It’s safe to say that Jon Hamm’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live was a memorable one, for him and Amy Poehler.
The actor, 54, made his hosting debut in 2008, and Poehler, 53, was just hours from her due date for her oldest son Archie when she got some shocking news. Hamm’s reaction made the moment all the more dramatic.
“We rehearsed all day on Friday — I was in nine sketches or something that week, six days before I had done the Palin rap, I was still feeling pretty good,” Poehler, who was a cast member from 2001 to 2008, told Paul Rudd on the May 6 episode of her Good Hang podcast.
“Jon was the host for the first time. Friday, we’re shooting like a Mad Men pre-tape, I get a call that my OB-GYN has passed away.”
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“A wonderful doctor who was in his 80s, who was this incredible doctor, he passed away, and I burst out crying on the phone. And when you see a very, very pregnant person hysterically crying, it’s very scary,” she recalled. “And the whole crew gets really quiet.”
NBC
Jon Hamm and Amy Poehler on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2008
Poehler said she took the call behind a partition on set in Studio 8H and then emerged to tell everyone the news.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I’m like, ‘My OBGYN just died. He passed away of a heart attack last night.’ And it gets really quiet and Hamm leans in and says to me, ‘This is a really big deal, and I need you to get your s— together.'”
Instead of going for a comforting vibe, Hamm, 54, opted to remind Poehler it was his “first time” hosting and she needed to “f——” pull it together.
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“And I go from crying to laughing so hard that like — squirt tears came out and I start laughing, like, clapping and laughing,” she recalled.
The memory serves as a “great example of like, life is what you say it is, right? Life is what you make and what you say it is. And he made me laugh so hard, and I went into labor that night. And I think a lot of it was that.”
Stefanie Keenan/Getty
Actors Jon Hamm and Amy Poehler attend the 15th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards with presenting sponsor Lacoste at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 19, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California
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It’s a memory that stands out to Hamm, too. On Late Night with Seth Meyers earlier this year, the actor brought it up, calling it a “big swing” that thankfully worked out in his favor, given the devastating news Poehler had just received.
“I said, ‘God, Amy, that’s really terrible, but you really need to pull it together because this is my first time hosting and you better bring it!’ Which was a big swing!” he recalled. “She immediately started laughing.”
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