The first trailer for Lorne was released on Thursday, and it has already revealed at least one new detail about the elusive Saturday Night Live creator.
“I don’t know Lorne the way Alec Baldwin knows Lorne,” says SNL alum and long-time collaborator Tina Fey in the trailer, sharing the example, “I’ve never stood in the ocean with Lorne.”
Adds alum Kristen Wiig, “He has this man behind the curtain mystique about him.”
SNL alum Chris Rock later adds, “For all I know, he works for the CIA.”
Michaels appears himself, telling an interviewer, “All of life is reinvention. So to be understood—not gonna happen.”
But his closest collaborators have identified the poker-faced producer’s biggest tell when he’s unhappy with how an SNL sketch is going.
Seth Meyers reveals, “You’ll know it’s not playing the way Lorne thought it was going to play when he does this,” Meyers says, mimicking Michaels blowing air out of his cheeks as he watches playback.
“Weekend Update” host Colin Jost adds, “It feels like he’s blowing your soul out of your body.”
The surprise documentary was first announced last month and will hit U.S. theaters on April 17. The film promises “unprecedented access” to the SNL creator, and is billed as his “first, last, and only” documentary.
Other comedians featured include Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, and many more. The new release comes after a biography about Michaels was published around the time of the show’s 50th anniversary last year.
The 50th milestone dredged up questions about whether Michaels was considering retirement. The documentary teases a cheeky exploration of the topic.
Steve Martin appears with Michaels in a scene that shows the pair out to dinner. “So, you going to retire?” Martin asks Michaels, who doesn’t answer, and instead steals one of Martin’s chips.
Michaels is more forthcoming in the trailer’s included footage about how he knows what will work for his show: “What is funny? It’s like pornography. You know it when you see it.”
