‘Saturday Night Live’ and the most terrifying performance of John Goodman’s career: “I thought I’d die”
As an actor who almost instantly makes a project better just by being in it, John Goodman has done significantly more good for the film industry than his name would lead you to believe.
If you’re like me and have been mesmerised by Goodman’s magic on multiple occasions, the first adjective that comes to mind when you think of his performances is “fearless”. There’s an air that surrounds Goodman’s on-screen presence, irrespective of what he is in, be it a serious dramatic role or even his appearances on the American sitcom Community.
The range Goodman has shown throughout his career is nothing short of remarkable, but it can also be seen in smaller data samples, such as his collaborations with the Coen brothers. When you see him in The Big Lebowski, he intentionally makes it almost impossible to take his character seriously, and then you witness his command over his craft in Barton Fink, and you’re almost scared that he’s going to leap out of the screen and show you what pain really means.
Going from that to his latest voice acting role as Papa Smurf in this year’s Smurfs is quite a transition, but Goodman hasn’t given up on acting just yet. He’s currently attached to an Alejandro Iñárritu production that doesn’t even have a name yet, and it’s still entirely reasonable to say that it’s probably going to be a fantastic collaboration, given that some of the other big names include Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons and Tom Cruise.
No matter how fearless Goodman’s performances might come across, the actor has been scared of certain projects throughout his career. However, as he revealed in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, none of them were as fucking terrifying as the prospect of hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time in 1989: a daunting task for even the most polished veterans.
Elaborating on what he considered to be the “biggest risk” he ever took throughout his illustrious career, Goodman said: “Hosting Saturday Night Live… The first time, I was scared to death. I didn’t think I could do it. I thought I’d die once I opened the door for the monologue. But it turned out to be the most fun I’ve ever had.”
1989 wasn’t the first time that Goodman had considered appearing on Saturday Night Live. In fact, he had auditioned for a part during the troubled 1980-81 season, despite having practically no experience with television comedy, and was rejected. The other rejects who also failed to make the cut that year: Jim Carrey and Robert Townsend, to name a few.
When he eventually made it in 1989, there were many things that scared Goodman to a great extent: “Oh, just stinking on ice, not being funny, being fat on camera. Because I admired the show so much, I was afraid of getting kicked out of the studio before the hour and a half was up. But it worked out. Everybody took care of me. It was scary, but so rewarding.” Unsurprisingly, given his enormous talent, he came out unscathed and went on to host SNL 12 more times.
