“We clucked like chickens”: James Marsden’s embarrassing ‘Saturday Night Live’ audition
Saturday Night Live has reliably generated top stars ever since its inception in the 1970s.
From the early success stories of Chevy Chase and Bill Murray to more modern triumphs like Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler, the long-running show is something of a comedic barometer, even as traditional television continues its steady decline. Though it’s not a golden ticket by any means, it’s still a huge boost to any young performer, which explains why so many people are desperate to be on it.
History is littered with examples of famous people who tried and failed to get in Lorne Michaels’ good books, and one of them is James Marsden. You might not think of the impossibly good-looking actor as a natural fit for comedy, best known for playing Cyclops in the original live-action X-Men movies, which doesn’t exactly scream ‘weekly topical sketch comedy’, and yet, when he was younger, he auditioned.
As the Sonic the Hedgehog star explained on Live With Kelly and Mark, he and his friend from drama school responded to a call by the show for new performers. The pair used to make sketches together in class, so surely the next stage was national success, right? Unfortunately, that wasn’t how it played out.
“It wasn’t even something like, ‘Create an interesting character,’ or whatever,” he recalled (via The Wrap), “It was like, ‘Do whatever silly thing you want to do’. I don’t know why we chose to do this, but we clucked like chickens and just walked around each other…Yeah, it was a bad choice.”
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, neither Marsden nor his friend made it to TV, and if we assume that the actor was 17 or 18 when he auditioned, then he would have been trying out for either season 16 or 17 of SNL, some incredibly pivotal years for the show, which saw the cast split into three distinct groups.
It might explain why they were looking to hire new people, as season 16 saw the arrival of several huge names, including Chris Farley, Chris Rock, and Adam Sandler, while the following season welcomed Ellen Cleghorne, the show’s second-ever female African-American cast member.
Though Marsden’s SNL dreams were dashed, he not only managed to make a name for himself but also thrived in the world of comedy, playing Ron Burgundy’s archnemesis in Anchorman 2 and landing a guest spot on 30 Rock, playing the husband of Tina Fey’s character. He revealed that he spoke to Fey, an SNL alum in her own right, about his failed audition, and she reassured him that he’d “host at some point”, but at the time of writing, this has yet to happen.
Marsden might not have managed to break into this illustrious institution so far, but there will be plenty of chances for him to do so in the future, and even if he never makes it onto the original, he can always try the new UK version instead.
