Damon Wayans recalls the time he got fired from Saturday Night Live for going off script...
From The Daily Mail
Damon Wayans has revealed how his decision to improvise during a sketch on Saturday Night Live prompted creator Lorne Michaels to fire him from the show.
The comedic actor, 64, enjoyed a year-long stint on the program from 1985 to 1986 - with his time being cut short due to an impulsive decision he made live on air during a sketch called Mr. Monopoly.
The My Wife and Kids star opened up about the situation in Peacock's SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night docuseries.
The series provides a deep dive into what is believed to be one of the show's most shaky seasons, and Wayans was happy to explain why he personally struggled at the time.
He revealed that after starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop, the comedy legend had warned him that working on the show would be a challenge.
'Eddie's advice to me was, "Write your own sketches. Otherwise, they're gonna give you some Black people s**t to do and you ain't gonna like it,"' Wayans recalled.
Murphy's warning turned out to be true and Wayans explained how he was left feeling like he wasn't being given the chance to show what he could do.
The actor had already been working to develop Homey D. Clown and other characters that never saw life on SNL.
However, they later became fan-favorites on his future sketch show, In Living Color.
Wayans continued: 'Everything Eddie said came true. They started writing me in their [stereotypical] sketches.'
It reached that point that the star would simply refuse to take part in the roles created for him, as he recalled: 'I'm like, "Hell no." I said, "Listen, my mother's gonna watch this show. I can't do this. I won't do this."'
Ultimately, his frustrations led him to break the rules on March 15, 1986. During the Mr. Monolopy sketch, the actor decided to switch things up without warning any of his other cast mates.
Wayans and castmate Randy Quaid played cops grilling a suspect (host Griffin Dunne) whose lawyer is the board game mascot.
On the night, the actor went off script and chose to play his character as an effeminate gay stereotype - even leaning his crotch into Dunne as he spoke.
Wayans explained: 'I snapped. I just did not care. I purposefully did that because I wanted [Michaels] to fire me.'
Dunne confirmed that is what took place as he recalled: 'I thought it was weird, but people still laughed... And then Lorne fired him pretty much as he walked off the stage.'
Michaels stressed that he had no other choice in the matter as he noted it had been 'really, really hard, but it had to be done.'
Castmate A. Whitney Brown added: 'You cannot go rogue, you cannot try to steal a sketch.
'A lot of people don't know this about Saturday Night Live, but the actual amount of improvisation on that show is miniscule, maybe one line a year, I would bet one line every five years.'
Despite his termination mid-season 11, Michaels chose to invite Wayans back to perform stand-up in that season's finale.
'Lorne is a very forgiving man, and I think he just wanted to let me know that he believed in me,' Wayans noted.
17 comments:
He is so fine to me. Lawd
"You can't go rogue or try to steal the show" but it's okay to play demeaning roles that you wouldn't even want your mama to see.
Fuk, SNL
Ion know yall - this sound like sisual harassment. You just went gay and leaned ur crotch into another actor without warning or consent during a live show? Lock him up!
You can see some of the terrible sketches they put him in on Peacock. I was shocked at how embarrassing it was. Good for him.
He's not funny. He never was funny.
In living color ran circles around SNL
RWS this occurred over 30 years ago
Coldest tea ever!
^ It took a nicca 45 years to get the courage to tell it. That's the tea.
But was the problem really with SNL though, because after 3 seasons of ILC DW wanted off that show as well and barely showed up for much of Season 4 of ILC?
The issue could actually be w/ DW.
SNL mistreated every one of the few Black people they hired. Lorne Michaels is a racist who does not think we are funny and he shows that every Saturday night.
Lorne Michaels is not a racist otherwise he wouldn't have hired or kept booking black acts as guests on SNL.
I believe it's the writing team for SNL that are the racists. Legend Garrett Morris who used to be on the writing team at SNL have said so of the writing team but stopped short of referring to LM as racist.
Oh please. Garrett Morris stopped short for the same reason it took Damon Wayans 40 years to speak up. Lorne Michaels is a racist who has final say. He fired Wayans for acting out of character and he could haved stopped the racist and demeaning characterizations of Black people.
You can sell that mess someplace else.
^^I don't have to sell anything anywhere!
This was said by ppl who know Lorne Michaels better than you or me!
You just wanna talk sh*t about somebody that you clearly don't know Nobody but you have called LM racist w/o anything to back up your lying a** claims so Shut Up!
Lorne Michaels booked Black acts because they delivered a huge audience and amplified his ratings. But the Black acts showed up and left. They were not employees.
This pic just make me wanna dog slap this fools head. He at a perfect dog slapping angle and errthing.
👀👀
That's what they were suppose to do: book a gig on SNL, perform, promote their projects, & bounce!
It was never suppose to be more than what it was. DUH
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