Lorne Michaels To SNL Cast: Don’t ‘Vilify’ Trump
Lorne Michaels Image by Getty Images
“Saturday Night Live” creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels allegedly told the cast to tone down criticism of President Trump back when he was a candidate, The Hill reported Friday.
Michaels suggested they “make him likable” and don’t “vilify him,” former SNL actor Taran Killam revealed on an episode of the “I Was There Too” podcast, where he talked about what the energy was like on set leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
The comedian played Trump on the show before he left in August 2016, according to the Hill.
Killam recalled what Michaels said: “He’s like any New York taxi driver … He just says whatever it is he’s thinking. You have to find a way in that makes him likable.”
Michaels, who is Jewish, gave the pep talk before he made the controversial decision to invite Trump to host the show in 2015, according to Vulture.
Killam has been vocal about his contempt for that decision.
“It was rough,” he said last year. “It was not enjoyable at the time and something that only grows more embarrassing and shameful as time goes on.”
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at fisher@forward.com, or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
