Although James Marsden was able to nab a guest role on NBC’s “30 Rock,” he failed to become a regular at the studio after botching his “Saturday Night Live” try-out.
The “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” star said on a Dec. 18 episode of “Live with Kelly and Mark” that he once auditioned for the prolific sketch comedy show, “if you can call it that,” but was given the thumbs down after failing to deliver on the talent scouts’ direction.
“They did a nationwide talent search and a friend of mine in my drama class, or whatever, who I used to do these humorous sketches with, said, ‘Let’s go down and audition for it.’ I think they made us…‘Create an interesting character,’ or whatever,” Marsden said. “It was like, ‘Do whatever silly thing you want to do.’ I don’t know why we chose to do this, but we clucked like chickens and just walked around each other.”
In hindsight, Marsden admitted that “it was a bad choice” committing to the chicken bit.
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Marsden added he would “love” to one day host “SNL,” and recalled a time when he expressed his desire to join the show to his “30 Rock” co-star and “SNL” legend Tina Fey.
“I did ’30 Rock’ for a bit with Tina Fey,” Marsden said. “And I said, ‘You know, my dream was always to be on SNL.’ And she goes, ‘Oh, well, you’ll host at some point.’ And I go, ‘No, as a regular. I wanna be the guys!’ She was like, ‘Well, you probably can if you want to.’ But yeah, I just love doing impressions and different characters.”
This year “Saturday Night Live” marked its 50th season on air. This Saturday, Martin Short, a former cast member, will host accompanied by musical guest Hozier.