Garrett Morris, Saturday night live (SNL), the first black cast member of ), appeared on the show from 1975 to 1980 and was best known for his portrayal of the fictional Dominican baseball player Chico Escuela. However, it was his role as Stan Winters in the first three seasons of Martin Lawrence's 1990s sitcom of the same name Martin this left a lasting impression on Lamorne Morris, who plays Garrett Saturday eveningthe Jason Reitman-directed story behind the debut episode of the NBC sketch comedy, which opens theatrically in New York, Los Angeles and Toronto on September 27 and worldwide on October 11.
“Every time you see someone on TV, if you're an up-and-coming actor, it seems like an impossible task,” Morris says The Hollywood journalist. “Martin, in particular, is a master of character. Every actor on that show had the ability to play multiple characters. They were so funny, so loose, they mirrored the way my friends and I talked to each other. And I just thought, “Well, damn, we could do this, let's give it a try.”
Adds Morris: “As you move through the ranks of comedy, you start to realize that more and more is possible.”
The Chicago native's rise included his breakout role on Fox New girl for seven seasons and landing the lead role on Hulu I woke up before joining the cast of Fargo in his fifth season as Agent Witt Farr, a role for which he earned the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series. Two decades of comedic experience under his belt and an innate sense of kinship with Garrett who shares his last name, though the two are no relation, Morris didn't hesitate to audition when he received an email about the film . Saturday evening role early one morning.
Talk to here THR on his conversations with Garrett Morris, perfecting the Juilliard-trained artist's distinct voice, and recreating his infamous “Kill all the whiteys” SNL bite.
How and when did this role come to you, and was part of you intimidated by the prospect of playing Garrett Morris?
Oof, well I remember I was in Chicago, I was at home and I got the email. I was still in bed, checked my phone, immediately got out of bed and said, “I'm doing this shit right now. I can do it. I know Garrett. This is my wheelhouse. And I got up and set up the camera in my bedroom. I went to my brother's room, got an old jacket and a tie. And I put my hair in an afro cut because my hair was growing out at the time, and I just did it. And I was very confident about it because I had lived with Garrett in my head for a long time. We have the same last name and people always ask us if we are related. And I grew up watching Martin. So you just know this man. And I had so much fun putting that tape together. Was he intimidating? Absolutely, because I don't know this man personally. So my fear was that he would say, “This son of a bitch sucks.” This is what I thought. I asked myself, “what if he really hates me?” What if Garrett sent an email to everyone saying, “This guy is terrible, please never hire him again?” Before playing a character, you always think the worst. You always think the sky will fall. But apparently Garrett really enjoyed the film.
You presented Garrett with the Hollywood Legacy Award at American Black Film Festival (ABFF) Recognized earlier this year alongside Leslie Jones. How much time, if any, were you able to spend with him once you got the role? And what did he share with you about his joining experience? SNL?
I spent more time with him via Zoom and on the phone than in person. When we were at ABFF, that was the most time I spent with him in person. We sat at the table just talking and chatting, and on Zoom, the questions I had for him were more or less what his relationships were with the rest of the cast. Because I knew the background. The background was that Garrett was the only black guy on the show. And a lot of the writers were racist, and the jokes were a certain kind of way that he wasn't necessarily comfortable with. So he had problems with some writers and stuff like that. I knew that environment was where he lived. But I wanted to know, with the rest of the cast members, who he was vibing with, who he was partying with.
Obviously drugs were a big part of it back then SNL and culture in general. People used cocaine during meetings. That's just how they acted back then. So Garrett would say, “Man, everyone was having fun. There were a bunch of wild, crazy kids playing around.” So once he explained it to me like that, it helped me once we got to set. Because once we're on set, you start to see everyone else's energy and what everyone likes to do. And then I go to each actor and tell them what Garrett said about the person they're playing, and we collaborated that way.
You, Jon Batiste and the band are the only black actors in the film. Did you feel like you could sense what it was like for Garrett that way?
