Bobby Moynihan: Leaving ‘Saturday Night Live’ For ‘Me, Myself & I’ About “Becoming An Adult And Moving On”
Bobby Moynihan came to TCA to talk about his new CBS comedy Me, Myself & I, but, understandably, took a lot of Saturday Night Live questions.
“I’m an unabashed fan of SNL and would have stayed there forever and ever,” Moynihan acknowledged. “The day you get SNL you start worrying about your exit from SNL; it was always on my mind. It was 13 years of getting it, and then, one day you get it” and then you start thinking ‘This is my life’s dream, what am I going to do after this?’ It’s always in the back of your mind,” Moynihan said.
“I knew my contract was ending. I went to LA and went to a meeting,” Moynihan said of jumping to CBS. He remembered thinking, “I’ve got to make a decision soon” whether to “hang out at the place I love most, or try and become an adult and move on.”
Asked why he left SNL when the show is on fire thanks to Donald Trump, Moynihan said, “I felt like I was on one show for eight years and another for one year. It was a completely different machine last year, took on a whole different level.”
“You get so used to never sleeping and writing all night long, and I made it through eight years of this, thinking this can’t get any worse. And then, all of a sudden Trump happens…With Trump you would come in on Friday and he did something nuts, and we’d have to re-do everything. At times we were doing a brand new cold open on Saturday.
“But I’m so thankful I was there for that year. My first episode was the first time Tina [Fey] did Sarah Palin. And I was in the audience for Sean Spicer, when Melissa [McCarthy] did that.” Moynihan called it “the hardest year easily”of SNL, “but also, weirdly, maybe deep down one of my favorites. I was glad I got to be there for it.”
Written by Dan Kopelman, Me, Myself & I examines one man’s life over a 50-year span. The show will focus on three distinct periods in Alex Riley’s life: as a 14-year-old in 1991 (Jack Dylan), a 40-year-old in present day (Moynihan), and a 65-year-old in 2042 (John Larroquette).
EP Dan Kopelman said he never considered having Moynihan play the two adult roles. “It was always going to be three actors playing the same role and get the best actors for the role and trust that the audience is going to go along for the ride.
Laroquette being much taller than Moynihan, “in the future scenes we tried to surround [Laroquette] with taller people so he is not towering over them.” But Moynihan and Larroquette are never seen together on screen, Kopelman reminded. “If we do our job right, you’re going to go along for the ride.”
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