He says he saw great talent in Shane Gillis, who went on to immense success after he was fired from Saturday Night Live
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Saturday Night Live
Nathanred — 1 year ago(October 25, 2024 12:06 PM)
He says he saw great talent in Shane Gillis, who went on to immense success after he was fired from Saturday Night Live before he even got to do a single episode.
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/lorne-michaels-angry-snl-fired-shane-gillis-nbc-decision-1236189731/
Lorne Michaels told The Wall Street Journal that he was “angry” when Shane Gillis got fired from “Saturday Night Live” in 2019 after offensive jokes he made on a podcast resurfaced online, including ones with racial slurs about Asian people.
“He said something stupid, but it got blown up into the end of the world,” Michaels said. “I was angry. I thought, ‘You haven’t seen what we’re going to do, and what I’m going to try to bring out in him, because I thought he was the real thing.'”
Michaels said it was NBC’s decision to fire Gillis and not his own, adding: “That was very strong from the people in charge. And obviously I was not on that side, but I understood it.”
Michaels previously told The Hollywood Reporter in September that Gillis’ firing was a “bad time” and said the comedian “got beat up for things that he’d done years earlier and the overreaction to it was so stunning.” NBC’s decision to fire Gillis was partly due to advertisers threatening to not support “SNL,” with Michaels explaining: “200 Asian companies were going to boycott the show.”
He says Saturday Night Live has no political leaning and that both sides are ripe for parody:
In his interview with The Wall Street Journal, Michaels also maintained that “SNL” does not take sides when it comes to politics. The show is often seen as being more favorable to the Democratic party, especially amid the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Michaels doesn’t see it that way. He said he’s a registered independent voter and that the show’s approach to political satire is bipartisan.
“There’s stupidity on both sides. Our job is to make fun of it,” Michaels said.