Chevy Chase didn’t mince words with Jason Reitman after he watched the “Saturday Night” movie.
Reitman, 47, recently appeared on the “Fly on the Wall” podcast hosted by “Saturday Night Live” alums Dana Carvey and David Spade and recalled Chase’s reaction to his film about the debut episode of the sketch comedy show.
“So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie,” Reitman said. “And he is there with [his 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.’”
Spade, 60, said with a laugh, “What an exact Chevy thing. You couldn’t even write it better.”
Carvey, 69, pointed out that Chase intentionally made that comment to hurt Reitman. “He knows that’s funny. That’s the roughest roughest thing you could say to a director in the moment, or right up there,” he said.
Reitman explained how he handled being insulted by the comedy legend.
“I’m trying to balance it, because, in my head, I know, ‘Alright, I’m getting my own Chevy Chase moment that’s 1,000 percent only for me right now,’” the director shared. “And from a comedy point of view that’s really pure, and that’s kind of cool.”
“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,” he continued. “No, none of that s–t played. He’s not talking about that stuff.”
Reitman directed the madcap comedy about the 90-minute dash leading up to the 1975 debut episode of “SNL.”
The cast of the film, which came out in Sept., includes Cory Michael Smith as Chase, Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin.
Reitman said on the podcast that “for each character at the end of the day, I tried to identify one thing as far as the casting.”
He added, “With Chevy an ego that needs to be humbled.”
Smith, 38, spoke about the “terror” of playing Chase in an interview with People in October.
“I have loved Chevy Chase since I was a kid. He’s one of my favorite comedic actors,” the “May December” star said. “It was such an honor that I did not want to mess this up, and I didn’t want to mess my career up. So I really dove in, and for about two months I would only let myself watch Chevy Chase.”
“I just was like, I have to know how this man would say every line, what his body and face would be doing instinctually and sort of deprogram myself and my instincts from this, or else I would feel fraudulent the whole time, which just would not be okay,” Smith added.
