead honest with you, you’re my favorite all time actor. I watched you from Raging Bull to Easy Money and everything you’ve done. I was just talking in the green room and imitating you in the scenes, and what a great actor you are. And they heard me imitate you. And that’s how these sketches started. I never meant to make you feel disrespected. And I said, “As a matter of fact”—I swear to God, I said this. ”As a matter of fact, fuck this sketch. I’ll never do it again, and fuck it, it’s over.”

And he looked at me dumbfounded and he went, “What the fuck? I’m busting your fucking balls. I’m just playing with you. I’m playing with you. But to this day, I’m not sure if he was playing with me. I think he really saw I didn’t mean any disrespect, and his whole attitude changed. I think he really sized me up to the type of person I was. But I don’t know. I don’t know. The man is that good.

Jay Pharoah, cast member, 2010–16: There’s people that you can feel when they come in the room. Jay-Z is one of those people. You felt his presence when he came in the room. He gets onstage, and he performs “Suit and Tie” with Justin Timberlake, and I’m watching in such admiration. And 15 minutes after that, I’m under the bleachers, about to go [onstage] for goodnights, and he’s standing right behind me. And his whole crew is just like, “Yo, do Jay-Z.” I was like, “Nah man, I don’t want to do it right now.” And then Jay-Z was like [Jay-Z voice] “Yeah, we don’t need to make it awkward.”

And then the guys were like, “Nah, man, do it.” So I did it. I think I did the laugh. I was like [Jay-Z voice] “Yo, it’s insane that I’m here in front of you, and I’m behind you as well.” And he gave a face like, “Yo, that really does sound like me!” Every interaction I’ve had with him after that, he’s just been like, “Yo, what up, fake Jay-Z? Yeah, you the fake one. Yeah.”

Ellen Cleghorne, cast member, 1991–95: There’s a picture of it to memorialize it, so that everybody knows I’m not making it up, but I was in a sketch with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. It’s me as my crazy Zoraida character. Does life get any better than that?

Rob Riggle, cast member, 2004–05: I remember I was sitting in my office. This is probably, I don’t know, my eighth show. I was still very green and very scared. And there’s a knock at the door and it’s Robert De Niro.

And he goes, “Hey, Bobby. Got a minute?” And I was like, “Do I have a minute?” I was like, “Please, come in, sit down.” And so he came in, sat down. He was like, “So what’s going on? What are you doing?” I was like, “I was just thinking about maybe some sketches for you and I.” And he goes, “Oh, great, great, what do you got?” And I really didn’t have much. So I just started bullshitting him and pitching ideas out of my ass. And thank God it got him laughing a little bit. And we just had a wonderful conversation. And he’s like, “Well, let me know what you need from me and if you need me to do anything special at the table read.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s great.” And then he got up and moved on down the hall, started talking to other people, but I just thought, ‘That just happened. That literally just happened.’ A couple of years ago, I was in Afghanistan and now I’m having comedy discussions with De Niro, so it was a very surreal moment.



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