Bill Hader has changed his tune on returning to the role of Stefon
After asserting last year that he wouldn't return to the role of Stefon, Bill Hader now asserts: "I don't know why I said that."
It’s been nearly half a decade since Bill Hader last visited the Weekend Update desk as Stefon, Saturday Night Live’s connoisseur of New York’s hottest clubs. But despite previously asserting he would never return to the role, the Barry star now seems to have changed his tune a bit, telling The Independent he “probably would play him” if the opportunity arose.
Fitted out in an Ed Hardy style under-layer and a Justin Bieber-meets-club-kid haircut, Stefon swiftly became an audience favorite and one of Hader’s most revered characters, in large part because of Hader’s commitment to the soft-spoken, exuberantly strange bit. But last year, Hader told The Guardian that he had turned down a tentative offer to revisit Stefon—an openly gay character— due to the political climate.
“I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s really a good thing to do now,’” he said at the time. “I mean, we had an openly racist, homophobic and misogynistic president, and half the country voted for him – twice! So [those attitudes] are really prevalent.” For Hader, recognizing that Stefon could be construed as an amalgamation of hurtful tropes about gay men was a tough but necessary pill to swallow, sharing: “I really love Stefon and it never occurred to me that he would be seen as a stereotype, and that really hurt.”