Tom Hanks has been very honest about his preparation for the Saturday Night Live sketch. During the actor’s appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, the host recalled that Hanks was lying on the SNL conference table with papers with dialogue over his eyes and other things scattered about.
The talk show host and the Forrest Gump star first met on the set of the comedy show in 1988. O’Brien recalled that when he entered the room, he saw the actor sitting at a table working on his script. When he entered the same room around 2 a.m., the host reported that he saw Hanks sleeping on the table.
Elaborating on the incident, the podcast host shared, “I remember I came outside one time, and — I swear to God, I think it was probably two in the morning.”
He continued, “They had all the tables pushed together, and you were lying on the tables like Christ with a few pages over your eyes as you tried to get a few winks in before you woke up and went back to writing. Had arrived.” At three in the morning.”
Meanwhile, Hanks further said that while other people came for a while, read their lines and left, that was not the case with the actor. He practiced his lines for two consecutive days and his hard work paid off.
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The sketch he was preparing for was critically acclaimed and the actor was awarded entry into a five-time club with celebrities performing five to six times a week.
The You’ve Got Mail actor became an SNL host seven times between 1985 and 1996. Hanks returned to the show as host in 2006, 2016, and most recently in 2020.
Sharing his learnings from the comedy sketch, the Hollywood star revealed, “You are the host. You say, ‘Hey, I have some ideas for some sketches,’ and every writer says, ‘Okay, that’s great. You have ideas that will take away from us the opportunity to read your thoughts. how wonderful.'”
Tom Hanks was part of some well-received sketches, including Girl Watchers and Mr. Short Term Memory.
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