50 ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Members Recall Their Most Unbelievable, Thrilling, and Embarrassing Guest-Host Encounters

Saturday Night Live turns 50 this year. A scrappy sketch-comedy moonshot launched by a band of Canadians and stoners has become a pop-cultural institution—the longest-running scripted show on TV that isn’t a soap opera or Sesame Street. Late last year, to mark this historic anniversary, GQ interviewed over fifty other past and present SNL cast members and asked each of them the same eight questions about the show’s broader cultural footprint and their own experiences making it. A feature story drawn from those conversations, “Saturday Night Forever,” will appear in the March print edition of GQ—but all this week on GQ.com, we’re bringing you an expanded, Bill Brasky-size version of that story, along with answers that didn’t make it to the page. Today, our SNL chorus reveals the backstage superstar run-ins they’ll never forget, from shooting in the gym with Michael Jordan to a doomed attempt at befriending Chappell Roan.

Ana Gasteyer, cast member, 1996–2002: I mean, generally speaking, [guest hosts] are on such good behavior because they really are being ruled by fear. It’s a terrifying experience. I mean, I have such respect for people who host, because they show up in this crazy house. There’s no syllabus for how your week is going to go. No one’s going to break it down for you. I have enormous respect for basically anyone who hosts, because they have to really have faith in what turns out to be a very effective but pretty makeshift system.

Michaela Watkins, cast member, 2008–09: I found out I’d [been cast on the show] at 10 p.m. and I was in LA, and I was on a plane at 5 a.m. to go to New York, and I went from the plane to the table read, and from the table read to pulling an all-nighter because it was write night, I guess.

And the first thing I was thrown into was the “Single Ladies” thing with Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake. I mean, I hadn’t even told my family I was on SNL and here I was sitting on Justin Timberlake’s lap for a moment so that I could powder Beyoncé’s face. It was like a fever dream, but it was actually happening, and that's how I felt about the whole year.

Bowen Yang, writer, 2018–19; cast member, 2019–present: Is it a cop out if I talk about Ariana [Grande, his Wicked co-star]? I just will always cherish her. And having these, like, intimate, romantic moments in sketches. Like, us kissing in that sketch when she hosted this season—that was like such a mutual thing of [us saying] like, Should we do it? Like, I had to pitch it to her, and she was like, ‘I was thinking the same thing!’ And then I opened my mouth up a little too much. And then she was laughing while we were kissing.

Cheri Oteri, cast member, 1995–2000: Jim Carrey, because he really wanted to do the Cheerleaders. He said to me, “Cheri, I auditioned for SNL. When I didn’t get it, I went into such a depression.” And then here he is all these years later and he’s hosting. He probably had the best ever show from beginning to end that I was a part of. Every sketch that he did, he killed it. And I don’t think I was ever so happy for a guest host. And he’s like, “This is such a dragon for me to slay.” And he slayed it.

Jane Curtin, cast member, 1975–80: I guess it was with Buck Henry in New Orleans. I always loved when Buck hosted the show. I just adored the man. And when we were doing the parade coverage in New Orleans [for SNL’s 1977 Mardi Gras special] and we were stuck on a platform together and people were throwing things in our face and trying to get up on the platform so they could touch us, and it was terrifying. It was absolutely terrifying. And I bonded with him. It was sort of like Stockholm Syndrome. I bonded with Buck and I bonded with the two detectives who carried us away from the platform.

Laraine Newman, cast member, 1975–80: This is more memorable for Jane Curtin, I think, but it still makes me laugh. The Rolling Stones were on the show and I, of course, loved the musicians. My dressing room was next to Jane’s and I wandered into it and there was Jane, her hair in rollers, wearing a bathrobe/kimono, smoking a cigarette and shootin’ the breeze with Mick! Just the two of them. I remember thinking That should have been me, damn it! Years later I asked Jane what that was all about and she said “I don’t know. Maybe he thought he’d get lucky.” And I remember thinking “Boy, did he have the wrong number."

