After a failed audition years ago forSaturday Night Live,Aubrey Plazais set to return to the long-running sketch comedy show on Saturday night’s new episode. It was previously announced that Plaza, who recently impressed critics with her performance in HBO’sThe White Lotus, would be guest hosting the first episode ofSNLof 2023. It marks the hosting debut for Plaza, who’s joined by a returning Sam Smith as the musical guest.
Ahead of the Jan. 21 episode, Plaza joined Jimmy Fallon for an interview onThe Tonight Show. She reflected on her previous audition to join the show many years ago, revealing that she created her own characters to portray with the hopes of landing the job. While it’s easy to envision Plaza portraying these characters in amusing ways, they were perhaps a bit too dark or off-the-wall forSaturday Night Live, as she wasn’t called back for any more auditions after that. As she tells Fallon, viaVariety:
“I didn’t make it to the Lorne [Michaels] audition, the famous final audition, but I did a preliminary first-round showcase. I remember one character I did was like a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories sexy, even if they were horrific news stories. I was just trying to like, sex up the news or something.”
Plaza then went on to describe the other character she auditioned with.
“A pill-popping housewife that had a show called ‘Celebri-Tails,’ where I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they had a tail. Like I would say, ‘Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail.’ Or, like, ‘Bill Clinton would have a polar bear’s nub.'”
Related:Aubrey Plaza to Host Saturday Night Live’s First Episode of 2023
Aubrey Plaza Did Get a Job at SNL, But Not on Camera
Plaza says she wasn’t hired as a cast member, but theSNLteam did find a job for her to take on backstage. She was hired as an “intern in the design department,” a position she freely admits she did not take seriously. She says she didn’t actually work as much as she walked around “stalking” and “lurking in the shadows.” Even so, theSNLteam apparently loved her for it anyway.
“They loved me because I did not care about set design at all, and they wanted an intern that had no interest in learning what they did. I was just, like, creepy. Like, I was a creepy stalker. Now I’m gonna host it, so my master plan worked!”
Catch Plaza onSNLwhen she hosts the show on Jan. 21; you can stream the episode starting the next day on Peacock.
