{"id":691775,"date":"2026-06-08T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/691775\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T15:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T15:20:10","slug":"bowen-yang-and-rachel-sennott-on-delaying-snl-exit-and-i-love-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/691775\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowen Yang and Rachel Sennott on Delaying ‘SNL’ Exit and ‘I Love L.A.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThis interview is part of Variety and CNN\u2019s Actors on Actors<\/a> series. Watch the full video interview now at CNN.com\/Watch (or on the CNN app)\u00a0and on Variety\u2019s YouTube channel starting at 11:59 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

\n\tBowen Yang<\/a> and Rachel Sennott<\/a> first met as young, eager, internet-savvy members of Brooklyn\u2019s alternative stand-up scene, who didn\u2019t fit into the boxes prescribed by Manhattan institutions like the Comedy Cellar. But less than a decade later, they\u2019ve both accomplished more than most aspiring comedians ever dream of. Yang, 35, is now in a reflective period, getting vulnerable with Sennott about the emotional, triumphant end to his seven years as a \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a>\u201d member last December. He praises Sennott \u2014 the star of acclaimed films including \u201cShiva Baby,\u201d \u201cBodies Bodies Bodies\u201d and \u201cBottoms\u201d \u2014 for her most recent achievement: \u201cI Love L.A.,\u201d the HBO comedy series she created, showruns, directs and stars in. Sennott, slightly younger and greener at 30, is still learning to take in all of her success. She credits Yang for helping her and several of her peers find their voices, as the two bond over their Brooklyn memories and share what they\u2019ve learned since then.<\/p>\n

