Bowen Yang begged Lorne Michaels for someone else to play JD Vance on ‘Saturday Night Live’
Bowen Yang has revealed that he begged Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels to find another actor to play the US Vice President JD Vance in the show’s political sketches.
The actor appeared on The Daily Show and recalled his discussion with SNL creator Michaels regarding playing the role. He said: “Lorne asked me and I said, ‘Please, please, please don’t make me do this.'”
Yang continued: “First of all — God’s honest truth, I really do my best with him, but every time I have to play him, I go to Lorne and I say, ‘You can do a buyback. You don’t have to stick with me. Please reach out to Zach Galifianakis. Please reach out to Taran Killam’ But, no, that’s my charge.”
To nail down Vance’s distinctive character, Yang revealed the lengths he goes to in preparing to play him. “I worked with — you guys are going to roll your fucking eyes – I worked with an accent coach,” he explained. “We had to find the middle between Appalachian but Ohio. Like, we really had to find the right [voice]. And I was like, ‘I don’t want to screw this up.’ “
However, the actor is also acutely aware of the potential ramifications of this, as he added: “I have such an uphill battle here. Everyone in America is going to be like, ‘This Asian guy is playing that guy?’ I was like, ‘I really got to nail this down.’ And I’m just telling you guys, I’m doing my best, OK?”
It was announced on April 10th that SNL is looking to branch its influence across the Atlantic. A UK version of the comedy sketch show will air on Sky in 2026.
Additionally, the show also hasn’t avoided controversy of late as The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood criticised a sketch last weekend mocking her appearance as being “mean and unfunny.”
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