Reese Witherspoon is recalling what it was like to host the very first Saturday Night Live episode following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Morning Show star is opening up about where she was when she was asked to host the NBC late-night sketch show.
Joking with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast, she said she would “give zero stars” and “do not recommend” doing that at the time.
“I was coming off Legally Blonde. I wasn’t supposed to be the season opener. I was supposed to be the second episode,” she explained. “The first episode, they canceled it because of 9/11, obviously. Then, Lorne Michaels called me and he said, ‘I really need you to show up. I really, really need this. Rudy Giuliani is going to be here. All the firefighters are going to be here. Paul Simon is going to sing, I just need you to come out and do something a little light and tell America that we got to laugh again. We’ve got to get back the national spirit.’”
Witherspoon also recalled that she had just become a new mom with a 1-year-old and had just starred in “the biggest movie” of the summer, Legally Blonde, which was released in July of that year.
“Lorne said, ‘If you don’t want to do it, it’s OK.’ And I said, ‘Quit? Me?’” she said, adding, “We did it and it was good.”
Taking the stage, Witherspoon said that she “completely left my body” and turned her off from hosting the show until May 2015.
“It’s not the show’s fault,” she said. “It was just too much responsibility for a 24-year-old girl.”
The post Reese Witherspoon On Hosting First ‘SNL’ Show After 9/11: “It Was Too Much Responsibility For A 24-Year-Old” appeared first on Deadline.
