One of my favorite cast members on Saturday Night Live is Bill Hader. Over the past six seasons, Hader has done awesome work and his impressions of Al Pacino, James Carville, Julian Assange, Eliot Spitzer, and Charlie Sheen have all been spot on. Thankfully, when I got on the phone the other day to talk about his great work in Greg Mottola's Paul (look for the full interview soon), he told me that he's definitely back next season! Which is awesome news.
However, while his impressions have been great, it's a certain flamboyant gay character on Weekend Update that has become the talk of the show: Stefan. If you've seen Hader perform Stefon, you know that he has great difficulty keeping a straight face while delivering his lines. That's because SNL writer John Mulaney (who helped create the character) will often change the lines between rehearsal and the live show. As a result, Hader is sometimes reading the lines for the first time on air. Which results in him breaking on camera. It's very funny to watch.
With the popularity of the character, I decided to ask Hader if he's be willing to play Stefan in a feature film, as many other popular SNL characters have gotten films. His answer after the jump:
Here's our exchange:
Collider: Stefon has really taken off. Are the days of SNL characters getting their own spin off movie over? Or do you think this is the kind of character that you would even be willing to play?
Hader: Yeah, I don’t know. That is an interesting thing. I really don’t know. I mean, no one has asked me to do a Stefon movie. Yeah, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem…Wayne’s World went really well. I thought MacGruber was funny.
While I have no idea if a Stefon movie would work, if anyone could make it worth watching, it'd be Hader. If you've never seen Stefon, here's a clip. Further down is the part of our interview that covers SNL, his thoughts on MacGruber, and his favorite characters on the show.
-
Collider: Is this your last season of SNL?
Hader: Oh, no. Not at all. I’m back next season.
Collider: 100 percent?
Hader: 100 percent. Yeah.
Collider: You’ve been in a lot of great films and you’ve done some awesome characters on SNL. When you walk into a Starbucks, what is the one thing everyone wants to talk to you about?
Hader: Stefon. Without a doubt. [laughs] People go up to me and they are like, “What is the best club in New York to go to?” and I’m like “Oh, very…” [laughs] Every once and awhile someone will say Vinny Vedecci or something like that. My favorite character that me and John Mulaney work on is Herb Welch, the newscaster that keeps hitting people in the face with his microphone. That is the character that me and John find really funny. John also writes stuff with me as well. He is an amazing writer and an amazing comedian too. He is just phenomenal. The Herb Welch character is the one that really makes us laugh.
Collider: Stefon has really taken off. I saw you on Letterman or somebody talking about it and I’ve seen a lot of people ask you about it. Are the days of SNL characters getting their own spin off movie over? Or do you think this is the kind of character that you would even be willing to play?
Hader: Yeah, I don’t know. That is an interesting thing. I really don’t know. I mean, no one has asked me to do a Stefon movie. Yeah, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem…Wayne’s World went really well. I thought MacGruber was funny.
Collider: MacGruber is great.
Hader: Especially if you grew up watching Chuck Norris movies and stuff like I did. It was like “Oh my god. I so get the joke of this.” It was like what if Chuck Norris really was insane? What if he just was an insane person? [laughs] But, yeah, I don’t know. All I know is that they haven’t…no one is knocking on our door for a Stefan movie. That is for sure.
Look for more from my Bill Hader exclusive interview very soon.