Reese Witherspoon revealed why it took her 14 years to return to the Saturday Night Live stage.
Witherspoon hosted the first episode the show returned after the 9/11 terror attacks on New York City. “I would give that zero stars. Do not recommend,” the Oscar and Emmy-award winning actress said of the experience on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. The country and the city were still reeling from the tragic event, and all eyes would be on the show to see how or if they’d address it. Witherspoon said, “It was just too much responsibility for a 24-year-old girl.”
Witherspoon said that SNL boss Lorne Michaels talked her into not backing out from the episode. “Lorne Michaels called me and he said, ‘I really need you to show up. I really, really need this. Rudy Giuliani’s gonna be here. All the firefighters are gonna be here. Paul Simon is gonna sing, I just need you to come out and do something a little light and tell America—you can’t feel—we gotta laugh again. We’ve got to get back the national spirit.”
Her “southern and military ethics” kept her from saying no at the time, she said, though she’d already had a full plate. “I was 24. I also had a baby. I had a 1-year-old. I was a new mom. I had this biggest movie come out that summer” with Legally Blonde, she added. “But if you know me, if I tell you I’m going to do something, I mean there has to be a real disaster” in her own life. “We did it and it was good,” she continued, noting that the episode was also Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers’ first.
Witherspoon said she values the experience in hindsight, but the experience put her off from the show for over a decade. “I completely left my body,” she said. “And did not go again for 15 years.” Witherspoon’s hosting stint was “light,” as Michaels had requested, and she didn’t mention the 9/11 tragedy during her opening monologue, which some staffers thought was a mistake.
“Not only was she not addressing 9/11, but, we’re going in the opposite direction. We’re not saying terrorism. We’re having a host that’s telling an old joke about a polar bear,” then-SNL writer Hugh Fink told Rolling Stone for an oral history of the episode to mark the 20th anniversary, explaining why Witherspoon’s monologue created “a disconnect.”
SNL acknowledged the tragic events during its opening by having then-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani make a speech, flanked by local firefighters and police officers. Paul Simon emotionally sang “The Boxer,” leading into the rest of the lighthearted show.
Michaels told the publication, “Reese just had her baby, and she got on the plane, and she came in and she was fearless. She was great and was like, ‘Whatever you need.’ I’ve always admired her enormously for that time.” He added, “There were lots of people saying, ‘I don’t think you can go on.’ We’ve faced that many times before, but you just have to find a way to do it. I knew it was very, very important that we show up.”
Witherspoon’s sketch with Will Ferrell, in which the actress plays a “horny mermaid,” is still remembered well by some fans. Other sketches included “Celebrity Jeopardy” and “Gassy Baby,” with musical guest Alicia Keys. Despite the mark her first stint made, Witherspoon ultimately returned to host the show again in 2015.
She reflected on her first experience at the time, “I was so proud to be there and be on stage with firemen and Paul Simon and Lorne Michaels,” she told Yahoo! News, and “I think did an incredible job getting that show back on its feet and making America laugh again.”
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