Saturday nightdirector Jason Reitman, who in his latest film tells the story of the preparation for the first Saturday night live 1975 show, had a unique training ground.
In 2008, Reitman guest-authored a SNL show and aired a sketch, all on a tense but freestyle television set, led by series creator Lorne Michaels. “Soon after JunoMy agent contacted Lorne and said, look, he has two dreams: to make movies and to write for SNL“, Reitman recalled Sunday during a press breakfast at the Toronto Film Festival.
Reitman and Gil Kenan wrote the screenplay for Saturday night based on their interviews with the cast, writers and crew live on the show's debut as it enters its 50th season. But there's nothing better than having worked on SNL same to get great insights.
Michaels hired Reitman for a week-long assignment, and it was there that the director got the idea to capture the method in the madness of producing a live television show where, an hour before the broadcast, the writers, actors, costume designers and set designers are still working in a panic.
“Being there, all I thought was, there's no way. And every week, at the last second, it all comes together and the band starts playing,” Reitman recalled as each show opens cold. He wrote three SNL sketch that week, and one did air: “Death By Chocolate,” in which a chocolate bar kills people.
Reitman said the weekly comedy universe he worked in was born out of a crazy circus that is the creative process behind SNL and Michaels, who has produced the show for 50 years. On Monday, all the writers and actors gather in his office to brainstorm ideas for the following week’s show and then start writing.
And there’s no coffee provided by Michaels. “The thing about Lorne is you’re still a kid. You bring your own coffee,” Reitman said. There’s a table read on Wednesdays, and then Michaels, that week’s host, and the head writer retreat to an inner sanctum to deliberate.
“You sit there and you're shaking, and they come out like it's a school play and they tape a piece of paper to the wall and you run up and you're like, Oh my God!” Reitman said. But the young writer-director only had a couple of minutes for excitement, because he was soon in meetings with a production designer and fabricators and costume designers to produce. Death by chocolate.
Then, after rehearsals and just before that week's show, Michaels returns to the big board with another piece of paper to indicate who made the final cut. During the SNL show itself, Reitman recalled when it was his turn to step into the control booth next to the audience, to hear their laughter, where Michaels directs the show live.
“You sit down with Michaels, and it’s either good or it’s not,” he added. Whatever the outcome, Reitman remembered the inscrutable Michaels turning to him and, now mimicking the veteran comedian, raising an eyebrow with a seemingly confused look as he quickly made room for the next writer.
In Saturday nighthis film about the 90 minutes before the premiere SNL episode aired in October 1975, Reitman maintained the same irreverent, carefree atmosphere on the set of his film. “Nobody has a trailer. We had a giant open room filled with '70s furniture and a ping pong table. We had a television and everyone had fun there,” he said.
All the main actors, Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Willem Dafoe, Dylan O'Brien and JK Simmons, also reunited there. The cast includes LaBelle as series creator Lorne Michaels, Cooper Hoffman as former NBC executive Dick Ebersol and Rachel Sennott as Michaels' ex-wife and ex SNL writer Rosie Shuster.
“Willem Dafoe came in and the first day he was there, watching everything the whole day. And the guys were like, 'Oh my God, that's Willem Dafoe,'” Reitman added. Eventually, he approached Dafoe, who said, “Jason. I love your set. I've never seen anything like it. No edges of the frame. I don't know what the fuck you're shooting!”
The air of off-the-cuff creativity extended to singer and songwriter Jon Batiste, who played keyboardist and singer Billy Preston in Saturday night, and also wrote the film's soundtrack live on set.
After changing back into his street clothes, Batiste would return to the set each day, and Reitman would play him a few takes before the director would turn to his band. “He’d say, ‘Let’s start with an E flat, go to a G, go back to a B.’ And on the shaker, I want a shug-shug-shug,” Reitman said, mimicking the percussive sound of a shaker instrument.
Then they would start playing. “The entire score is written on set and literally in real time,” Reitman said.
Saturday night is scheduled for theatrical release on October 11, marking the 49th anniversary of the NBC sketch series' premiere that same night in 1975. Previously, using the working title of SNL 1975the film is getting a prime release in the awards season.