While Devon Walker indicated earlier this week that Saturday Night Live fans are perhaps taking his and his fellow cast members’ departures harder than the actors themselves, the former repertory player revealed today the decision to leave was a mutual one.
“The big question,” Walker began when asked by Rolling Stone in a new interview if his exit was by choice. “To be frank, I guess the best way I put it is like me and the show kind of looked at each other and we decided together that it was time to go our separate ways. I think I felt ready to leave the show, and I think the show felt ready to leave me.”
He continued, “I was just ready to do something else. We both felt like it was time. This was such a big time commitment, and life commitment. There’s been a lot of life stuff that I feel like I’ve had to miss out on. And I felt ready to do a different version of my life. I think that me and the show are both ready to turn the page.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Walker indicated he is currently exploring deals related to his music-themed comedy podcast My Favorite Lyrics and hopes to foray into dramatic television.
Walker was the first SNL member to announce his departure ahead of Season 51 of the Lorne Michaels-led late-night sketch series, which returns Oct. 4. The actor, who joined in 2022 as a featured player and was promoted last season ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary, has impersonated the likes of Frank Ocean, Michael Strahan, Shannon Sharpe, Draymond Green and Eric Adams throughout his tenure.
“Me and the show did three years together, and sometimes it was really cool,” he wrote on Instagram Monday. “Sometimes it was toxic as hell. But we did what we made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction. We made a f—ed up lil family.”
Just days later, Emil Wakim, Michael Longfellow and Heidi Gardner would also join Walker in exiting. As Michaels cleaned house, alumna Punkie Johnson commented: “WTF is happening.”
Following an outpouring of fan support (and ire toward Michaels), Walker took to X in hopes of assuaging viewers’ intense reactions: “Yall acting like we died lol we just getting different jobs,” Walker said.
The post Devon Walker Says Leaving ‘SNL’ Was A Mutual Decision: “We Decided Together That It Was Time To Go Our Separate Ways” appeared first on Deadline.
