Steve Martin Says He Doesn't Want To Play Tim Walz On 'SNL' Just Because He Has Gray Hair And Glasses
We're nearing a presidential election, which means that the folks at Saturday Night Live will be leaning hard into politics, and as such they'll need people to portray some of the key players including vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz.
When people realized who Walz even was, one of the first things they keyed on was that he's an old dude with gray hair and glasses.
Who else is an old dude with gray hair and glasses? Comedy legend and very good banjo player Steve Martin.
Surely, he would want to spend several Saturdays pretending to be a radical leftist politician on a once-great show with arguably the most unremarkable cast in decades.
Nope. He does not.
Sure, there's some resemblance, but any white dude with gray hair and glasses would like Tim Walz, and that's kind of why Martin has no interest in playing the non-riot-stopping governor of Minnesota.
The comedy great explained what happened when SNL producer Lorne Michaels reached out about getting a recurring gig on the show.
"I wanted to say no and, by the way, he wanted me to say no," Martin said, per The Los Angeles Times. "I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist. You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses."
Despite some similarities — note the gray hair and glasses — Steve Martin (left) will not play Tim Walz on <i>Saturday Night Live.</i>
Steve Martin Has Better Things To Do Than Play Tim Walz Every Week
That doesn't surprise me in the least. Steve Martin is a ground-breaking comedian, and to do a lazy impression of a guy he kind of looks like sounds excruciatingly boring for a dude with a next-level comedy brain.
Another reason to turn it down? The 79-year-old would have to play Walz a lot.
"It’s ongoing," Martin said. "It’s not like you do it once and get applause and never do it again. Again, they need a real impressionist to do that. They’re gonna find somebody really, really good. I’d be struggling."
It remains to be seen who the show will pick to play Walz, but we know who's playing Harris and that's SNL alum Maya Rudolph. She has done it before and she'll be okay, but I think I saw a video going around of a perfect person to play Harris:
That's a perfect sketch-comedy impression. He doesn't sound or look exactly like Harris, but dammit, if he doesn't perfectly capture her signature, nonsensical syntax that sounds like someone dropped a dictionary in a blender and tried to make sentences out of it.