Paul Rudd has shared that hosting Saturday Night Live felt strange following a heartbreaking personal loss. The revelation came as the Power Ballad actor recalled his first SNL hosting experience in 2008.
Paul Rudd shares ’emotional’ experience hosting SNL for the first time
Paul Rudd has revealed that hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time in 2008 was filled with equal parts grief and joy he’ll never forget.
Still mourning his father, Michael, who died two weeks before the event, the 57-year-old said that his SNL hosting debut was a deeply “emotional experience.”
“I had weird things going through my head, which is like, my dad knew I was gonna host SNL, and he was very excited for me,” Rudd shared on the Therapuss podcast recently. He recalled thinking at the time, “And now it’s happening! And he’s not here.”
“It was kind of wrestling those thoughts with, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m hosting SNL. I wanted to do this my whole life. I’ve been a fan of this show.’ And so it was such a mix of so many feelings,” he added.
Paul Rudd hosted SNL on November 15, 2008, with Beyoncé as the musical guest. Looking back, he still wonders whether diving into the gig right after his dad’s death helped or complicated his grief.
“It’s like when you think back sometimes into the past, you think in terms of just these kind of generic [ways], like, ‘Oh, that was a while ago,'” he explained. “When I think of the very first time I hosted SNL, I think that was a few weeks after my dad died. It puts it in a weird time in history. I have an understanding of when that was, and so it makes me kind of recall it in a different way.”
Rudd, however, admitted that pouring himself into SNL’s demanding schedule brought him unexpected “comfort.”
The Ant-Man actor ended up hosting SNL four more times, making him a five-timer. The roster includes Tom Hanks, John Mulaney, Scarlett Johansson, Will Ferrell, and Justin Timberlake.
