14 Celebs Who've Opened Up About Facing The Same Huge Fear: Hosting "Saturday Night Live"
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Sydney hosted Saturday Night Live earlier this year on March 2. According to People, she reflected on hosting while on a SXSW panel a few weeks after the show. "It was so scary my mouth dried up," she said of hosting, per People. "I am having panic attacks thinking of it. I wanted to do it because I think it's important to do things that scare you, and the whole SNL experience was challenging and terrifying."
"I was so scared, but I had so much fun," Sydney separately told People last month. "I was so happy I did it, and I would love to do it again maybe one day because I feel like now I'm prepared and I can do it, and I know and I can expect what the process is like, and everyone's so fun. It is just such a great group of people."
Here's Sydney hosting the show:
2.Pedro Pascal
Pedro Pascal hosted SNL on Feb. 4 last year. It also happened to be the anniversary of the day his mom died. He opened up to Esquire later in 2023 about being "so scared" of hosting the show that he began talking to his deceased mom amid the "terror" and "that practical fear of bombing in front of the world." He said, "And then I talked to her, and it was really comforting. I had sort of the realization that it would be nice to talk to her more."
Here's Pedro hosting the show:
3.Billie Eilish
Billie hosted the holiday episode in December of 2021. Later that month, she opened up about preparing for the show during an interview on Howard Stern's radio show. "I cried every single day of the week. No joke at all," she said, noting that during a break in the table read (where the cast reviewed scripts for that week), she "cried and came back." She added that she didn't "feel qualified" to perform among the show's cast. "I actually did throw up because of it...I had a full body reaction to being anxious about the whole week," she said. "Threw up on the plane coming here [and] had crazy shits when I got here like you would not believe." However, taking the stage for the live dress rehearsal finally calmed her nerves. "As soon as I saw the crowd and felt their joy, it was like I wasn't nervous. It was relieving somehow, and I think that that is just my love for performing. Then I was like, oh, this is actually really incredible, and I don't have to worry. This is just for fun."
In addition to hosting, Billie has also served as SNL's musical guest three times: in 2019, in 2021 while hosting, and most recently in December of last year.
Here's Billie hosting the show:
4.Issa Rae
"It's so crazy to be here right now," Issa said during her opening monologue while hosting in 2020. "I cannot believe it. I'm hosting Saturday Night Live, y'all. I can't believe I just walked down the stairs, the same stairs as comedy legends like Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, and Molly Shannon. My family, all of our inside jokes are from SNL. This is incredible, and actually I'm so scared right now. I'm scared as hell; I'm not going to lie. I might throw up."
Here's Issa hosting the show:
5.James McAvoy
When asked if he was scared to host SNL in 2019, James said in an interview with Access Hollywood, "Terrified. I might need to go to the bathroom right now."
Here's James hosting the show:
6.John Mulaney
"I was absolutely terrified," John Mulaney told NPR in 2019 about hosting for the first time in 2018. The comedian, a writer on the show from 2008 to 2013, compared it to playing basketball in front of family. "It was like, these people know me. And you know, it's not that people who know you don't love you. But they know you. And so, like — you know, they can't possibly think that I should be here. They have known me since I was, you know, 25 and just standing in the hallway like an idiot, drinking Dr. Pepper. And I'm a fraud — which is a common feeling among all people, I think."
John said hosting offered him a whole new perspective on the show. "And you know, as much as I had written and worked behind the scenes, I had not had to step in front of the camera and deal with that. And to be rehearsing things as a performer that I'd written on that show and dealing with camera blocking — all things I'd done countless times on the other side of it — was so jarring. I had no idea [laughter] how hard this was to be performing something you've written and wanting — you know, trying to listen to the jokes while making sure you're on your mark and looking into the right camera and then being, you know, pulled around to do costume fittings. And it was a — an absolute — it was scary. It was a very good education as to what it was like for the other side of it — for all the people that I made, you know, wear wires and fly through the air and put on any costume."
John went on to host the show an additional four times, joining the show's five-timers club in 2022.
Here's John hosting the show in 2018:
7.Octavia Spencer
In 2017, Octavia told Extra on the Oscars red carpet, "I leave first thing in the morning to go to New York to do SNL. I'm terrified, and I'm excited. But I'm terrified. I have severe stage fright, so I got to get out on that stage as much as possible this week."
Here's Octavia hosting the show:
8.Kristen Stewart
According to E! Online, Kristen told former SNL cast member Jimmy Fallon on his late-night talk show in 2017 that, ahead of hosting the show later that week, she'd avoided doing so for years. "For six years, I've just been being a total wuss about it and then I finally was like, at some point, you just have to bite the bullet, you know? And just fail. It will make you stronger, man," she reportedly said.
Kristen returned as host in 2019.
Here's Kristen hosting the show:
9.Andrew Garfield
"I'm genuinely wanting to jump out that window right now. I'm so excited and also panicked — deeply, deeply panicked. I'm starting to sweat," he told PopSugar in 2014, ahead of hosting the show that year.
Here's Andrew hosting the show:
10.Betty White
Betty White, who died in 2021, hosted SNL in 2010 after a fan started a viral Facebook campaign to get her to host. Years later, in a 2018 PBS special for her 80th birthday, Betty revealed she suffered from stage fright before hosting. "Stage fright, it's uncomfortable and all of that. But it's a lifesaver because the panic that sets in, you've got to counter. You've got to get a handle on that in order to do what you're doing, so the stage fright is what puts the edge, I think, on a performance," she said.
Here's Betty White hosting the show:
11.Lindsay Lohan
"It's always so nerve-wracking before you go to do SNL and walk out the first time," Lindsay Lohan told Vogue in 2022 while reminiscing on her first time hosting in 2004. "And then it becomes more comfortable after, but this time I was really nervous."
Lindsay hosted the show there more times, most recently in 2012.
Here's Lindsay hosting the show in 2004:
12.Courteney Cox
"I was green," Courteney Cox said on Howard Stern's radio show in 2021 while reflecting on hosting the show in 1995. "I was not [nearly] confident enough to do that show. I mean, now I'd love to do it. I was too young."
She said that when getting the call to host, "I thought, 'Oh my god, this is huge.' But I was not experienced enough to do that show."
In the '80s, Courteney Cox appeared in Bruce Springsteen's music video for "Dancing in the Dark." She and Adam Sandler spoofed the video while she was hosting SNL. "The opening skit, even though I was nervous, was really kind of funny because, Adam Sandler and I, we were doing a take [on] the Bruce Springsteen video," she told Howard. "There [were] great cast members, and it was fun. But I definitely can see the nerves and the panic. I think I lost like 48 pounds in one night; I was so nervous."
Here's Courteney hosting the show:
13.Austin Butler
"I remember asking you and Christopher Walken because I was so scared," Austin Butler told Timothée Chalamet earlier this year in an Elle interview. "And Christopher Walked just said, 'Just read the cue cards.' All three actors starred together in Dune: Part Two.
Here's Austin hosting the show:
14.Finally, Timothée Chalamet
Timothée added in the same interview with Austin that he felt nervous about hosting his second time, in 2023, only to notice a quote Woody Harrelson had left backstage. "Woody Harrelson wrote, 'I'm terrified right now.' And he put, 'Woody Harrelson.' I read that right before, and I was like, 'Aww man, that makes me feel good. Alright, I'm not the only one that's scared shitless right now.'"
Timothée first hosted SNL in 2020.
Here's Timothée hosting the show for his second time, in 2023:
