Bill Hader was among the handful of Saturday Night Live alumni who did not attend the show’s 50th anniversary special earlier this year.

And appearing on Late Night With Seth Meyers Tuesday night, Hader and fellow SNL alum Meyers indicated his anxiety, which Hader has been open about having, was responsible for his absence.

“You were very open and honest after you left SNL, about the anxiety you had when you were working there,” Meyers said to Hader on Tuesday’s Late Night. “And then, for the SNL 50th [anniversary], I think people were obviously at first disappointed you weren’t coming, but that was the reason. And I sort of celebrated your choice.”

The SNL50 special even featured a digital short about the prevalence of castmembers having anxiety, which Hader said he was asked to participate in.

“Andy [Samberg] called me and was like, ‘Hey, so we’re doing this short about how, you know, anxiety, everybody had anxiety, and so it’s me calling you, and dah dah dah dah,’” Hader said. “When he told me about it, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that.’ He’s like, ‘Why?’ and I’m like, ‘Because I’m anxious!’”

“I was like, ‘I don’t want to do it,’” Hader added, laughing, before launching into an impression of Samberg trying to get him on board.

Bowen Yang ended up playing the role meant for Hader in the anxiety sketch.

Looking back at his time on SNL, Hader also marveled at how Meyers and fellow alum Amy Poehler didn’t seem too anxious.

“You and [Amy] Poehler were just, like, ice in your veins,” he said. “You guys went out there, and I was, like, trembling, anxious, and you guys went out, I remember, and something went wrong, and you went, ‘Well, something went wrong. Oh, something went wrong!’” Hader said, shrugging.

“I was like, ‘You can just do that?!’” he added, laughing. “I could just in the middle of a thing go, like, ‘This sucks! I’m gonna go home!’ I’m like, ‘Oh, man, I wish I could do that all the time. That’d be great.’”

Hader talked openly about having anxiety that led to panic attacks during his time on SNL, and he spoke out about it further in a 2022 Hollywood Reporter cover story.

“Anxiety is always fighting those voices in your head saying, ‘Here’s all the bad things that are going to happen,’” the Barry alum said. “Weirdly, I have a harder time with day-to-day stuff, as opposed to running a TV show.”

On Late Night Tuesday, Hader revealed that his battle with anxiety may have also contributed to him recently having shingles.

Hader broke out into laughter when Meyers revealed Hader recently had the disease.

“Yeah from stress,” Hader said. “I was like, ‘What causes this?’ and the guy was like ‘Anxiety! I know because you always talk about how you have anxiety. That’s probably why you had the shingles.’ “

He went on to share that having shingles involved more painful symptoms than he anticipated including a backache and a “crazy rash.”

Hader and Meyers agreed the name was likely part of the issue with why they underestimate the disease, with Hader suggesting it be called “fire blisters.”

“You don’t want blisters that feel like they have ants inside of them crawling out of your skin,” Hader said.

The pair continued to discuss what they jokingly referred to as Hader’s “relentless maladies,” which included something happening to his eye that kept him from attending the 2025 Golden Globes.

“My eye exploded,” Hader revealed, laughing, seemingly at the absurdity. “I have vasculitis in the retina in my eye and I lost vision in my eye and I had to get a shot in my eye.”

Meyers said he saw Hader’s girlfriend Ali Wong at the awards ceremony and she mimed an explosion by her eye to indicate why Hader wasn’t with her.

“He sneezed and his eye exploded,” Hader joked of Wong’s message. “I had to get a shot in my eye, and then I couldn’t go.”

Hader also talked about being included in Wong’s Emmy-nominated Single Lady special and her current stand-up set, joking about how he was learning about her past relationships in a public setting.