Jon Hamm calls the experience of hosting the Saturday Night Live for the first time a “roller coaster ride”.
The Mad Men alum recounted the first time he hosted Saturday Night Live and reminisced how he was “very, very scared.”
In the past, the actor has hosted SNL three times, and during a conversation on The Tonight Show, he got candid on the experience of hosting the late-night sketch show.
“I remember being very, very scared up until about 10 seconds before you go out the door,” Hamm told host Jimmy Fallon, who is a SNL alum himself.
“And [stage manager] Gena Rositano’s back there counting you down, screaming in your ear, and you’re looking at a tiny screen, and your back is up against the wall, and you have to walk down the steps. ‘Don’t trip,’ that’s all I was thinking about.”
Hamm, who debuted as SNL guest host on October 25, 2008, added, “At a certain point, literally as the band is playing, and it’s so loud, and you can’t hear anything, and Gena’s like, ‘5, 4 … ‘ and I go, ‘Oh wait, it’s a ride. It’s a roller coaster ride. You just have to hold on and not fall out of the car.’”
The actor also remarked how he thought he would be just fine, realising how the show went by so fast.
“It was the greatest 90 minutes of your life,” he exclaimed.
“It goes by like it’s 45 seconds,” Hamm said. “You look down, you look up, it’s ‘Update,’ you look down again and you’re at goodnights, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, what happened? Let’s do it one more time.’ The good news is, you get a chance to do it twice — you do dress [rehearsal] and air. It was just the best. So exhilarating.”
