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Adrien Brody Addresses Rumors He Was Banned From ‘SNL’

The actor admitted that Lorne Michaels “wasn’t happy” with the stunt he pulled while introducing that night’s musical guest.

Adrien Brody could be headed for a second Oscar win for his role in the three-and-a-half-hour epic The Brutalist. But it doesn’t seem likely that his promotional tour will be bringing him back to Saturday Night Live.

Brody hosted the show just once, in 2003, shortly after he became the youngest-ever Best Actor winner at the Academy Awards for The Pianist. And in a new Vulture profile he finally shed some light on the rumors that he was banned from SNL for donning a dreadlock wig and using an elaborate Jamaican accent to introduce that night’s musical guest, reggae star Sean Paul.

The typically straightforward intro—think Daniel Craig’s much-memed “Ladies and gentleman, The Weeknd,” went on for nearly a minute with Brody delivering an incomprehensible character performance that apparently baffled both the SNL crew and viewers at home.

“They were all literally agape from me pitching,” Brody says of the bit, which he made clear was his idea from the jump. “I think Lorne [Michaels] wasn’t happy with me embellishing a bit, but they allowed me to. I thought that was a safe space to do that, weirdly.”

Brody pushed back a bit on the rumors that the arguably racist gag got him banned from the show. “But I also have never been invited back on,” he added, laughing. “So I don’t know what to tell you.”

The actor was less forthcoming in the new interview about another controversial moment from that same year when he kissed actress Halle Berry on the mouth after she presented him with his Oscar, declining to say anything at all about the backlash he received at the time.

Asked about the kiss a few years ago, Berry said she remembered thinking, “What the f--- is happening?” The actress said she couldn’t recall if the kiss was good or not because she was “too focused on ‘What the f--- is going on right now?’”

Matt WilsteinEditorial Director

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