Paul Shaffer, Saturday Night Live Band, 1975–80; cast member, 1979–80: It was the first show of season four, I think. Somebody had written a sketch that was going to precede the Rolling Stones’ first song, and I was going to be in it and I’m super excited. It would open on the backstage gate, [John] Belushi playing a bouncer at the door with a clipboard. You're not on the list. No, sir. You can't get in. [SNL writer] Tom Davis arrives as a hippie with his hair down to his shoulders. He's got a huge tank of nitrous oxide. Oh, you come right in. He gets right past.

And then I show up, playing a caricature of [music manager and ‘70s TV host] Don Kirshner, with Bill Murray, who’s like a music-biz promotion guy or an A&R man. We can't seem to get in, but somehow we do. And then we're backstage in the trailer with Keith Richards, drinking Wild Turkey, which they were all drinking all week. Well, maybe mainly Keith, who said, I get it for free. He said, I call the company down south, and I say I'm Mick [Jagger], and they send me cases.

Anyway, I'm super excited about this. And I used to wear a wig and a fake tan and stuff [to play] this guy, Don Kirshner, and I’m in the makeup room, just getting the tan adjusted, and Mick kind of stumbles back there. He's going to take one more look at himself, but he knows something that I don’t know yet, which is that Lorne has cut the sketch part at the very last minute. [The Stones are] just going to do the number. I'm back there looking at myself, getting so excited, and this is when I had my first conversation with Mick Jagger, which I’ll never forget. He came back, he saw me back there, and he kind of focused in on me. Then he said, “You’re cut.” I'll never forget, really, the magnificence of that conversation we had.

Andy Samberg, cast member, 2005–12: I was doing this bit called the Out of Breath Jogger from 1982. It had gone well at dress, I was about to do it on air. And it's just me standing in front of a green screen. And I walked out and I waved at the audience and everyone was nice and clapped and said hi.

And they were like, "All right, coming on in five…Four..." And I was getting ready and I just looked to my left, and standing up against the wall was Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney was standing about five feet away from me while I was about to do the dumbest bit I had ever thought of. Just the fact that Paul McCartney was like, "I'm going to head over to SNL. I think I'm going to go check out Andy in his short shorts."

Tim Meadows, cast member, 1991–2000:I had written a bunch of promos. We give 'em to the host, the host will give us back the ones they want to do. Paul McCartney gave me the ones he wanted to do—and they were all the ones that I had written. So I said, “Hey, that's nice. I wrote these.” And he goes, “Nice. Very good job, young man.” And to have Paul McCartney tell me, a kid from Detroit, that he loved stuff that I had written, was really cool.

Vanessa Bayer, cast member, 2010–17: I got to introduce Paul McCartney to my parents. It almost makes me cry to talk about it. My parents came to the dress rehearsal and the live show when he was the musical guest once. And I brought them to the stage really early, when Paul was still waiting to go on. My mom almost reverted to a little kid, but she was just like, so excited to meet him. He couldn't have been lovelier. He was like, ‘I'm in a sketch with your daughter!’ He was just like, so nice to my parents. It felt just like it was such a thank you to my parents for being so great, you know.

Can you hear me crying? It was just such a beautiful moment.

Robert Smigel, writer, 1985–93, 1996–2008; cast member, 1991–93:I got to write a sketch for Michael Jordan about the first Black Harlem Globetrotter. That was the joke—we pretended there was this guy, Sweet River Baines, played by Michael Jordan, who had broken the color barrier on the Globetrotters. They’re in a circle doing two-handed bounce passes to “Sweet Georgia Brown” and then [Jordan] completely dominates.

We had a bunch of extras playing the original white Harlem Globetrotters. They weren't supposed to be that good, but Michael Jordan's so competitive. He just looked at them with disgust. Just a bunch of weekend hacks. I don't know what he expected.

And I put myself in [the sketch], as one of those guys. Back in 1945, half the players were Jewish, and 5 foot 10, and not that good, so I checked every box. I took a very slow two-handed shot that he blocked so hard that it slammed against the wall of the gym. I have myself on film being blocked by Michael Jordan, and that’s a personal highlight for me.

Kevin Nealon, cast member, 1986–95: James Taylor was the musical guest. So I was, like, in heaven. And he's standing out by the craft service table sometime during rehearsal. And I'm there and I'm shuddering. I just can't believe I'm standing next to James Taylor and he's looking at the food. And I said, "You should try the doughnuts, James. They're really good. They're really good. Especially five or six of them."

