{"id":594386,"date":"2026-04-19T21:36:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/594386\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T21:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:36:20","slug":"molly-shannon-says-will-ferrell-predicted-ai-would-replace-actors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/594386\/","title":{"rendered":"Molly Shannon Says Will Ferrell Predicted AI Would Replace Actors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMolly Shannon<\/a> is reflecting on her decades-long friendship with Will Ferrell<\/a> \u2014 and a surprisingly prescient comment he made early in their careers.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!<\/a>, Shannon recalled meeting Ferrell in the mid-1990s while she was working at what she described as a \u201ccappuccino, scone place\u201d in Los Angeles. Introduced through the Groundlings comedy troupe, the two immediately connected. \u201cWe clicked right away,\u201d she said, remembering serving him a scone and a latte. \u201cWe\u2019ve been friends ever since. 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth were hired in 1995 on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d where they became part of a defining era for the long-running sketch series. Shannon created characters including Sally O\u2019Malley, while the pair also collaborated on projects like \u201cA Night at the Roxbury\u201d and \u201cSuperstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Shannon said one early conversation on \u201cSNL\u201d stood out. While she was enthusiastic about landing the job, Ferrell was more cautious about its longevity.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know. Who knows how long this is going to last?\u201d he told her at the time. \u201cI just think it\u2019s not going to last long, and I think actors are eventually going to be replaced by robots, and they\u2019re not going to need human actors anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShannon said she initially dismissed the idea as overly pessimistic, recalling that she told him, \u201cYou\u2019re being so dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFerrell, she added, joked he would be fine either way. \u201cHe said, \u2018I could have a job working as a dog groomer or as a UPS driver or as a coach and still be happy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLooking back, Shannon said, \u201cBut Will was right,\u201d adding that the two \u201cdie laughing about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Molly Shannon is reflecting on her decades-long friendship with Will Ferrell \u2014 and a surprisingly prescient comment he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,45521,92,14072],"class_list":{"0":"post-594386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-molly-shannon","10":"tag-tv","11":"tag-will-ferrell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}