Beloved actor Andy Samberg has revealed the reason behind his sudden departure from the show, admitting it came at a “heavy price.”
Actress Scarlett Johansson has expressed her “fear” over the annual “Saturday Night Live” joke-taking tradition, which often sees her husband Colin Jost having to crack jokes at her expense.
“It was a big choice for me, it was like I couldn’t take it anymore. But I didn’t want to leave,” Samberg, 45, said in the latest episode of his interview series with Kevin Hart. Heart to heart.
“Physically and emotionally, it was like I was falling apart in my life,” said Samberg, who reported New York Post.
Samberg, who has been married to singer Joanna Newsom, 42, since 2013 and has two children with her, has gained huge fame in SNL.
He was a cast member and writer from 2005 to 2012, and became known for his “digital shorts”, such as his famous “d**k in a box” sketch with Justin Timberlake, and his “Lazy Sunday” sketch with Chris Parnell, and his catchy songs with amusing lyrics, such as Like the president, I’m on a boat. And Space Olympics.
Samberg speaks in a new series of interviews. Photo: Etienne Laurent/AFP
He was a regular cast member until 2012.
Samberg told Hart he wanted to be on SNL Since he was 8 years old.
The first blow to his morale came when his friends and Lonely Island colleagues Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone—who also started with him in 2005—left him when their writing contracts expired in 2010.
“I was left primarily responsible for making the short films, and I never pretended I could do without them,” Samberg said of Schaffer and Taccone’s departure.
“We’ve done stuff that I’m really proud of over the last couple of years, but there’s something in the songs that I can only do with Akiva and Jorm. That’s how it is, we’re just a band in that way,” he explained.
The stressful schedule also had a negative impact on him.
“Physically, it was very stressful for me and I got to a point where I felt like I hadn’t slept in about seven years,” Samberg explained.
“We were writing stuff for the live show on Tuesday night all night, then we did table reads on Wednesday, and now we’re told to come up with a digital short film, so we’re writing all day on Thursday,” he added. [and] “Thursday night, I don’t sleep, I wake up, I shoot on Friday, I edit all night on Friday and into Saturday, so it’s like not sleeping four days a week, for seven years. So I kind of broke down physically.”
Samberg with his teammate SNL Graduates Kate McKinnon (left) and Aidy Bryant.
He sought advice from Amy Poehler – whom he worked with until her death in 2008.
“I talked to Bowler and other people who had already left,” Samberg said.
“I felt like once I got to work, when I had an idea, I couldn’t execute it right away,” he recalls. “The craziest thing about working there was that once you started, if you were in the bathroom and had an idea, it could be on TV in three days, which was the most exciting feeling.”
His departure after Season 37 was not a big deal. He only confirmed he would not be returning weeks after the end.
“They said to me directly, ‘We’d rather you stay,’ and I said, ‘Oh, that makes it more difficult,'” he added.
“But I felt that in order to regain my sense of mental and physical health, I had to do it. So I did it and it was a very difficult choice.”
Samberg, who starred in brooklyn nine-nine For eight seasons, he hosted the Emmy Awards, and made films such as Pop Star: Never Stop He starred in the critically acclaimed film Palm SpringsHe said he felt less pressure in the rest of his career, because he had already fulfilled his childhood dream of appearing on an NBC variety show.
“Even if things don’t go well, I have to do the thing I wanted to do, so everything after that point is just icing on the cake,” Hart said.
This article originally appeared on New York Post Reproduced with permission.
