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> II. The impersonations
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Bill Hader, castmember: I remember Seth Meyers very clearly coming up to me and saying: "[Writer-producer James] Downey just wrote a cold open where you play Eliot Spitzer. Do you have an Eliot Spitzer?" And I said, "Who's Eliot Spitzer?" And Seth is like: "You're an idiot. One, he was our governor." I know nothing. So it was like, "Go watch this tape, watch him give this speech and figure this out, you dummy." And then I would figure it out, and I learned I was a pretty quick study at this stuff.
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Horatio Sanz, castmember: I always kind of felt bad when Will Ferrell did his Bush impression because he was such a good old boy that you really didn't think, "Oh, this evil little rich prick whose dad and his friends got him in office." You thought, "Oh, he's just a good old guy I'd like to drink beer with." As funny as Will's impression was, the audience as a whole, the whole country, would probably see that as, "Oh, I like Bush. Because he's Will." You know, if Will hadn't done that impression, or at least made him likable, it may have tipped it the other way. I honestly think so. We made up for it. I think Tina's impression basically killed Sarah Palin.
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Will Forte, castmember: I did not want to do Bush. I'm not an impersonator. Those presidential election periods and those great debates that I'd seen over the years were a really special thing about the show, but I felt like I was part of the one period that might not have been so great just because I didn't think that I was that good. It's a shame because Seth Meyers did a great John Kerry; he would hold up his end of the deal, but I just didn't give him anything great to play off of. It was also hard because Will Ferrell was so good at it. It was almost like somebody coming in and taking over the role of Church Lady. That's Dana Carvey; nobody else can do Church Lady. And that's kind of what it felt like with George Bush. You can't retire George Bush because somebody's gotta be him.
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Will Ferrell, castmember: I get asked in a press junket, "Do you have a good Obama up your sleeve?" and I'm like, "No." Once I left the show, I stopped trying to think of political impressions. But also, Obama is difficult. He's very dry and subtle. And yet you see Jay [Pharoah], and the people get it down, and you're like, "Oh, there's the impression."
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James Downey, producer-writer: If I had to describe Obama as a comedy project, I would say, "Degree of difficulty, 10 point 10." It's like being a rock climber looking up at a thousand-foot-high face of solid obsidian, polished and oiled. There's not a single thing to grab onto — certainly not a flaw or hook that you can caricature. [Al] Gore had these "handles," so did Bush, and Sarah Palin, and even Hillary had them. But with Obama, it was the phenomenon — less about him and more about the effect he had on other people and the way he changed their behavior. So that's the way I wrote him.
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Fred Armisen, castmember: My approach to everything in life is, "Sure, I'll give it a try." I knew they were looking for an Obama, so when Lorne called me into his office and [producer] Marci Klein said, "Let Fred do it," and Lorne was like, "Would you want to try it?," I was just like, "OK, I'll give it a try." They asked me on a Tuesday, and I think I did it thatSaturday. I bought Obama's book on iTunes, and I watched videos.
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Jay Pharoah, castmember: I did an event at Harvey Weinstein's house — very nice; I'd never been there. I was trying to take my makeup off because I was [Obama] at this event, and [Obama] stood right there watching me do it. He was laughing; it was so petrifying. As long as there's no beef between me and the president, that's good. When that happens, you're Kanye West.
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Paula Pell, writer: I planned that I was going to come up and talk to [Palin] and shake her hand and welcome her and say, "My wife and I are very good people, and we live a very socially conscious life, and we do a lot for our community, and I just want you to know the face of gay couples and gay people," and I had this whole speech planned. Then I just kind of came up to her in the chaos in the hallway and just nodded and said "hi" and walked off. I thought to myself, "I'm such a chickenshit." I was like, "Wow, she's pretty." I just got overwhelmed by the fact that this character who was everywhere on TV was in front of me, and she was real and just ridiculous. So I didn't get my big political moment.