Reese Witherspoon is opening up about the difficult decision to host the first Saturday Night Live episode after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Oscar winner recently chatted with Dax Shepard on his Armchair Expert podcast about her debut SNL hosting experience more than two decades ago, saying, “I would give that zero stars. Do not recommend.”
Witherspoon, who was coming off the box office success of Legally Blonde that summer, admitted it was “just too much responsibility for a 24-year-old girl.” However, her “Southern and military ethics” prevented her from turning down SNL creator Lorne Michaels when he asked.
“Lorne Michaels called me and he said, ‘I really need you to show up. I really, really need this. Rudy Giuliani’s gonna be here. All the firefighters are gonna be here. Paul Simon is gonna sing. I just need you to come out and do something a little light and tell America, ‘You can’t feel sad. We gotta laugh again. We’ve got to get back the national spirit,’” Witherspoon recalled. The actress-producer noted that she was scheduled to host the second episode of season 27, but that the first episode ended up being canceled following the attacks.
“I was 24. I also had a baby. I had a one-year-old. I was a new mom. I had the biggest movie come out that summer,” The Morning Show star added. “But if you know me, if I tell you I’m going to do something, I mean there has to be a real disaster. … We did it and it was good.”
The post-9/11 show also included a speech from then-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, while being surrounded by NYC firefighters and police officers. Paul Simon also had a surprise performance, while Alicia Keys was the scheduled musical guest.
In addition to that episode being Witherspoon’s hosting debut, it was also the first episode for longtime castmembers Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler.
When Witherspoon thinks back to that 2001 episode, she remembers how she “completely left my body” during the entire episode and “did not go again for 15 years,” referring to the long-running sketch comedy show.
She finally returned in 2015 to host SNL during season 40, with musical guest Florence and the Machine.
