Lamorne Morris can’t wait for the world to see SNL 1975.
The actor—who just nabbed his first Emmy nomination for his role in Fargo—plays Garrett Morris, SNL’s first Black cast member, in the upcoming Sony film centered on the events leading up to SNL’s first broadcast.
In an interview with Deadline on Wednesday, Morris teased what viewers can expect from the movie and praised director Jason Reitman’s vision for the highly anticipated project.
“Reitman directed the hell out of this thing,” Morris said. “It’s a great look at day one at SNL, the ups and downs, how the show almost didn’t happen, the characters … Obviously, now, we know 50 years later what this show has become. But to see the origin of it and the actors [in] this movie will blow your mind.”
The New Girl alum also spoke about working with Garrett Morris himself, whom he got to meet with several times during production. “[Garrett] is still, til this day, one of the funniest people walking on Earth. He is so good,” he told Deadline. “Because we have the same last name, he just randomly hit me up once and said, ‘Hey man, I’m not entirely convinced that I am not your daddy. Tell your mama I owe her a call.’”
(In case you’re wondering, the two are not related.)
SNL 1975 has quite the stacked cast. In addition to Lamorne Morris, it stars Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Schuster, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, and Matt Wood as John Belushi.
In March 2024, Nicholas Braun, Tommy Dewey, and Nicholas Podany were cast as Jim Henson, Michael O’Donoghue, and Billy Crystal, respectively. Later that month, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Finn Wolfhard, J. K. Simmons, Billy Bryk, Joe Chrest, Taylor Gray, Mcabe Gregg, and Willem Dafoe also joined the cast. Additionally, Jon Batiste (who also composed the film’s score) will play SNL’s first musical guest Billy Preston; Naomi McPherson and Leander Suleiman will portray Janis Ian and Anne Beatts, respectively.
SNL 1975 is co-written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, who serve as co-producers alongside Jason Blumenfeld and Peter Rice. No release date has been set yet.
In the meantime, Lamorne Morris will be plenty busy serving as the guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live! next week while Kimmel enjoys his planned summer vacation.
