Corey Michael Smith transforms into Chevy Chase for ‘Saturday Night’

Corey Michael Smith has played weak men in most dramas. 1985 And May December. So he had plenty of reason to doubt his ability to play the part of Jason Reitman’s comedies and often Chevy Chase. Saturday nightwhich chronicles the first live show. Saturday Night Live In 1975

“I didn’t foresee myself being cast in it,” explains Smith, 37. THR. “Give [audition] The process just kept going, and in my mind I’m like, ‘There’s no way I’m the best person for this.’ ”

Smith would eventually land the part, tasked with populating one of the most colorful members of that kaleidoscopic inaugural class. SNL. It filled him with anxiety.

“I was thrilled and terrified that I was going to do it because it’s a big, interesting film that will be cherished by many generations,” he says. “They care about this institution. They know these actors. And so the responsibility felt really heavy and difficult.

Smith bowed to the task. For two months, he watched no narrative material that wasn’t about Chase and wrote down the actor’s techniques and procedures in a spreadsheet that he would later apply to his scenes in the script. “I guess it’s like learning a language,” he says. Looking at photos of Chase and the rest of the cast and how they dressed also helped Smith prepare for the role, as did reading books about the show’s setting.

Also watched the first season of SNL Repeat to learn and see styles from this era. “The feel and color of that first season is very different from today,” he notes. “Today, it’s like a really bright, shiny production. Back then, it was gray and brown and muted colors, and it felt really dirty, and you could really feel the way New York had changed. Reitman, who co-wrote the script with Gil Cannon, also advised the cast to watch certain films, particularly those Fletch Director Michael Ritchie, according to Smith, is the best display of natural behavior.

His preparation for playing Chase gave him the confidence to bring ideas to Reitman about his character, which he says That the director was very receptive to it. “I was writing jokes and improvising jokes like I’d never done in my life,” says Smith, who lives in Ohio. I was heavily involved in musical theater growing up and made my Broadway debut in 2013. He’s interviewing me and asking about the couple, and I say, ‘Is this a couple?’ It wasn’t scripted but became a very important thing and an important identifier of Chewie and his state of mind.

In one scene when Chase meets with executives in the green room and sets up stand-up, Reitman wrote a few jokes as a jumping-off point. But Smith came up with six or seven of his own jokes to set the day, some of which made the final cut. “A lot of our early conversations were about how we’re not looking for the perfect Chevy Chase imitator,” Reitman said. THR Prior to the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Every character has a very basic piece of essence that we’re looking for. In Chevy Chase, it’s the ego that needs to be humbled.

This humility proved to be Smith’s greatest challenge. The actor says he was most nervous for his scene with JK Simmons, who plays Milton Burley in the film. In this scene, Burley is hitting on Chase’s girlfriend, played by Kaia Gerber, and is confronted by Chase, who is then told by Burley that he is nothing.

“I was nervous about it because it was most unfamiliar to how we know Chevy Chase,” says Smith. “It’s easy to look at his work and try to recognize his confidence and charisma – he has a real kind of quiet strength and a swagger about him – but it’s rare to see him humiliated. ” To counter the humiliation, Smith turned to a video he could find of Chase in a similar state of mind: The first time he was on Johnny Carson’s show in 1977, he began a segment with Carson. was ashamed of “He tries to recover, but it’s too painful. It’s really one of the only times I can find real humiliation with Chevy.

While Matt Wood, who played John Belushi in the film, was “deliberately aloof from everyone because of the nature of his character,” Smith told another co-star, Dylan O’Brien (who, in fact, during this interview Smith) became good friends with. ). O’Brien plays Dan Aykroyd in the film.

“It was such a big cast, there was a pretty high chance of at least one jackass, but everyone was great,” says Smith. “Everyone showed up to take it so seriously and did so much preparation because no one wanted to screw it up. We didn’t want to ruin our careers by failing to pay tribute to beloved actors. So kudos.” There was a real spirit of striving towards (Saturday night (There is a roster of young talent, including Gabrielle LaBelle, Ella Hunt, Rachel Sinnott, Lamorne Morris and Nicholas Brown.)

Smith, whose film credits include Carol And The first man and are included in the TV credits. Transatlantic And Olive CaterageJoachim Trier’s internationally minded drama, has just been filmed. Emotional value With Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleeas, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning. But he hopes to do more comedy. “I feel like I’ve had a taste of it,” he says.

He says he also learned the value of studying tape. “When I’ve created characters in the past, I might have taken inspiration from people from my past to create some quality in the characters, but I’ve never sat down and watched my own performance. I’m having a lot of fun doing it here. Aya, and I think in the future I can play with some inspiration from very specific people and performances.”

This story first appeared in the November stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To get the magazine, Click here to subscribe..