Reese Witherspoon has opened up about being the first celebrity to host Saturday Night Live after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.
She recalled how it came about
In a conversation on the Monday, November 3, episode of Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Witherspoon, 49, explained how she came to host the first SNL episode after 9/11.
She was originally scheduled to host that season’s premiere episode, which then got cancelled in the wake of the attacks.
She was encouraged to show up
Witherspoon explained that the premiere episode got pushed to September 29, and she was encouraged to show up for it.
“[SNL creator] Lorne Michaels called me, and he said, ‘I really need you to show up. I really, really need this,” she recalled.
They wanted to spread positivity
“Rudy Giuliani is gonna be here. All the firefighters are gonna be here. Paul Simon is gonna be here,’” Witherspoon continued of what Michaels told her.
“‘I just need you to come out and do something a little light and tell America that we gotta laugh again. We’ve got to get back the national spirit.’”
Witherspoon felt it was too much
At the time, the actress was only 24 years old and felt a lot of pressure to follow through on committing to the episode.
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“I also had a baby. I had a 1-year-old. I was a new mom. I had the biggest movie come out that summer,” she said, referring to her now-26-year-old daughter, Ava, and her 2001 hit movie Legally Blonde.
But she chose to follow through
Witherspoon said that although Michaels really wanted her to do it, he told her she was allowed to back out if she ‘didn’t want to’, but she chose not to ‘quit’ the commitment.
“But we did it. And it was good. And it was Amy Poehler‘s first show, Seth [Meyers],” she recalled.
She didn’t end up hosting again for a while
Witherspoon admitted that throughout the live taping of the show, she ‘completely left [her] body.’
The Morning Show actor didn’t end up hosting SNL again for almost another 15 years, with her most recent episode being in May 2015.
It was too much responsibility
“It’s not the show’s fault. It was just too much responsibility for a 24-year-old girl,” Witherspoon said.
The actor chose not to address the events of 9/11 during her opening monologue at the time, which was a decision some staff members of the show didn’t agree with.
A writer at the time shared his thoughts
Previous SNL writer Hugh Fink recalled the episode for Rolling Stone, telling the magazine that Witherspoon’s monologue was an overall ‘disconnect’.
“Not only was she not addressing 9/11, but, we’re going in the opposite direction. We’re not saying terrorism. We’re having a host that’s telling an old joke about a polar bear.”
