“Saturday Night” Star Lamorne Morris on Lighting Up the Screen as “SNL” Legend Garrett Morris
The camera follows Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as he walks backstage through a line of camera crews, flickering lights, shouting cast members, costume racks, and one very random llama.
Ninety minutes until air time. Ninety minutes until the first-ever Saturday Night Live.
This is the opening sequence for Jason Reitman’s latest film, Saturday Night, about the creation of a legendary form of comedic television, but more specifically, about the immense pressure felt in the ninety minutes leading up to the first-ever live show. Immediately, audiences are thrust into the night’s commotion, as Michaels struggles to create a show that no one (including himself) can seem to explain.
The camera follows Michaels backstage and introduces us to each member of the original SNL cast, including the legendary Garrett Morris.
“It was more so about the energy of the evening,” says Lamorne Morris (no relation), who portrays Garrett in the film. “We were really trying to capture that essence.”
Creatively speaking, Saturday Night is filmed in a lot of what Lamorne calls “oners” — continuous takes filmed as one long shot with all elements of the scene working at once, as opposed to short clips of a few lines at a time. For oners, actors must stay in character for extended periods, remaining committed to the moment even when the cameras aren’t pointing directly at them.
“This man blocked out the whole movie,” Lamorne says of Reitman. “A lot of long, four-minute, five-minute scenes where it’s a well-choreographed dance that you need to have a great dance instructor to put together. And Jason was that dance instructor.”
Lamorne says that being a part of Saturday Night was equal parts thrilling and stressful.
“So you’d be in one scene, and then the camera would be behind you and follow you all the way across to this moment. Then you’re in this scene,” Lamorne explains. “So, you know, that was a fun thing to be a part of; however, it was really stressful in certain aspects because you don’t want them to be like, ‘Okay, we’re on minute three. The scene’s going well… And then Garrett comes in and f**ks his line up.’”
Lamorne said Reitman actually filmed the entire movie with stand-ins first before he brought in the cast.
“You could make another movie,” he jokes.
Lamorne said he was honored to play a living legend who is not only a triple threat but also a historic figure as SNL’s first Black cast member, someone he could learn from, too. Although Reitman didn’t want the Saturday Night cast to spend too much time speaking to their real-life counterparts, he found speaking to Garrett “very beneficial.”
“Workshopping ideas with him — ‘I feel like you had a cigarette in your hand a lot,’ and he’s like, ‘Yes, I did,’ So I was picking up what he was putting down while we were talking.”
Lamorne says he grew up watching Garrett Morris on Martin and The Jamie Foxx Show, but it wasn’t until later in his life that he realized Morris got his start on SNL.
“When it comes down to getting his tics and his rhythm and things like that — just being an actor, being a mimic, you can kind of pick things up by just studying them,” he explains. “Tricky part was [that] you’re playing a character while he’s not performing, but you don’t necessarily have footage of that.”
Lamorne spent time going over old interviews and sketches of Garrett, and although the film is a testament to his acting abilities, he says he definitely felt pressure in playing the role of a legend who is still very much alive.
“Especially when it’s someone who has a niece who told you not to eff this up,” he laughs.
Lamorne confirmed Garrett has since seen the film and was “very complimentary” of both his performance and the entire cast.
“That was a big litmus test for me,” he says. “If Garrett likes it, I’m all good with it.”
Check out our full interview with Lamorne below. Saturday Night is in theaters now.
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Featured image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 15: Lamorne Morris attends the FX’s “Fargo” Year 5 premiere at Nya Studios on November 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