After we talked a little bit, he goes, "I enjoyed talking to you and we should get together sometime. I know I say that a lot, but we should actually go out and have a meal." And he gave me his phone number and I went home. I couldn't believe it. And I waited a few days before I called him because you don't want to seem too desperate. And I called him and we planned a date to go out to eat and didn't even know where we were going to go. And I go to pick him up, I go up to the elevator and he's waiting for me.

It's the kind of elevator that opens up into the person's apartment. And we're walking down Broadway. And he says, "Where should we go?" And I say, "Hey, wherever you want to go, man, I'll go." And he goes, "Let's go to some Cuban restaurant," this Cuban restaurant he liked. I said, "Great." And what I didn't tell him was I was kind of allergic to Cuban food, to the spices in Cuban food. I sweat a lot and I get rashes. But that's where he wanted to go. So that's where we're going. And we get in there and I start eating this food and I am sweating and I'm breaking out in hives and I'm not saying anything. I'm mopping my face with a tissue, a napkin. And eventually we leave and we're heading back to his apartment. As we're getting closer to his apartment, it was kind of like a date. I'm thinking now, Do I hug him? Do I kiss him? What do I do? I think I went with, pretty much, a hug. A hug and a doughnut.

Devon Walker, cast member, 2022–present: My very first episode, Kendrick Lamar was the musical guest. And I had just seen him at Barclays, probably three weeks or like a month before that. And during the goodnights I went up to Kendrick and I was just like, "Hey man, I just saw you a couple weeks ago. I really enjoyed your show." And he looks up and he's just like, "I know."

He did seem appreciative, but it was like he was saying, "Yeah, of course you did, man—my shows are fucking sick." That was very much his energy. And now it makes so much more sense that he won that rap battle. He knows he's the one. He knows he's him.

Tim Kazurinsky, cast member, 1980–84: I flew my mother over from Australia, rented a limo, and brought her to the show. Stevie Wonder was the host. I brought her into the studio and introduced her, I said, "Stevie, this is my mom from Australia." And my mother said, "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Wonder. My son tells me you are a musician." Stevie threw his head back and laughed so hard, and he said to me, "She has no idea, does she?" I said, "Stevie, she hasn't a clue." But he laughed so hard. For the next couple of days, he would randomly say, "Where's Mrs. Kaz? I need a laugh."

Bobby Moynihan, cast member, 2008–17: Dana Carvey. I was in a Church Chat dressed as Snooki. I could see his mouth moving. I heard no words. I heard nothing. I just heard myself breathing. I was the Church Lady for Halloween when I was a kid. I'm going to cry. Jesus. My wife was in the audience 10 feet away. I just am staring at her going, "Do you see what's happening right now? It's crazy."

Emil Wakim, cast member, 2024–present: I bombed an interaction with Chappell Roan, which I think is actually funnier than having a good one. I was listening to her music during the audition process. “Pink Pony Club” became my hype-up music before all the auditions and callbacks. When she was at the show, I kind of wanted to tell her, like, ‘Hey, I know you have the whole thing about fans coming up to you, but I associate your music with achieving my dream, and I just think you're dope.’

I thought I had a window. We were all walking off [after dress rehearsal], and she was next to me for a second. I only had a little bit of air time on the show, and there was no introduction—just us walking next to each other for a second. I was just like, ‘I think you're awesome. I'm a big fan.’ She was just like, ‘Oh, thanks.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ Then I was like, Fuck, and ran off. Zero rizz. I felt like I was 11 years old, being like, ‘I think you’re really cool,’ then running the other way with no eye contact.

I had a script in my head — she would be like, “Oh my God, really?” and hug me, and we’d become friends. The perception of how I thought I was gonna do was so much cooler than what came out.

Bill Hader, cast member, 2005–13: Because I would do impressions, they would want me to do an impression of the host to the host—like I did it to Christopher Walken, and I did it to John Malkovich. And so I would invariably have to go into their dressing room and do it for them, and that was just so painful, because it’s always met with weird, steely silence. And them going, “Okay, I guess I sound like that. Why did you do that?”