\n\tRachel Sennott: Do you know what I wanna talk about immediately?<\/p>\n

\n\tBowen Yang: Come on.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: When we announced the Oscar nominations. That was an insane experience.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: We knew before everyone else.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Well, this is what I wanted to ask you. Did you bring your phone in?<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: No.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Just to explain: We\u2019re getting a midnight call time, and we are doing glam from 12 to 3.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: And then from 3 to 4, we\u2019re getting coached on the pronunciation of names.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: That was so hard for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: You had a hard time with \u201cEmilia P\u00e9rez.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Once it got into my head that it was hard to say, it was over. And then I said it differently every time. I was like, \u201cEmily in Paris.\u201d But you didn\u2019t bring your phone in? Because we weren\u2019t allowed to.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Whatever Janet Yang says. Whatever the Academy decrees. I love institutions more than anything in this world. I love being a supplicant to this ritual. No, I didn\u2019t bring my phone. But you did? [Sennott shrugs and gives a sly grin. Yang squeals.]<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: I didn\u2019t even do anything. I just was like, \u201cWhat if something happens where I need it, like I have to take a picture of myself or my mom texts me at 4 in the morning?\u201d But I didn\u2019t reveal any information to anyone.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: This is the beauty of Rachel Sennott, everybody. She will break the parameters but still be a professional. Legit.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Legit. Break the rules a little, but also know where to draw the line.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Honestly, OK, we can get real, because you and I have had a special peek into the ritual processes of awards. And we\u2019re part of that now \u2014 fair to say? This is part of what we do in our jobs. And I feel like that\u2019s what \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d is about. It\u2019s about these things that we are doing that are supposed to evaluate if you\u2019re good or not. If you deserve a place at the Form\u00e9 dinner, or if you deserve a place with the brand sponsor. We have to talk about \u2014 oh my God \u2014 I\u2019m a Ritz spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: When I saw that, it literally felt so meta [because \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d has an episode about a Ritz Crackers ad].<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Y\u2019all knew what you were doing, here at Variety, pairing us together. Because Ritz supports LGBTQ+ storytellers.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: They do. In fiction and in real life.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Tallulah [Odessa A\u2019zion] and I are queer Ritz kids.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: You and Tallulah are the queer faces of Ritz. When did you film that commercial?<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: In the fall, for the Super Bowl. \u201cThe big game\u201d \u2014 sorry. For some reason, they don\u2019t let you call it the Super Bowl. They\u2019re like, \u201cPlease call it the big game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Our show came out in the fall. You probably filmed it before. I\u2019m sure this happened all the time on \u201cSNL.\u201d Sometimes things just happen at the same time. Do you feel like you write in response to the world?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Ellen Matthews for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: It depends. I used to be more reactive, because it felt like that was the expectation of the job. But I had the luxury later on to just write what I wanted to write. And it was hard to be optimistic about the world by the time I was finishing up there. It was nice to process things with people, because things were so bleak and you had people who were really good at doing that. Colin Jost has been writing the cold open since he was in diapers, so he has this preternatural way of presenting things to the world in a way that was digestible and yet reflective.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: It\u2019s crazy \u2014 when I first met you, when I was doing stand-up, the internet felt like a place to escape to. It was like a playground, and you could create this version of yourself. And now, real life is the escape, and the internet feels \u2026 It\u2019s hard to tell what\u2019s real. It\u2019s just so much information.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I was in college, I would be like, \u201cI\u2019m going to take pictures and post on Instagram tonight.\u201d And I would do a whole night of just posing in bras and underwear and making little outfits. And that would be my whole night.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: It felt good. It felt powerful. It felt creative.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: And fun. And now it\u2019s flip-flopped. But we all were coming up in the scene as live performers, but also online.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: We were trying to come up as live performers, and we encountered institutional barriers. Like, \u201cThis comedy theater won\u2019t put up my show. I guess I gotta go find something else. Let\u2019s go to Brooklyn and do shows there.\u201d Twitter was the same thing. I was doing lip-sync videos to long \u201cErin Brockovich\u201d monologues \u2014 before TikTok, before it became this conventional thing. Like, \u201cOh, yes, let\u2019s do the 70th take of this stupid scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: You\u2019re alone in your house, like, \u201cI have to nail it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I really think that \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d gave me, as someone who doesn\u2019t totally understand influencer culture as much as I would like to, a genuine, authentic peek at it. But it\u2019s, like, elevated. And nothing thrilled me more than to see, at the end of the finale, \u201cDirected by Rachel Sennott.\u201d I was like, \u201cLet\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: I actually wanted to ask you: Did you feel like you were starting a scene in New York? Because when you booked me on your show, I was like, \u201cOh my God, this is a community that I\u2019ve been dying to be a part of.\u201d Meanwhile, I was trying to get into Comedy Cellar, and they were like, \u201cYou gotta work here as a waitress and blow two of the guys,\u201d and I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know if this is for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I certainly look back on it now like, \u201cOh, if I could tell those people what wonderful things would happen to them. If Ayo Edebiri just knew what the next few years would be for her, if I could tell Cat Cohen and Pat Regan what their careers would turn out to be, if I could tell Matt Rogers what his career would turn out to be \u2026\u201d That would ruin something though.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Ellen Matthews for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: No. You couldn\u2019t tell us. What do you miss most about that time? And what\u2019s something where you\u2019re like, \u201cYou couldn\u2019t take me back\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I miss the stakes not being really being [high].<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: But we so thought they were. <\/p>\n

