Bill Hader has finally revealed the real reason he skipped the “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary show, saying his crippling anxiety prevented him from participating in the primetime special. (A representative for Hader previously told Variety he had a “longstanding scheduling conflict.”)
On “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Hader revealed that Andy Samberg called him about an idea for a digital short about how everyone at “SNL” has anxiety. Hader said he wasn’t sure he wanted to be in the sketch, and when Samberg asked why, Hader responded: “Because I’m anxious!”
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Hader said Bowen Yang ended up playing the part Samberg had conceived for him, and “he was great.”
“I was really shaky and everything. I was really anxious,” Hader said of his time on the NBC sketch comedy show. Hader was an “SNL” cast member from 2005 to 2013, and he came back to host twice. In the years since, he has been open about how his mental health affected his experience on the show.
Meyers, who helped write the “SNL50” special, said he supported Hader’s decision to abstain from the star-studded event. “But also, I just heard this: Anxiety aside, you just had shingles!” he told Hader, who burst into laughter.
“Yeah, from stress. I was like, ‘What causes this?’ and the guy was like, ‘Anxiety! I know because you always talk about how you have anxiety,’” Hader said, quipping that if he appeared on “SNL50” he would have “double shingles.”
Hader said he had a back ache and a “crazy rash” from shingles, an infection he joked has a misleadingly cute name. “It should be called fire blisters,” he said.
Meyers, who starred alongside Hader on “SNL” and served as the straight man in his iconic “Stefon” segment, said Hader had a “relentless list of maladies at ‘SNL.’”
Hader concurred that he would often have migraines, and his vision would even go out. On the Christmas show during his first season, Hader experienced migraine aura right before going on stage for a sketch with Johnny Knoxville and Neil Young. “My vision goes,” he recalled. “We had to go out there, and I had to hold onto Jason Sudeikis and just try to figure out what my line was.” Hader said Sudeikis put him on his mark and offered to take his lines.
After “SNL,” Hader went on to co-create and star in the acclaimed HBO dark comedy “Barry.” Next, he’ll voice the Cat in the Hat in a 2026 animated reboot.
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