Landing a spot on “Saturday Night Live” was Andy Samberg’s childhood dream come true. But after seven seasons on the show, he felt like he was “falling apart” and knew it was time to take a step back.
“It was a big choice. For me, it was like, I can’t actually endure it anymore. But I didn’t want to leave,” the comedian said. “Physically and emotionally, I was falling apart in my life,” he said on Kevin Hart‘s “Hart to Heart” podcast with Peacock.
It is no secret that working on “SNL” comes with an exhausting schedule. Anyone who has seen the “Creating Saturday Night Live” series, knows this to be true. Samberg’s schedule was no exception, he told Hart it was like he “hadn’t slept in seven years.”
“We were writing stuff for the live show Tuesday night all night, the table read Wednesday, then being told, ‘Now come up with a digital short’ — so write all Thursday [and] Thursday night, don’t sleep, get up, shoot Friday, edit all night Friday night and into Saturday. So it’s basically like four days a week you’re not sleeping, for seven years. So I just kinda fell apart physically,” the actor continued.
He told Hart that his first breaking point was after his childhood friends and writing partners Akiva Scaffer and Jorma Taccone took their exit from the show in 2010. Both Scaffer and Taccone started with Samberg back in 2005, and left once their writing contracts had expired.
“I was basically left in charge of making the shorts, which I never pretended like I could do without them … We made stuff I’m really proud of in those last two years, but there’s something about the songs that I can only do with Akiva and Jorm. It’s just how it is, we’re just a band in that way,” the actor shared.
Despite the physical and mental toll, there was something addicting about the demands of it all, according to Samberg. Walking away from that was not an easy decision.
“The craziest thing about working there is once you get going, if you’re just in the shower and you have an idea, that s–t can be on television in three days, which is the most like intoxicating feeling.”
Even after the “SNL” team fought for him to stay, Samberg took his official exit after the Season 37 finale in May 2012.
Samberg first joined “SNL” back in 2005 as a featured player. After about a year, he was upgraded to “repertory status” and became a full-time cast member. The actor started gaining attention after his digital short with Chris Parnell, “Lazy Sunday,” went viral. After his breakout, he even he went on to win an Emmy for “Dick in a Box” digital short, costarring Justin Timberlake.
Since his departure, Samberg has made a few cameos, but hasn’t been back on the “SNL” stage since 2018.
Samberg’s full “Hart to Heart” interview is available now on Peacock.
The post Andy Samberg Didn’t Want to Leave ‘SNL,’ but Had to After ‘Physically and Emotionally’ Falling Apart appeared first on TheWrap.