No—they were always nice. By the way, I'm acting like I was made to do that. I chose to do this, because I don't want to just do it out there [in front of everybody]. I'm like, "Hey, here's what it sounds like." And they were like, “Okay, you can leave now.”

Jim Breuer, cast member, 1995-1998: First, I believe De Niro asked for a tape. Everyone’s like, “Hey, just letting you know, Robert De Niro called and he wants a copy of the sketch you do [as] Joe Pesci.” Then it was Scorsese calling. Scorsese wants a tape. Then it was, Joe Pesci wants to come in and do it with you. And that turned into, I had to meet him. I got scared to death. It was totally the scene out of Goodfellas, the What’s so funny scene.

I'm in the green room. I walk in and he's sitting there, all Goodfellas’d up with the suit, the ring, and the glasses. He's got two assistants. And I came in thinking I'm going to be in Goodfellas 2. This is it. This is the beginning of Jim Breuer, movie star, right here, right now. And I walked in and he's like, “Yeah, how you doing? Sit down over here." I sit down and he's talking and he's dropping names. He's dropping Jack Nicholson and all these big names and stuff.

Then he just turned to me—very, very serious demeanor—and asked if I was Italian. I said, No, I'm not Italian. I grew up with Italians. “I didn't ask you if you grew up with Italians. I asked, are you Italian.” I was like, Is he kidding? Is he serious right now? And then it went to, “I never hear any ethnic group insulted the way you insult the Italians. You use this word and that word and that word. And he goes, “You make De Niro sound stupid. And you're not really doing me. You're doing a character. And my father came here…” This whole dead-serious thing.

I said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I have an Italian writer and he helps me with everything. Everything goes by him.” And he says, “Yeah, Frank. I met Frank.” He goes, “Here's the issue. And you know this as a performer. No one cares about the writers. It's not the writer saying the words. You are the one that says the words. So it's up to you what comes out of your mouth. And all I hear out of your mouth is dago, wop and Guinea.” And I'll tell you what: I grew up around a lot of these people. And for me, for a split second, I was like, Okay—do I pop him and run for the Island right now? Do I offer him 20%? How much is he going to shake me down the rest of my life? What's going on right now? On my life, on my kid's life, this is what ran through my head.

And then I went back to my Long Island moral humble self. And I went, “I got to be dead honest with you, you're my favorite all time actor. I watched you from Raging Bull to Easy Money and everything you've done. I was just talking in the green room and imitating you in the scenes, and what a great actor you are. And they heard me imitate you. And that's how these sketches started. I never meant to make you feel disrespected. And I said, “As a matter of fact”—I swear to God, I said this. ”As a matter of fact, fuck this sketch. I'll never do it again, and fuck it, it's over.”

And he looked at me dumbfounded and he went, “What the fuck? I'm busting your fucking balls. I'm just playing with you. I'm playing with you. But to this day, I'm not sure if he was playing with me. I think he really saw I didn't mean any disrespect, and his whole attitude changed. I think he really sized me up to the type of person I was. But I don't know. I don't know. The man is that good.

Jay Pharoah, cast member, 2010–16: There's people that you can feel when they come in the room. Jay-Z is one of those people. You felt his presence when he came in the room. He gets onstage, and he performs “Suit and Tie” with Justin Timberlake, and I'm watching in such admiration. And 15 minutes after that, I'm under the bleachers, about to go [onstage] for goodnights, and he's standing right behind me. And his whole crew is just like, "Yo, do Jay-Z." I was like, "Nah man, I don't want to do it right now." And then Jay-Z was like [Jay-Z voice] "Yeah, we don't need to make it awkward."

And then the guys were like, "Nah, man, do it." So I did it. I think I did the laugh. I was like [Jay-Z voice] "Yo, it's insane that I'm here in front of you, and I'm behind you as well." And he gave a face like, "Yo, that really does sound like me!" Every interaction I've had with him after that, he's just been like, "Yo, what up, fake Jay-Z? Yeah, you the fake one. Yeah."

Ellen Cleghorne, cast member, 1991–95: There's a picture of it to memorialize it, so that everybody knows I'm not making it up, but I was in a sketch with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. It's me as my crazy Zoraida character. Does life get any better than that?

