He's a little embarrassed to admit it, but Nicholas Podany looked first When Harry met Sally as he was preparing for an audition to play the star of the classic romantic comedy, Billy Crystal.
Podany went out for Jason Retiman Saturday evening (In theaters this weekend in limited release before a wider opening on October 11.) Told in real time, it charts the 90 crazy minutes before the first episode of Saturday night live in 1975.
Podany, who studied at Juilliard and appeared on Broadway in Harry Potter and the Cursed Childhe first auditioned for SNL cast member Dan Aykroyd. For the sticker, he recreated Aykroyd's “Super Bass-o-Matic” sketch in which the actor pulverized a bass guitar in a blender. Podany was then asked to audition for the role of young Lorne Michaels and received a callback, but not for Michaels. Instead, he was sent pages of the script for a young Crystal to read.
An up-and-coming stand-up comedian in his twenties at the time, Crystal had been booked to appear in the first episode of Saturday night live. Ultimately, he was dropped from the broadcast when the act he was doing – involving him on an African safari where munching chips created the sound effect of footsteps – was going on too long for an already packed show. (Crystal has performed in front of audiences many times, including in the Comic Relief TV specials she hosted with Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams.)
Heading to the audition, Podany watched Crystal's opening monologue since she hosted SNL in 1980 (“He wears cool leather pants.”) and, yes, that beloved Nora Ephron classic, the pinnacle of romantic comedies. After exploring the work Crystal, the main question he asked himself was, “I wonder if I can do that voice?”
Even though it was June, Podany showed up to his audition in an oversized sweater thinking he'd just watched the fall standby When Harry met Sallyit was Crystal style. Reitman recalls Podany's audition, saying, “He comes in and does this Billy Crystal who is just perfect. John [Papsidera, Saturday Night casting director] and I say, “Wow, you must be a big Billy Crystal fan.” And he's like, 'No, I just watched a bunch of their videos over the weekend.'”
“I embarrassingly said that prior to this the only contact I had previously had with him was Monsters Inc.,” recalls Podany, referring to the Pixar film in which Crystal voices a small, one-eyed creature named Mike Wazowski.
In case you're wondering how to do a Crystal impression, Podany says by way of explanation, “Take all the bass out of your voice and put it in here,” the actor says, pointing to her nose and breasts. , “And put a New York dialect on it.”
Under normal circumstances, Podany's extraordinary talent for imitating Crystal would be, at best, a niche party trick, but for Saturday evening it helped him land his biggest film role to date.
“Jason, very quickly, emailed me and said, 'Hey, I'm Jason. Please don't do any research for the character, you already have it. You're amazing just the way you are,'” Podany says. “I spent like two days saying, okay, I'm really not going to do any research, really. And then I did every amount of research. He watched Crystal's appearances in Johnny Carson appearances and episodes of the ABC sitcom Soap. He watched Crystal's directorial efforts and listened to his autobiography, I'm still following themin the audiobook. Podany laughs: “Take a look at my letterbox. Out of this world.”
The research proved useful because, despite the film's rigorous running time, the cast was given space to improvise. “We would just throw out ideas, which is a bold thing to do when you're shooting 16mm [film]” says Podany. “But Jason just trusted us, and then, you know, he would have rejected us if it was too much.”
Podany grew up in the era of SNL in which Andy Samberg made digital shorts with his comedy group Lonely Island and Tina Fey satirized Sarah Palin's ability to see Russia from her home.
When he received a script for a show, a note from Reitman changed the actor's perspective on the show. As Podany recalls, it's red: “Yes, this is an origin story of SNLbut it's also a story about what young people are capable of doing to reset culture.”
Aside from Michaels as the pulsating center, Saturday evening it's a true ensemble, shifting focus away from characters in crisis, including Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner and Jim Henson. With little screen time, Saturday evening shows Crystal dealing with one of the biggest rejections of her career thus far. Yet just a few years later, he would begin a career that would make him one of comedy's icons, a movie star and one-time Oscar host.
“He was still a substitute teacher at the time and this was his big piece,” Podany explains. “You watch Billy Crystal have a very, very sad ending. It doesn't get a well-rounded ending. I hope people look at it and think, “woah, that guy probably thought his career was over.” The universe is telling me to go fuck myself, so I'm going to go fuck myself.' I really hope people watch [Saturday Night] and recognize not to give up. You get so many no's – and Billy Crystal got this big old “no” – but he keeps going.