For the first Saturday Night Live show of 2023, Aubrey Plaza will host alongside musical guest Sam Smith on Jan. 21, marking a very special moment for the actress.
The White Lotus star visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday evening to share the exciting news and opened up about interning at SNL from 2004-2005. “I was an intern in the design department, for the four set designers, who I know you’re aware of,” she told Fallon, who is an SNL alum. Listing off production designers Leo Yoshimura, Joe DeTullio, Eugene Lee and Keith Raywood, Plaza quipped, “They loved me. They loved me because I did not care about set design at all.”
She joked, “They wanted an intern that had no interest in learning what they did, because they were moody bastards. And you know that’s true! I mean, I love them, but they are.” Plaza went on to explain that “their office was labelled ‘The Moody Room.’ They were so grumpy.”
While she was star-struck by the SNL cast members at the time, Plaza said, “I didn’t really talk to the cast because I was, you know, I was an intern. I was kind of stalking, lurking in the shadows.” She added, “I studied like a sponge. I was just creepy. I was a creepy stalker. Now, I’m going to host it, so my master plan worked.”
Plaza also revealed she auditioned for SNL in 2008. The Emily the Criminal actress explained that she did not make it to the final round with SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels but tried out for a preliminary showcase.
The Golden Globe-nominee even shared the characters she acted out for her bit. “I remember one character I did was a — kind of like a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories sexy,” she said. “Even if they were horrific news stories. And I was just trying to sex up the news or something. I don’t remember.”
For her second character in her SNL audition, Plaza played a “pill-popping housewife” who hosted her own talk show called, Celebri-tails, where she would match a celebrity with what kind of tail she believed they would match best with. “I would say like, ‘Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail,’ or like, ‘Bill Clinton would have a polar bear’s nub,’ or Oprah Winfrey would have a — I don’t know just stuff like that,” she said. “Anyway, I didn’t get on the show.”
She might not have landed her audition back then, but Plaza will have her time to shine on Saturday. Tune in to NBC on Jan. 21.
