‘Saturday Night’ Director Jason Reitman Sought to Channel the Spirit of the Week He Spent Writing for ‘SNL’: ‘Nothing Compares’ | Wrap Studio

“Saturday Night” is ready to go live, and the cast of the film embodied “controlled chaos” when they visited TheWrap’s 2024 TIFF Studio sponsored by Mo?t & Chandon and Boss Design.

The new film from Jason Reitman, which takes place, almost in real time, in the 90 minutes that led to the first taping of “Saturday Night Live” almost 50 years ago, just played the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is electric and unstoppable, with Reitman’s camera (manned by Eric Steelberg) zooming around the halls of 30 Rockefeller Center as actors refuse to sign contracts, NBC executives nervously pace and pretty much everything that could go wrong does go wrong.

Armed with a murderer’s row of ridiculously talented young actors (including but not limited to Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morris, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman and Kaia Gerber), Reitman’s film captures the spirit of chaos that it took to bring one of the most iconic TV series of all time to life.

And Reitman told TheWrap editor in chief Sharon Waxman that this was his main goal when it came to making “Saturday Night.”

In 2008, Reitman got to write on “SNL” for a week, writing a sketch that actually made it on air. “It was one of the greatest weeks of my life and the hour before showtime was the most adrenaline I’ve ever felt in my life. I mean, I’ve been to the World Series, I’ve been to the NBA Finals. Nothing compares to being on the ground there, and I knew there and then that someday I’d find a way to capture what it felt like to make that show,” Reitman explained.

There were 80 speaking roles in the movie and 30 to 40 of them had microphones every day. (Reitman said the sound mixer had to bring in a second sound board.) And the actors found themselves running around a nearly perfect recreation of the “SNL” offices.

“It was kind of crazy because you could wander around. There were multiple levels to it. Once you were in 30 Rock, you were just in 30 Rock,” Sennott said. “It was never like, and this is a random holding room, no, this is Lorne’s office, and you’re taking a nap here during lunch. That’s where it was. And that was really cool to get to run around and play in that space.”

“Saturday Night” opens in Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto on Sept. 27, before expanding to more cities on Oct. 4 and then a wide release on Oct. 11.

Watch the full video interview above.

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