Is there pressure at SNL to build recurring characters?
It seems like even sketches like your ESPN reporter bit with Jason Sudeikis—which you wouldn’t think of as being a recurring thing—tend to get brought back again and again. WF: No. Not at all. Every week, you just go into the situation trying to create the best scene you can. You never go into it mindful of a character’s possibility of repeating. You don’t go into that room going, “Okay, I’m going to think of a recurring character this week.” It just doesn’t come that way. You’re trying to do the best scene you can for the host for that week. If you have a fun enough time doing that, you might try it out again. If it works that time, and you still feel like you have fresh ideas, you keep going. Sometimes it’s a little laziness. [Laughs.] “Oh, I don’t have any ideas; I’ll just do this thing,” because you already have a template for how it goes. AVC: How much does the burden of the work schedule you’re under contribute to that laziness? WF: I guess “laziness” is the wrong word. It’s more