\n\tYang: We were like, \u201cA junior exec from Comedy Central is in the audience!\u201d And now it\u2019s like, \u201cWell, sure.\u201d But of course, at the time the stakes felt so high. What I wouldn\u2019t want back is I hated putting my own cues together. You have to talk to some guy in the back like, \u201cOK, no. The lights have to come up on \u2018cum,\u2019 not \u2018penis.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: And then during the show, you\u2019re like, \u201cCum!\u201d [She pauses, then angrily gestures for lights to come up.]<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I don\u2019t miss that. But I feel like you\u2019re making those micro-decisions all the time as a director.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: What was interesting about showrunning and directing was realizing how many small things you have to decide. I was making so many decisions on set that I became so unable to make a decision outside of it. My boyfriend was like, \u201cWhat are you thinking for dinner?\u201d I was like \u2014 full breakdown. So overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m making a funny show, and yet I feel so crazy miserable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: It is kind of insane when you\u2019re like, \u201cThe fart\u2019s gotta be louder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: And you\u2019re so serious. There\u2019s a conversation around comedy that\u2019s been going on for years: \u201cHow much do we agree that this is actually important?\u201d In awards, it doesn\u2019t have the same valuation as dramas, but it\u2019s harder for a show like \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d to be optimistic about the bleak state of the world, and how we\u2019re motivated by these shallow things. It\u2019s harder for you to do that than it is for a drama to be cynical about it, I think.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: I was always seeing everything as serious for the characters, and wanting to find them funny \u2014 but not just make a joke of them. Putting them in different situations where you get to play with that is fun.<\/p>\n

