“The Fabelmans” star Gabriel LaBelle has landed the role of Lorne Michaels. In the Best Picture-nominated 2022 film, LaBelle played a teen having a family crisis while following through on his aspirations to be a filmmaker. The character was based on the formative years of “The Fabelmans” director, the legendary Steven Spielberg. So LaBelle will be going from playing one of the most respected filmmakers of all time to portraying one of the most groundbreaking television creators in the history of the medium. That’s not a bad track record for a blossoming career. Considering everyone at “SNL” has their own impersonation of Lorne Michaels, it’ll be interesting to see how LaBelle approaches the role.
Meanwhile, the role of Dick Ebersol, a sports television producer who would infamously take over “SNL” for a brief time in the 1980s, is going to Cooper Hoffman. Son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor made an impressive breakthrough performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” which earned him an award from the National Board of Review. Surely this will be another performance to pay attention to in the actor’s growing filmography.
Finally, “Bottoms” writer, producer, and star Rachel Sennott has landed the role of Rosie Shuster, a key writer in the early days of “SNL,” in addition to being responsible for memorable sketches like the Killer Bees and Gilda Rander bits like Roseanne Roseannadanna and Baba Wawa, a spoof of TV personality Barbara Walters, both of which were written with fellow writer Anne Beatts. Along with Shuster’s contributions to “SNL,” she was also married to Lorne Michaels from 1970 to 1981.
With these key roles squared away, I’m now curious who will be called in to play the famed “SNL” ensemble cast known as the Not Ready for Primetime Players. Will we get equally famous up-and-comers to play these familiar faces from comedy history, or will Reitman opt to find comedic talent who might have a trajectory similar to the comedians they’ll be playing? Honestly, we’re not even sure how big of a part the cast will play. Obviously they’ll be floating around the set, but if the majority of the movie focuses on the behind-the-scenes chaos, these well-known names may only make passing appearances. Hopefully we’ll hear more soon, so stay tuned.