Reese Witherspoon appeared on the podcast “Armchair Expert” and spoke candidly about her absence from “SNL” in nearly 15 years, since making her hosting debut on the show’s first episode after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Witherspoon was just 24 years old at the time and had just finished the summer box office success of “Legally Blonde.”
“I give it zero stars. I don’t recommend it,” the Oscar winner said of his “SNL” hosting debut (via The Daily Beast). “It was too much responsibility for a 24-year-old girl.”
“I got a call from Lorne Michaels and said, ‘We really want you to come. We really need this. Rudy Giuliani is coming. All the firefighters are coming. Paul Simon is going to sing. You’re going to come out and do some light stuff, ‘I want you to tell Melica – you can’t feel it – we’ve got to laugh again, we’ve got to get our national spirit back,’ ” Witherspoon recalled, adding that “Ethics” didn’t turn her off as host of the episode.
“I was 24 years old. I had a baby. I had a one-year-old. I was a new mom. My biggest movie came out that summer,” she said. “But if you know me, I think if I say I’m going to do something, a real disaster must happen. We did it, and it was good.”
Witherspoon said of SNL that she “completely left her body” during an episode and “didn’t leave her body for 15 years.” Her post-9/11 episode famously began with then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivering a passionate speech while surrounded by New York City firefighters and police officers. Paul Simon then sang “The Boxer” and the show returned to a more traditional appearance with sketches and Witherspoon’s monologue.
Lorne Michaels previously told Rolling Stone that Witherspoon was “fearless” in her decision to host the first post-9/11 “SNL” show, adding, “I’ve always had a lot of respect for her at the time. There were a lot of people who said, ‘I don’t think you can continue.'” We’ve faced that situation many times before, and we need to find a way to make it happen. We knew it was very, very important that we attend. ”
You can watch Witherspoon’s full interview on the Armchair Expert podcast in the video below.
