Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels has set the record straight on Samuel L. Jackson’s alleged ban from the iconic sketch show. The actor apparently assumed he was blacklisted after cursing on air back in 2012, but Michaels assured him that wasn’t the case.
Jackson brought up the ban during an interview with Leslie Jones (filling in as host on The Ellen DeGeneres Show) back in March. “Kenan [Thompson] got me banned from Saturday Night Live,” he told the former cast member. “He didn’t cut me off soon enough and I said the forbidden word on television. He was supposed to cut me off!”
The slip occurred during the recurring sketch “What Up With That” (below), in which Thompson’s character perpetually interrupts his guests with musical interludes. Jackson got very into character playing himself, and ended up swearing on live TV. After the sketch aired, he wrote on Twitter: “I only said FUH not FUCK! K was sposed to cut off da BULLSHIT, blew it!!”
Though Jackson believed he was forbidden from Studio 8H’s hallowed halls after that, he told Entertainment Weekly’s podcast The Awardist that Lorne Michaels told him otherwise. According to EW, Jackson says he was getting on an elevator as Michaels was getting off (Michaels supposedly didn’t recognize the film legend until he lowered his mask), and Jackson asked him, “Are you ever gonna let me back on the show?”
Michaels told him, “You’re not banned!” but Jackson–who only hosted once, in 1998–argued, “Yes, I am!” Michaels reiterated, “No, you’re not!” Jackson still didn’t seem convinced on the podcast, concluding: “So maybe I’m not. I don’t know.”
Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation as to why Jackson hasn’t appeared on the show in 10 years. Let’s be real, though, if you were confronted in an elevator by Samuel L. Jackson, you’d probably tell him exactly what he wanted to hear, regardless of what the truth is!