Rob Riggle, cast member, 2004–05: I remember I was sitting in my office. This is probably, I don't know, my eighth show. I was still very green and very scared. And there's a knock at the door and it's Robert De Niro.

And he goes, "Hey, Bobby. Got a minute?" And I was like, "Do I have a minute?" I was like, "Please, come in, sit down." And so he came in, sat down. He was like, "So what's going on? What are you doing?" I was like, "I was just thinking about maybe some sketches for you and I." And he goes, "Oh, great, great, what do you got?" And I really didn't have much. So I just started bullshitting him and pitching ideas out of my ass. And thank God it got him laughing a little bit. And we just had a wonderful conversation. And he's like, "Well, let me know what you need from me and if you need me to do anything special at the table read." I was like, "Yeah, that's great." And then he got up and moved on down the hall, started talking to other people, but I just thought, 'That just happened. That literally just happened.' A couple of years ago, I was in Afghanistan and now I'm having comedy discussions with De Niro, so it was a very surreal moment.

Mark McKinney, writer, 1985–86; cast member, 1995–97: I literally went from working at a Starbucks coffee shop to going over a sketch with Madonna in what seemed like the blink of an eye. At the time, she had just married Sean Penn. The first host of what everybody knew was going to be a major show, which is Lorne’s first year back. There were helicopters circling 30 Rock all week. It was surreal.

I was so fucking green, and I'd come from the Kids in the Hall, who were basically a bunch of bobcats who savaged each other. We were young men with thick skins. That's just how we operated. You're doing it wrong! We had fist fights, that kind of thing. Or close to it. Rages and rants. So when I got to SNL, Bruce McCullough and I and Robert Smigel wrote a sketch. I had an idea that we should do something [with Madonna] based around the song “Take on Me.” And of course, it was a good idea because Lorne, canny producer, is going “Is there some way I can get Madonna to at least sing a little bit?”

And Al Franken was tasked, once the sketch got picked, with going over it and reading it [with Madonna.] And so I'm sitting and I'm starting to give notes to Madonna, and Al Franken kicks me under the table. I'm like, What? And he waits until she is distracted for a second, says, “Don't give notes to Madonna.” Rookie, I think, was the unstated thing.

She was great. She tried to help out. And then at the end—the art department had made these giant eight-foot-tall posters. And I had one her sign one to my friend Scott [Thompson] from Kids in the Hall, and I brought it back to him, and he promptly spilled coffee all over it.

Moynihan: Sarah Palin. I'm walking down the hall heading towards the makeup room dressed as a moose with a moose head. I haven't met her yet. She turns the corner with two agents of some kind, two bodyguards, and she walks past me and she looks me dead in the eyes and she goes, Blam, and makes a shotgun-blast motion with her hands and just kept walking. That was fascinating.

Chris Kattan, cast member, 1996–2003: The first time Will and I did the Roxbury guys, it was just the two of us. We never thought of doing it as three people until Jim Carrey hosted and a writer, Fred Wolf, suggested we try with three people. Jim Carrey bobbed his head so far to the left, because he's so flexible, that we couldn't keep up. So he really brought life to those characters. He really made them what they are today—it’s what people remember and love about those characters the most, the bopping of the head.

Ego Nwodim, cast member, 2018–present: Adam Sandler gave me dating advice. We were in pitch toward the end of my first season, and I had run out of pitches, and I caught wind that people had been telling little anecdotes about their life [in the pitch meeting.] So I was like, OK, well, I have an interesting anecdote about a terrible date I went on.

So I tell this story, and then Sandler comes by my office on Tuesday, because we often get to talk one on one with the host on Tuesdays. And he's straight up, like, ‘So about that story you told,” and he just gave me advice. How to focus on work while we're in season and summers are for dating.

Tracy Morgan, cast member, 1996–2003: My very first show on Saturday Night Live was with Tom Hanks, and to this day right now, me and Tom Hanks are still friends. When we see each other at the award shows, he always shows me love. He's a good person. Very good. One of the sweetest people I've ever met in my life.

I loved hanging out with Samuel L. Jackson. And I loved standing there watching [Christopher Walken] film “More Cowbell.”

