“Saturday Night Live” alum Beck Bennett is reflecting on a “controversial” situation he dealt with during his time on the show.
The comedian, 41, claimed on the latest episode of Vulture’s “Good One” podcast that during his second season on “SNL” in 2014, he was told to lose weight.
“I was told by many different people, in different ways — some sh–ty ways,” he told host Jesse David Fox.
“I’m keeping it vague on purpose, because there was definitely somebody, who I don’t think people would know, that handled it in ways that were upsetting and frustrating and hard,” Bennett continued, “which probably made my second year even harder.”
Bennett, who was on the sketch comedy program from 2013 to 2021, would not say who confronted him about his weight.
“There was somebody who put it to me in a way that kind of made it click,” he recalled. “Again, I don’t want to say that person’s name because asking somebody to lose weight is, you know, controversial. But it was put to me in a way where I was like, ‘Oh, that kind of makes sense.’”
“It’s like you want to be comfortable. You want to be confident,” Bennett went on. “If I’m there to play these certain parts, I want to be able to be that person, to look like that person. That’s kind of the reality of of our business. And it changes a lot, like there are different body types playing different parts that they hadn’t been able to play in a while, which is great. But that’s kind of how it was put to me.”
After Bennett’s second season on “SNL,” he was offered a role in the short film “How To Lose Weight In 4 Easy Steps!,” which prompted him to change his physique.
“This short came up and I was like, ‘Great, I’ll lose weight for this,’ and I lost like 30 pounds,” Bennett shared on the podcast. “And then at that point I had a therapist and could start to level out a little bit.”
The Post has reached out to “SNL” for comment.
Bennett joined the cast of “SNL” for Season 39. He departed the series eight years later at the end of Season 46.
“Love you, SNL. Gonna miss you so much,” he captioned a Sept. 2021 Instagram post after news broke of his exit.
“Thank you for 8 years of remarkable people and incredible experiences that completely changed my life,” Bennett added. “I had so much fun.”
On the “Good One” podcast, Bennett said that appearing in last year’s “SNL” 50th anniversary special was “amazing.”
“I wasn’t left out of anything, and I got to perform,” he said. “I got to be there at rehearsal on Friday and Saturday and got to hang out with everybody and see all the castmembers that I was there with. It was so nice and easy.”
