Will Forte, with Glen Powell’s backing, pulled an all-night rewrite marathon reminiscent of his SNL peak to revive MacGruber—forming a six-minute sketch that seamlessly blended 1980s nostalgia and 21st-century satire, all while the actor commuted hundreds of miles between film sets and a heartfelt health-awareness campaign.
Will Forte writes comedy the same way his iconic MacGruber diffuses bombs—frenzied, exact, and right on the edge of disaster.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Forte walked through the grueling 96-hour dash that began with a late-night idea from Glen Powell and ended with a freshly aired Saturday Night Live sketch that felt “like the old days” both on-screen and behind the scenes.
How Glen Powell Put MacGruber Back in the Room
Powell, preparing for his first SNL hosting gig in November 2025, cold-called Forte for advice and tossed an unexpected idea: he wanted to star in a full MacGruber scene.
“It came pretty late in the game,” Forte told EW, “but Glen was dead serious.” The pair spoke via distant friends; once the actor realized Powell’s passion, he told his old SNL writers John Solomon and Jorma Taccone—“the original MacGruber team”—to drop whatever they were doing.
Esther Kuhn/NBC
The finished piece—a six-minute send-up of Epstein-file denial—landed in the show cold open on Nov. 2, 2025, with Powell and cast member Chloe Fineman grilling MacGruber on his nonexistent ties to the scandal.
Forte, already midway through season 2 of Netflix’s The Four Seasons with fellow SNL-alumnus Tina Fey, juggled Beacon set calls, Pilates commutes to Rockefeller Center, and all-night punch-up sessions. A typical day: “Shoot at 7 a.m., run to my laptop, write until 3, show up at 30 Rock at 4, edit until midnight, catch a 2 a.m. train, arrive on set at 6.”
A Parallel with the Original SNL Grind
“Back in the early 2000s, all we had time for was SNL,” Forte says. “You always wanted thirty more minutes.” This time around, the trio faced real-world sprawl: Taccone, still recovering from a 2024 ladder fall that shattered his pelvis, stayed glued to Zoom from a Lone Pine bungalow with spotty LTE, while Solomon was logging 90-hour weeks on a separate Netflix project.
Despite the sprawl, “we did it—it was really fun.” Forte beams. “And once it clicks, it’s that exquisite SNL magic.”
MacGruber’s Mixed Legacy, Now fortified by New Satire
The character—born Jan. 20, 2007—spoofs MacGyver, substituting Angus MacGyver’s resourcefulness for Fort’s signature canvas of ill-preparedness and one-liners (“I’m MacGruber… I’ve got a knife!”). A cult collection of 11 sketches aired across Fort’s 2002–2010 SNL run, then resurfaced when he hosted solo in 2022.
- 2010: MacGruber film flopped ($8.5 million box office; Forte feared unemployment)
- 2021–22: Humorless Peacock reboot dropped after eight episodes, yet the SNL sketch format remained beloved.
- 2025: Powell’s卫 drastic sixth-minute Pinto sketch re-unifies Forte’s comedic DNA and instant bang.
Forte himself starred in the original sketch and the 2025 sequel, a double- credit rare among SNL players only matched by Maya Rudolph (Bridget Kelley, Cardi B) and Kristen Wiig’s 2016 Psych walk-on.
Esther Kuhn/NBC
A Side Hustle More Personal Than Hollywood
Between MacGruber chaos, Forte has aligned personally with the Holland-based drug-makers TEVA to turbocharge Huntington’s disease awareness. His brother-in-law, Douglas, was victim of the 100%-inherited nerve decay that progressively cripples movement, speech, and mentation—yet remains less recognized than ALS.
“More people have Huntington’s than ALS,” he echoes in every interview. “Everyone knows ALS. We’re trying to get the public to raise awareness.” Forte documented Douglas’s tonnostory on the HonestlyHD portal, advocating open conversation: “just talk about it. The more you talk about it, the better.”
Tackling advocacy alongside SNL, 스트림 어머니와 Four Seasons “is an odyssey” of sleep deprivation, but “it really was like the old days.”
Amy Sussman/Getty
Forte-bound storytelling isn’t limited to Saturday Night Live—it unfolds 24/7. Every act counts. And the next step is getting you the analysis faster and sharper than the competition.
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