At 11:30pm on October 11, 1975, a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television – and culture – forever. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Gil Kenan & Reitman, Saturday Night is based on the true story of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humour, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words…
As Saturday Night launches on to cinema screens in Australia on October 31, Nick L’Barrow spoke with Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans), who plays SNL creator Lorne Michaels in the film, about how he balanced impersonation and interpretation, how his acting process completely changed due to chaotic nature of the story, and the special feeling of physical media.
Nick: Gabe, it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you! How are you doing today?
Gabriel LaBelle: I’m great! How are you?
Nick: I’m doing very well!
Gabriel LaBelle: I love your bookshelf not being used for books!
Nick: I’m glad that someone one day just decided to put a DVD on a bookshelf, because that changed my life [laughs].
Gabriel LaBelle: That is an amazing collection! How many do you have?
Nick: Last time I counted it was about 800. I worked at a Blockbuster for five years, and that’s where it all really began for me! Are you a physical media collector yourself? Books, movies, vinyls?
Gabriel LaBelle: Yeah! When my folks were both selling their individual places, and moving elsewhere, they were getting rid of a lot of stuff. We had these old VHS and DVDs that I grew up watching, like a Marx Brothers collection, or a James Bond collection, or Alfred Hitchcock, or Looney Tunes!
I kept it all, but I don’t have anything to play it on! I have an Xbox, but I watch most of my stuff on a projector. But I do feel a… weird comfort having these physical things. There’s something to that.
Nick: I agree! There’s a tangibility to it. And I think it’s always so exciting to show people that too. I love pulling something off the shelf and going to that effort to show someone a movie I really care for.
Gabriel LaBelle: I have an old collection of the original The Twilight Zone, and so throwing that on, there’s something just so… it feels ritualistic. Especially now with so much being on digital, it adds a layer of like history and appreciation and tradition, just throwing on a DVD or a VHS tape and playing that. Rather than just opening up your phone, or something like that. It just feels special because you can hold it.
Nick: To me, it’s just so purpose driven, right?
Gabriel LaBelle: Yeah, absolutely.
Nick: And I guess that feeling of nostalgia segues quite nicely into talking about Saturday Night, which I truly loved! I want to ask you about the process of finding the character of Lorne. Even though he is obviously a real person, and this film is based on real events, there’s still a dramatization to the performance. So, I’m curious to know, how did you go about finding the balance between impersonation and interpretation when creating your performance of Lorne Michaels?
Gabriel LaBelle: Oh, yeah. That was an ongoing discussion with Jason [Reitman, director] and I, trying to get Lorne right, while also not being restrictive. If I did the same thing a couple of times each take, he would come up to me and say, you know, “You’re a little stiff. I need you to loosen up.”
But you do want to get them right! And you’re so nervous about doing that. It’s tough to then also lead into the spontaneous, and that’s what’s so great about Jason. He just conducts such a brilliant environment to be spontaneous, given those parameters.
Like, this isn’t the Lorne Michaels biopic, or the Gilda Radner biopic. You’re not understanding what their home life is, their romantic life. You’re not getting into that and trying to crack who somebody is. They each had specific roles and purposes in this story. Jason says Chevy Chase is an ego that needs to be humbled, or Garrett is an artist searching for identity and purpose. And Gilda is this fairy dust of emotion, and she just consoles everybody that she can.
And for Lorne, my job was just to be a young person who wants to make something, and everybody has been telling him “no” for his entire life. That’s all that we wanted to focus on. So, I did do research. I did read a lot of books, and work on his physicality to help give context to that purpose.
Nick: It’s so interesting that you bring up the spontaneity of Jason’s direction for the characters, because watching the film, it truly felt like controlled chaos on screen. The choreography and blocking, and the way Jason moves the camera around the performances is amazing, but it feels so frantic. How much does the technicalities of pulling off a film with insane energy like that affect your process as an actor?
Gabriel LaBelle: After about two weeks of shooting, I realised that I had no use of preparing anymore. We had 10-hour days where it would be like from 8 (AM) to 630, and I would get home. And for every other film I’ve ever done, I get home, and I go back into the script, and I focus on what I’m going to do the next day. Then on weekends, I prep every scene I’m about to do for the week leading up. I need to know it, and I need to have it down.
But with this film, you want to give it that sense of chaos. You just have to be present. And I feel like once you’ve already tried to play these people, and get it right, like focusing on a mannerism, or how I pronounce a word, you can get more locked into it. You’re moving around like you’re dancing. It’s like a musical number. You might have an idea of how a scene is going to go in your head, but the blocking of it and where you’re standing in the room, will be totally different and change everything about the scene.
Like, for example, the scene with Jim Henson at the end. In my head, I was in the corner, and leaning against, holding these handrails in the elevator, and it grounded me. It gave me power. But on the day, Jason wanted me to stand in the dead centre of the space, not leaning on anything. Just standing there with my arms by my side. And that took away so much of that power of that grounding. I had to completely reroute what that scene was for Lorne in that moment. And that happened every day.
So, I think to give an incredibly long answer to your question [laughs], I realised that it did not serve me to spend so much time thinking about how I was going to do a scene before I did it. I still had almost a year of prep behind me to understand what the purpose of that scene was for Lorne, and for the rest of the film, too. But I also just totally surrendered to Jason.
Nick: That’s so fascinating! I’m sadly at my time here, Gabe. I have 100 more questions, and chatting to you about your process has been really insightful! I loved this movie, and your performance! I appreciate you taking the time to chat today.
Gabriel LaBelle: Thank you. I really appreciate your questions because I can tell they’re thoughtful. This is definitely the most… it was fun because a lot of the questions in these junkets don’t always… I really enjoyed it.
Nick: I understand what you mean, and thank you very much for saying that, man. I appreciate it. I hope we can chat again sometime soon!
Gabriel LaBelle: Have a good one, Nick.
Thank you so much to Gabriel LaBelle for his time, and to Sony Pictures for organising the interview. Saturday Night is in Australian cinemas on October 31.
