Aubrey Plaza Revealed What Went Down During Her "SNL" Audition, And It Sounds Very, VERY Weird

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At this point, Aubrey Plaza is an icon. She's always doing interesting work in stuff that you gotta see, and she's had a fascinating career as an actor so far.

A close-up of Aubrey in a sequined spaghetti-strap dress and her hair pulled back into a sleek updo
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You might already know that Aubrey's making her Saturday Night Live hosting debut this weekend, with Sam Smith as the musical guest — but you probably didn't know that she once auditioned for the show itself.

Aubrey smiles for photographers at an event while wearing a pantsuit
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During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Aubrey revealed that she threw her hat in the ring to be part of the storied show's cast in the early 2000s.

Aubrey explained that she didn't make it to the "famous final" audition with SNL boss Lorne Michaels, but she gave the "preliminary first-round showcase" a shot with two original characters she brought to the audition.

  Udo Salters Photography / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Udo Salters Photography / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

“I remember one character I did was, like, a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories sexy," she recalled, "even if they were horrific news stories. I was just trying to, like, sex up the news or something.”

  Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The other character, according to Aubrey, was "a pill-popping housewife that had a show called ‘Celebri-Tails,’ where I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they had a tail."

Aubrey, dressed as a witch, smiles for a photo with her hand on her hip
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"Like, I would say, ‘Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail.’ Or, like, ‘Bill Clinton would have a polar bear’s nub.'”

  Christopher Polk / Variety via Getty Images
Christopher Polk / Variety via Getty Images

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Aubrey didn't move forward in the audition process — but she did end up working as an intern in SNL's design department from 2004 to 2005.

  Tiffany Rose / Getty Images for Newport Beach Film Festival
Tiffany Rose / Getty Images for Newport Beach Film Festival

But Aubrey said that she mostly spent her intern days "stalking" and "lurking in the shadows." “They loved me because I did not care about set design at all, and they wanted an intern that had no interest in learning what they did,” she said.

  Phillip Faraone / Getty Images
Phillip Faraone / Getty Images

“I was just, like, creepy," she joked. "Like, I was a creepy stalker. Now I’m gonna host it, so my master plan worked!”

  Tim P. Whitby / Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for BFI
Tim P. Whitby / Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for BFI

It sure did — and we'll see what she gets up to on SNL this weekend. If it's anything like her audition, it'll be unpredictable for sure.

  Lia Toby / Getty Images for BFI
Lia Toby / Getty Images for BFI