A bit. I have a very similar path in my career. I was always called “the black guy from that show.” For a long time people didn't know my name. They just knew, “you're the black guy.” So I definitely identified with that. But when we were on set, there were definitely moments where you felt it. Jason, that guy is a master at what he does. He knew what Garrett was going through, so he didn't want the audience to look around and say, “There's a lot of black people there. What is Garrett complaining about?” Because that's the problem. That was his thing. People were not given opportunities like that. So, Jason, he would do these things isolating Garrett, where the big group is here, and he'd say, “Garrett wouldn't fraternize at these kinds of times,” and I'd be there doing my thing and kind of looking outward until I really got to know the rest of the cast. He really took his time to etch the minutiae of what these people were going through.
You said you felt you knew Garrett before the audition, but did you have to spend time perfecting his voice?
Oh, 100%. You know, there are different vocal qualities than Garrett. Garrett is an artist. So it's naturally a bold and big, extraordinary presence. When you look Martinremember some of the things he would do. When he spoke to Martin, he always pulled his chest and head back and said, “ah, Martin.” Sometimes he had that Sammy Davis thing. But it was a little different in his normal life. He was much more relaxed. He smoked cigarettes and then you had these conversations, man, where he would just talk to people, but there's this musicality in his voice where it goes up and down, it's very sing-songy because the man is a singer. He sang La traviata in Italian. So I had to watch a lot of his interviews and do workshops on a lot of things.
And then you also had to sing. Talk about the scene where you perform “Kill All the Whiteys.”
He did that sketch in a scene called “Death Row Follies.” I worked with a vocal coach named Dave Stroud, who really helped me try to get exactly what Garrett sounded like in that sketch. We were really working hard. Let's hope it's in the ballpark. Garrett was going through a lot on this show, and that song in particular, he said, solidified his place there. He knew “okay, I can do this. These are my strengths. I'm an artist.” And obviously it worked beautifully. There's an interview where Garrett talks about it, so I won't spoil anything. He talks about how that song came about because there was an old show in the '50s where someone told him it said where the host of the show would go to the audience and have someone sing. And so he pulled this old white lady out of the crowd and asked her, “hey, sing a song.” song.” And the song he sang was, “I'm going to get a gun and kill every nigga I see.” And everyone was shocked and they cut out the cameras and went straight to see a commercial. And he said if he remembered and he just changed it. And I think the beautiful thing is that it sets the tone SNL to push the envelope and let America know, “Hey, these funny young people are coming and they have no holds barred and they're going to insult you. They will parody you. They'll make fun of you if you're a politician, if you're anything.”
In the film, the cast members are introduced for the first time in a sequence captured in a single take.
Oh boy (sighs).
What was it like to get it right?
So we did it twice. We had two days to figure it out. It was crazy. When I first met Jason after I got the job, I think he said he wanted to shoot the whole movie himself, the entire film. You try it for a month, then you spend five days and shoot the film every day. And I thought, “Whoa, kid, you're on crack. What kind of drug are you ingesting, Jason?” (He laughs.) So he didn't, but these one-ers were intense. It's like five, six minutes, so if something goes off the rails, you have to start from the beginning. At some point we started this counter, now we're on shot 12, on shot 21, on shot 23, and we were betting whether we were going to be over or under 30. I remember we were supposed to, I think we take 24, and Jason said this it'll be the last take and then we're at the very end and a guy is walking by and he's supposed to say his line and I look him in the eye, and he freezes and goes “ah fuck,” and everyone burst out laughing because we were so close. It was a very, very intense day. You had a llama, you have different characters, this is your first opportunity to show up in this movie. It was chaotic, but I give it to Jason. Jason shot the whole movie with stunt doubles before until we got there. So he knew the choreography.
When do you remember seeing Garrett for the first time? SNLand was or is being on the show a goal for you?
Yes, SNL It's a big goal for me. I auditioned for SNLI didn't understand, which is fine. Full circle moment here. I had a second background in the city, a background in improv, sketch comedy, so, always, SNL it's a goal. The same year I didn't pre-order it, I got it New girl. So I was very lucky to land on that show. It all worked. But I would say the first time I remember Garrett was a sketch for the deaf [“News for the Hard of Hearing”] where he would simply shout out everything the person said so the deaf could actually hear it. And Chico Escuela, where he would go, “baseball is very, very good for me.” I remember those sketches only fleetingly. And it was crazy, because I didn't even realize I'd seen those sketches until I got the part. Then I went back and looked at some of his old sketches and said, “oh, I know this one.” “Oh, I know that one too.” It all started to come back to me.