Ryan Gosling encouraged Julio Torres to write “SNL”'s 'Papyrus 2'

The former "Saturday Night Live" writer explains how he returned to pen a sequel to the fan-favorite sketch: "With no Ryan Gosling, there's no Papyrus."

During his time at Saturday Night Live, Julio Torres was responsible for writing some of the show’s most beloved recent sketches — from Emma Stone’s awards-worthy turn in “The Actress” to the emotional melancholy of “Wells for Boys.” But he’s perhaps best known for one sketch in particular: the instant-classic “Papyrus,” starring Ryan Gosling as a man tormented by the font used in James Cameron’s Avatar movies.

Both Torres and Gosling returned to SNL recently for an equally delightful sequel, which was cut for time during the April 13 show but released in full online. (It’s just as absurd and quotable as the 2017 original, following Gosling’s character as he spirals back into obsession, and it also sees the return of cast member Kyle Mooney as Gosling’s designer nemesis.) In a recent interview about Torres’ upcoming HBO show Fantasmas, Entertainment Weekly asked the writer about returning to the world of fonts, and he revealed that it was Gosling’s idea to revisit “Papyrus.”

“With no Ryan Gosling, there’s no ‘Papyrus 1,’ and there’s no ‘Papyrus 2,’” Torres says with a laugh. “The first one was this sort of throwaway joke I made that he really latched on to. He was like, ‘Oh, I think maybe there’s an idea there,’ and I was like, ‘I really don’t think so.’ I didn’t tell him that, but I really didn’t think so. But then I wrote it, and I was like, ‘Oh, no, I think this could work. And then when I saw him perform it, I was like, ‘Oh, this definitely works.’”

Torres says he had a similar reaction when the three-time SNL host reached out to ask about writing a potential follow-up.

“He was like, ‘Should we make a sequel?’ and at first I was like, why?” Torres admits. “But then I started thinking about it. I wrote it, and then I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s bringing this to life yet again.’”

Torres adds that the sketch wouldn’t exist — and wouldn’t be nearly as hilarious — without Gosling’s wholly committed performance. “I love actors who are in themselves world builders, and he is that for sure,” the writer explains. “It’s a dramatic role.”

Since leaving SNL, Torres co-created the HBO cult hit Los Espookys and made his directorial debut with last year’s Problemista. Up next, he’ll star in the dreamy comedy series Fantasmas, debuting in June on HBO and Max.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.