Saturday Night Live alum Taran Killam starred in 12 Years a Slave and was proud of being part of the Oscar-winning Steve McQueen film.
However, in a new interview, the actor revealed that SNL creator Lorne Michaels had “said something” about Killam constantly bringing up that fact to the guest hosts.
In an appearance on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast, Killam acknowledged he “was terrible at pitching” sketches during his time on SNL.
To connect with the SNL guest hosts, Killam brought up his work on 12 Years a Slave, where he played Abram Hamilton, one of the two men who kidnapped Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and forced him into slavery.
“I did a bit for almost an entire season, where I would start to pitch the host on an idea,” Killam said on the podcast. “I was like, ‘Well, I know you’re in a movie with a plane, so that’s great, and I thought we could play pilots because, you know, when I was in 12 Years a Slave, what I found about the process that was most rewarding…’ and then I would go real indulgent.”
Killam said the bit “got some chuckles at first, and then it was terrible.” According to the actor, SNL writer Bryan Tucker ended up telling him, “Don’t do that anymore. Lorne has said something. Don’t do that.”
12 Years a Slave was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won for Best Picture. Lupita Nyong’o won for Best Supporting Actress, and John Ridley won for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Listen to Killam’s full interview in the video below.
