In deciding what he’ll do after The Late Show ends next month, Stephen Colbert decided to take a page out of Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader’s book, he revealed.
“I’ll tell you, the person who did the thing I most admire, I mean, not most admire, but the thing that really struck me is, you know what Hader did when he left SNL? He went and wrote for South Park for a season,” Colbert told Smartless hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.
The interview was taped before Colbert announced that he is writing a new installment of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film franchise.
The soon-to-be former late-night host said that Hader inspired him to choose what he was most passionate about for his next gig, rather than worry about status.
“I said, ‘Man, that’s the perfect thing to do.’ Just go serve something that you love already,” Colbert said on Smartless. “See, can I be of service to people whose work I really admire? I thought that’s a great thing to do. Don’t even worry about your status of your previous gig. Just go do something you love.”
Hader spent time on South Park as a full-time staff writer and producer shortly after leaving SNL in 2013, following his eight-season run on that show. Before SNL, he had worked on South Park as a voice actor and creative consultant. He launched his next phase with his critically acclaimed HBO show Barry.
Colbert, a major Lord of the Rings fan, made a joint video statement to announce the project with Jackson on March 25, during which Jackson had called him a “very special partner.”
The host’s passion for the series was palpable, as he told Jackson during the announcement, “You know what the books mean to me and what your films mean to me.”
