Rarely does Chevy Chase have a nice word to say—this is hardly news. Still, if there’s one thing he’s entitled to an opinion on, it’s Saturday Night, the movie based on his life and which features Chase as a character. He did not like this movie, and he told its director, Jason Reitman, as much.
“So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie, and he is there with [wife] Jayni and they watch the film, and he’s in the group, and he comes up to me after and he pats me on the shoulder and goes, ‘Well, you should be embarrassed,'” Reitman told Dana Carvey and David Spade on a recent episode of their Fly On The Wall Podcast (via Deadline).
Of course, both of the SNL alumni thought this was not only predictable, but pretty funny of him. Spade dubbed it “an exact Chevy thing,” while Carvey opined that Chase “knows that’s funny, like that’s the roughest thing you could say to a director in the moment, or right up there.” Reitman could also see the humor in, even if it sounds like it did sting pretty bad all the same. “And from a comedy point-of-view that’s really pure, and that’s kind of cool,” Reitman said on the podcast. “But also, I just spent like two years of my life recreating this moment and trying to capture Chevy perfectly, and also even in the ego, find the humanity and give him a moment to be loved—no, none of that shit played. He’s not talking about that stuff.”
Chase is portrayed in Saturday Night by Cory Michael Smith, who most recently had a standout role in May December. As of October, he (very politely) told People he had never met Chase before taking on the role. If he ever does, perhaps he should prepare for an “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”—which would also be pretty funny, if slightly cruel, given the context.
