{"id":48708,"date":"2025-08-06T04:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T04:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48708\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T04:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T04:58:08","slug":"bill-hader-finally-admits-real-reason-he-missed-snl50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/48708\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Hader Finally Admits Real Reason He Missed \u2018SNL50\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Hader has revealed that his absence at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special was not due to a scheduling conflict, as claimed by his publicist<\/a> at the time, but because of his long-running struggles with anxiety. <\/p>\n

\u201cAndy [Samberg] called me and was like, \u2018Hey, so we\u2019re doing this short about how, you know, everybody had anxiety…\u2019\u201d Hader recalled. \u201cAnd when he told me that, I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t know if I want to do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hader continued, \u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Why?\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Because I\u2019m anxious. I don\u2019t want to do it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Breaking into a Samberg impression, Hader said, \u201cHe was like, \u2018Come on, man! What do you mean? No!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hader noted that it was current cast member Bowen Yang who played his role in \u201cAnxiety,\u201d Samberg\u2019s digital short. \u201cHe was great,\u201d Hader said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As Meyers noted in the interview, Hader has long been open about his struggles with anxiety as an SNL cast member. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the minute they say, \u2018we\u2019re live,\u2019 it\u2019s a level of anxiety I never felt before,\u201d he said in a 2018 profile<\/a>. \u201cI was trying everything in my power to remain calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a 2022 interview<\/a> he elaborated even further, explaining, \u201dBefore shows, I would go into a bathroom that was way down this hall, go into a stall and have a full-blown panic attack, crying, the whole thing. And then I go and get in a giant banana costume.”<\/p>\n

\"LateNBC <\/p>\n

Talking to Meyers, Hader noted that his SNL co-stars didn\u2019t seem to struggle with their nerves to the same extent he would.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were never [anxious],\u201d Hader told Meyers. \u201cYou were so calm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hader recalled observing Meyers and Amy Poehler performing on the show, saying it was like they had \u201cice in their veins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys went out there, and I was, like, trembling, anxious… And something went wrong, and you went, \u2018Whoa, something went wrong? Well, something went wrong.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018You can just do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Hader has revealed that his absence at the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special was not due…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[33451,49,48,361,75,28371,13398],"class_list":{"0":"post-48708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-bill-hader","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-saturday-night-live","14":"tag-seth-meyers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}