Lorne Michaels Told Bill Hader, Who Was 'Prone to Anxiety Attacks,' to 'Calm the F--- Down' Before HostingSNL

Mar. 15, 2025

Lorne Michaels (left) and Bill Hader.Photo:Mike Coppola/Getty; Amanda Edwards/FilmMagic

Mike Coppola/Getty; Amanda Edwards/FilmMagic

Lorne Michaels' approach as the leader ofSaturday Night Livemight not be everyone’s cup of tea.

In an upcoming biography about the founding member of the late-night sketch comedy show, his tendency to adapt how he treats his colleagues depending on his relationship with them is on display.

“To some, Michaels will bark, ‘Don’t f— it up,'” Susan Morrison writes inLorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, according to an excerpt inThe New Yorker.

In the case ofBill Hader, who was a cast member onSNLfrom 2005 to 2013, and who Morrison said is “prone to anxiety attacks,” Michaels, 80, went for a more aggressive approach.

Hader, 46, told Morrison he remembered Michaels “coming to his dressing room when he hosted and snapping, ‘Calm the f— down. Just have fun. Jesus Christ.'”

Bill Hader hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2018.Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Will Heath/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

In the case ofMolly Shannon, Michaels was “warmer,” Morrison wrote, as she revealed the actress “treasures the memory of how, when she was nervous just before going onstage, Michaels would ‘reassure me with his eyes.'”

Like Hader, Shannon, 60, was a cast member onSNLfrom 1995 to 2001.

“Although Michaels has firm rules about sketch comedy, he is more flexible about the talent-management aspect of his producer role,” Morrison wrote. “Different personalities, he believes, require different approaches.”

Hader is far from the only formerSNLstaffer who has some rather intense memories from working on the show.

In November,Conan O’Brien, who worked as a writer from 1988 through 1991 admitted on his podcast,Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,that there are definitely things he would change about his three years in Studio 8H.

“People always say no regrets.I regret being so intense about that job,” he said. “I was way too intense, and I think I robbed myself of some fun that I could have had. I did have a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I could have maybe written there a little longer if I didn’t make it such a grind for myself.”

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Tom Hanks, who joined O’Brien on the episode, agreed with the formerTonight Showhost. He recalled the writers working onSNLalways being stressed during the show — particularly when a sketch they’d written was being performed. “A guy who wrote it with great passion is over there in between sweating bullets and vomiting out of anxiety.”

source: people.com