The Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone encountered more than 200 hosts during his seven-season stint on Saturday Night Live. Only one made him “very uncomfortable.”
“I will say in general, I liked almost every host that came to SNL," Taccone, 49, who wrote and directed for the show from 2005–2010, told Obsessed: The Podcast. “It may be that people are on their best behavior and/or they’re being opened up to the way this crazy system works.”
“The one person who I wasn’t super geeked on at SNL—I’ve never said this before—was Kevin Spacey," he continued.
The two-time Oscar winner hosted the show for the second time in May 2006, when Taccone was creating digital shorts alongside the Lonely Island’s Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer.
It was the final episode of Season 31 and the last time Spacey, 66, would host before he was accused of sexual assault a decade later.
Taccone said he “did not enjoy that, and felt very uncomfortable around him.” That was all he said on the matter.
Representatives for Spacey did not respond to a request for comment.
The “Lazy Sunday” and “D--- in a Box” co-writer worked with Spacey on “Andy’s Excuse,” a digital short parodying the actor’s Oscar-winning performance in The Usual Suspects.
In the sketch, Samberg, 47, gives the host an elaborate excuse for being late to the live show, inspired by the film’s third-act twist. Taccone even stars in the sketch, handing Spacey a fax that reads, “I Lied!”
Spacey had one of the most acclaimed acting careers in Hollywood before he was fired from House of Cards in 2017 due to sexual misconduct allegations by Anthony Rapp, who was just 14 at the time of the alleged incident. The Broadway actor’s allegations were followed by more than a dozen further allegations, including those of eight people who worked on his Emmy-winning Netflix series.
The L.A. Confidential actor has maintained his innocence throughout the many trials and was exonerated by a jury in Rapp’s case. As of now, he has been acquitted or exonerated in every case that went to trial. He also made out-of-court settlements with three men who accused him of sexual assault earlier this year.
Beyond the one outlier, Taccone fondly remembered the hundreds of other hosts he encountered on the sketch show.
“Steve Martin was a big one for me. I had just put him on a pedestal forever, and he’s so gracious and sweet,” he said. “I got to work with him on a commercial too, this Pepsi commercial for the Super Bowl with him and Ben Stiller. That was so fun.”
“Working with Ben was really great. I’ve never met a more hard-working dude in the business,” he added. “That dude’s relentless.”
Taccone, who won two Emmys for his work on the show, has expanded his directorial work beyond short-form video. His newest film, Over Your Dead Body, stars Jason Segel, Timothy Olyphant, and Samara Weaving. It is currently in theaters.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch new episodes of ‘Obsessed: The Podcast’ every Wednesday and Friday. And follow our feed to listen to the show the next morning on your favorite podcast platform.
