This week, Saturday Night Live welcomed He Who Remains himself, Jonathan Majors, one of the busiest new actors working today, to make his hosting debut along with musical guest and SNL vet Taylor Swift. Acting runs through Majors’ veins. After receiving his bachelor’s from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the Lovecraft Country star knew he wanted to continue his training at the Yale School of Drama, specifically. In fact, he told Backstage’s Jack Smart during an episode of In The Envelope podcast that it wasn’t until his time at Yale that he started calling himself an actor. Things started to get clearer for him at the prestigious drama school, and he quickly realized that his acting courses were actually less “training” and more like it was “untaming” him from his individual habits. While he puts a tremendous amount of preparation into each role, he doesn’t tend to carry any of it with him from project to project. Instead, he sees each new character as a “tabula rasa” or blank slate. He explains, “You are acting, you are pretending,” and that, “You have to trust that gut reaction.”
There is certainly no one way to break into the entertainment industry. During his final semester at Yale, director Gus Van Sandt picked him to play Ken Jones in the critically acclaimed mini-series When We Rise, which follows the gay rights movement in the United States. From there, he starred as Corporal Henry Woodson alongside Christian Bale, Wes Studi, and Bill Camp in Hostiles, and continued to deliver impressive performances in projects including White Boy Rick and The Last Black Man in San Francisco, catching the eye of Spike Lee in the process. Majors nabbed the lead role of Atticus Freeman in HBO’s Emmy-winning (and sadly short-lived) Lovecraft Country, a fantasy-horror series from Jordan Peele, Misha Green, and J.J. Abrams. 2020 was a big year for Majors, who, in addition to Lovecraft Country, also starred in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. When reflecting on his experience filming in Vietnam, he explained how Lee “leads by example” and brings a level of confidence to set. “Spike Lee doesn’t ask for anything. He demands it.”
Majors definitely isn’t slowing down. He made his Marvel debut in the Disney+ series Loki, ushering in a new voice and omnipresent being into the MCU. He’s set to play the legendary Marvel Comics villain Kang the Conqueror in the upcoming movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Majors recently sat down with Collider to discuss his latest project, The Harder They Fall, an epic western from director Jeymes Samuels, which is available on Netflix. Saturday Night Live was a chance for Majors to show off his comedy chops. So, did he conquer his hosting duties? (Sorry, had to.) It was Majors like you’ve never seen him. He was smiling! Like, a lot! He’s had some pretty serious roles in the past, but hosting SNL gave him a chance to flash his pearly whites and show his upbeat attitude and sense of humor.
Let’s revisit some of the best moments from the November 13 episode of Saturday Night Live. Live from New York, it’s Jonathan Majors!
5. Strange Kid Tales
Ever hear those stories about a kid who has a weird connection to a ghost or some other form of supernatural phenomenon? Out of nowhere, a little boy will start talking about how in a past life, he served in the military? (You know, normal things.) Well, the SYFY show Strange Kid Tales is dedicated to bizarre ghost encounters that children have had. These stories are so freaky, that even the two talk show hosts (Kenan Thompson and Majors) can’t handle hearing about them.
4. Audacity in Advertising Awards
Are you ever watching a commercial that seems more like a way-too-dramatic short film and less like a real commercial? There will be a heartfelt moment between a father and son and then out of nowhere, an Amazon or Facebook (ahem, Meta) logo gets slapped on the screen? If you think this is jarring, you’re not alone. In fact, now there’s an award show specifically for celebrating these commercials that are advertising for a product that doesn’t match the commercial’s content at all. This year, the Audacity in Advertising Awards are hosted by two legends in the commercial world: Jake from State Farm (Majors) and Flo from Progressive (Heidi Gardner). The audacity!
3. Broadway Benefit
Broadway! It’s back! One of the many things the pandemic hit (aside from the entire world) was Broadway. Performers, artists, and crew members struggled to make ends meet as their work disappeared. As places slowly but surely open back up and people start returning to the theater, Broadway is able to get back on its feet. To help out the theater community, Broadway is putting on a special benefit show. One mother (Aidy Bryant) is extra excited because it’s the same show she saw with her parents when she was young, and now she is bringing her young daughter to experience it for the first time. But seeing it as an adult, the show isn’t quite how the woman remembered it.
2. Cold Open: Ted Cruz Sesame Street
This week’s Cold Open was a Sesame Street parody with a political spin. This parody sketch features Senator Ted Cruz (Bryant), who, after arguing with Big Bird on Twitter, now hosts a Newsmax Kids original series Cruz Street, where he teaches little ones about what he deems most important and factual. Here to help him out are US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (Cecily Strong) and podcast host Joe Rogen (Pete Davidson), two outspoken individuals who share their thoughts on Covid and guns. Even the kids (Andrew Dismukes, Bowen Yang, and Melissa Villaseñor aren’t buying what Cruz is selling.
1. Please Don’t Destroy: Three Sad Virgins
If you follow the news, or exist, you probably know a little bit about SNL cast member Pete Davidson’s ever-changing and star-studded love life. In the past few years, The King of Staten Island star has been linked to celebrities including Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale, Phoebe Dynevor, and Kaia Gerber. In another one of their pre-recorded sketches, new SNL writers Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, a comedy group known as Please Don’t Destroy, get a visit from Pete, the cool guy in the office, who wants to bond with the newbies. How about a music video? This seems like a great idea. But, things take a sad turn when the boys hear what the song is about. It also doesn’t help the situation that Swift stops by to echo what Pete has to say.
Check out Majors in the thrilling new Netflix western The Harder They Fall and the upcoming Ant-Man sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. SNL continues the Marvel theme next week with Shang-Chi himself, Simu Liu and musical guest Saweetie.