Moynihan: Prince walked up to me during the goodnights. He had sunglasses on that had a third eye lens near his forehead. He walked up to me, he put his finger in the center of my forehead, touched it, and he went, "You crazy," and he walked away.

Garrett Morris, cast member, 1975–80: Prince was doing the 15th-anniversary show, and I was standing across from his dressing room. I didn’t even know he was there. I knew he was going to do the show, but I didn’t realize he was there. He opens the door, he sees me, and Prince very carefully walked over to me, reached out his hand, and said, “Garrett, thank you very much.” And then he went back to his room. That’s something I’ll never forget.

Dana Carvey, cast member, 1986–93: There was an attitude early on about William Shatner that was so loose and fun and it was just really a thrill. I'd only been on the show a few episodes and we did a Star Trek parody and I got to play Ricardo Montalban in the movie, the Wrath of Khan. So I had a chest plate and the accent, and I'm doing it to William Shatner. And then he was so loose throughout the whole process. He was just having fun. I go, “You're so relaxed.” He goes, “Well, how else can you take this? There's no rehearsal. I mean, we are not ready to go on. I mean, how would you take this seriously?”

Moynihan: Being in a “What’s Up With That” with Bill O'Reilly, who’d written a book about Thomas Jefferson, and clearly had not been informed that I was going to roll into the sketch as Thomas Jefferson, stand up out of my wheelchair, whip my pants off, and have heart boxers on and start dancing. The look on his face when that happened was that he had made a grave mistake coming to Saturday Night Live, and I had never been happier.

Jay Mohr, cast member, 1993–95: I introduced myself to Kurt Cobain and I said, “Hey, I’m Jay.” And he said, “Are you a cast member?” I said, “No, I’m a featured performer. I write mostly for other people.” And I was feeling self-pity. And then he looked at me and said, “Wow, so you’re like a songwriter.” And in that moment, I knew he would have traded places with me.

Chris Rock, cast member, 1990–93: I’ll never forget talking to Kurt Cobain. I’ll also never forget Sinéad O’Connor and the night she ripped the picture of the pope.

Jim Belushi, cast member, 1983–85: I remember Stevie Nicks looked at me as she was walking off the stage singing and I got scared. I go, “Maybe she is a witch. I don’t know.”

Will Forte, cast member, 2002–10: I remember Matthew McConaughey was the host. In between the dress rehearsal show and the aired show, you would be waiting to see what made it into the show. And then everyone would file into Lorne’s office and see what was picked. And the host’s in there. And for some reason, Matthew McConaughey was just wearing a sarong, no shirt.

And I went in there and I looked up at the wall, and I forget what I had [written that week], but it did not make it into the show. So I was just kind of sitting down in the office, just lost in thought. And after a while I realized that the area that I was looking when I was lost in thought was McConaughey’s bare chest. I had been staring at his chest for a long time. So I just started purposely picking different places around the room and pretending to stare at those. Like, ‘Oh, I stare at everything. Look at me.’”

Moynihan: John McCain, during the goodnights, coming over, making eye contact with me, looking extremely excited to see me. I have never met John McCain before. He slapped me on the back and said, ‘Always a pleasure, Horatio.’ That was a great one.

Tim Robinson, cast member, 2012–13; writer, 2013–16: I was walking through the halls with Buster, my son, and I saw Martin [Short]. And Martin didn't even look at me, just came up to my son Buster and said, "Who do you think is funnier—me, or your dad?" And my son said, "My dad." And he said, "Wrong answer." And walked away. He’s one of the funniest people of all time.

Jane Wickline, cast member, 2024–present: During the Charli XCX week, which was about three weeks ago, I went to the bathroom, and it was a pretty small bathroom—it was a two-stall bathroom, and Julia Fox and her entire team were in there. And she was like, "Hi, it's nice to meet you." And she was being so sweet, and I was like, "Well, I guess I still have to go to the bathroom." And so I just went into the stall and waited. I didn't pee because I was like, "I don't want her to hear me pee." Or I just was so starstruck, and then I just waited the amount of time and sat on the closed toilet and then I washed my hands and left. Pretended to pee. Which is more embarrassing because they all heard me not pee. It would've been more normal to pee.

As told to Brittany Loggins, Gabriella Paiella, Alex Pappademas and Zinya Salfiti