\n\tI would love to hear about your decision to leave \u201cSNL,\u201d and what made you decide to leave mid-season.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I was kind of resolute the season before, about leaving. There was a lot of uncertainty about what the show would look like after Season 50. I was like, \u201cI think the show is in a great place without me.\u201d I never felt like I was that central to it, to be honest.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Disagree.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Well, I feel like there was a weird utility to me. I was like, \u201cOK, I\u2019ve accepted this.\u201d I never played the dad or the straight-man teacher. I was always there as the seasoning, and I\u2019m like, \u201cThat\u2019s great. I\u2019m so lucky. I can\u2019t believe I have a steady job in comedy. I will cherish it for the rest of my life.\u201d And I just felt like it was the right time. And then Lorne [Michaels] called me while I was at the U.S. Open eating Coqodaq chicken, and he was like, \u201cListen, you should come back. These are the people I\u2019ve hired. It\u2019s a lot of new kids, and a lot of people left. You should be there to set an example for them, at least in the first half of the season. I\u2019m telling you, it would be very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was the first time I felt someone who made so many things possible for me being like, \u201cI need you.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI\u2019m not going to turn that down.\u201d I felt good about it, and I was like, \u201cLet\u2019s make sure to hire these writers.\u201d Our friend Jack Bensinger is there now. It was my one chance to till the soil.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Did you feel like you were able to give the new people the lay of the land?<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I hope so. I think so. Jeremy Culhane is in the show now, and he\u2019s very character-driven the way that I am. We wrote some stuff together. I don\u2019t think it made it to air ever, but that\u2019s OK. That\u2019s part of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn my last day, the whole cast signed this cue card with little messages, and it all came full circle with what Lorne was saying to me. Ashley Padilla, who was having one of the best seasons anyone\u2019s ever had, wrote \u2014 I hope it\u2019s OK that I\u2019m sharing this \u2014 \u201cYou taught me how to be at this show, how to behave and how to treat people, and thank you. I\u2019ll never forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s the thing I\u2019m proudest of. My last sketch \u2014 I hope the footage never makes it out, of me at table read, because I\u2019m a fucking mess, sobbing \u2014 the thing that broke me was just saying, \u201cThe thing I love most about this place is the people. Look how hard they work.\u201d I\u2019m between Ariana Grande and Cher, and I look out, and it\u2019s basically every single person who works at that show. I\u2019d never seen that before for anyone else\u2019s departure. I was like, \u201cOh, this is the most rewarding snapshot I can ever internalize in my life. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever encounter this ever again.\u201d Just looking out at the people who have seen me struggle and fail and succeed. The people who have put in the hours with me.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Having Ariana Grande host, did that feel like worlds colliding, because it\u2019s another show family? Because \u201cWicked\u201d was a more involved shoot.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Yeah. And \u201cSNL\u201d was the thing that opened the door, and \u201cWicked\u201d was incredibly difficult \u2014 just the flights.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: What did you discover about yourself flying back and forth for \u201cWicked\u201d?<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: That I need Lexapro. And thank God \u2014\u00a0Wellbutrin was not the girl for me. It just made me even more crazy. But then there are the people like Ariana Grande and every other big host who comes through, and you\u2019re like, \u201cHow do you do that?\u201d And they\u2019re always like, \u201cI just tell myself I can.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cThat can\u2019t be it.\u201d But I believe them.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: We believe them.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: We believe women.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Also, I feel like Ariana is probably someone who naturally, without even realizing it, knows how to adjust to jet lag before she even has it.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: She shows up to set an hour and a half early every day. But having Ariana there, and Cher \u2014Cher got booked through Keri Powers, one of our amazing bookers at \u201cSNL,\u201d and she runs up to me sobbing, like, \u201cI booked Cher for you.\u201d I was like, \u201cI can\u2019t deal with that. I\u2019m the luckiest gay guy to ever live.\u201d And having Ari there, she was just such a good friend the entire time. Like, \u201cOh my God, you\u2019re making this about me and you should be making this about you! You\u2019re you!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: We\u2019re here doing Actors on Actors. This isn\u2019t your first time doing it, for real or for fake \u2014 the \u201cSNL\u201d parody of Actors on Actors. What was it like doing that?<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: That was my last topical sketch I ever wrote. Like, \u201cIt\u2019s the holidays. Let\u2019s have Good King Wenceslas talk to the Little Drummer Boy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: [Affects a self-serious tone] The Grinch being like, \u201cAnd my heart [grew] three times,\u201d and everyone\u2019s like, \u201cYes, yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd we\u2019re now doing that.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: I think we\u2019re transcending that. We\u2019re yapping. I love to gab. I think this is \u201cGabbers on Gabbers.\u201d I have a question about \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d Season 2. I can\u2019t believe you\u2019re doing all of these things. \u201cBig Mistakes\u201d on Netflix. Tell me about you in this time right now. I think people don\u2019t appreciate Rachel Sennott in her writer bag enough.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: Thank you. I am in my writer bag. There is something so crazy about being in a writers\u2019 room and then doing stuff like this on the weekends, because it feels like such different modes. When you\u2019re in writer mode, you feel like your mind is eating itself sometimes. You wake up in the middle of the night like, \u201cWait a second, this has to happen.\u201d And then you have days where you\u2019re in flow state, and you go, \u201cJust wait till they get a load of this.\u201d And then you bring in the other three people, and you pitch your idea from yesterday, and as you\u2019re on sentence three, you\u2019re like, \u201cThis is not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI think I learned what a writers\u2019 room is on Season 1, because all my writing experience had been either solo or with one other writing partner. Everyone would pitch stuff, and in my head I would be like, \u201cOK, so all of those things have to happen.\u201d I would be so afraid to let go of something that I was exerting extra mental energy that I didn\u2019t need to [and getting] a tension headache at the end of the day, working backwards from \u201cWell, I really want to end the episode with her in a pool.\u201d I just wanted that idea, and we can get there, but also try a version where she\u2019s in the pool in the middle of the episode. Or the beginning. Or there\u2019s no pool. Or maybe the pool episode happens in Season 2. Releasing my grip helped a lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: A lot of other shows about showbiz aren\u2019t this honest about that mentality towards it. I really want people to understand that you\u2019ve done something special. I don\u2019t totally buy the comparisons to other HBO shows about friends of the past, because there\u2019s a statement here in \u201cI Love L.A.\u201d that was not quite as concise in these other shows. You\u2019re saying something about the way the world works, and I really hope you own that.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: I feel so, so blessed to have known you since I first started in comedy.<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Ditto.<\/p>\n

\n\tSennott: A lot of times people change, and you have been constant and steady in the way that you are welcoming, lovely, funny, talented. On time. Early!<\/p>\n

\n\tYang: Either one.<\/p>\n

\t\tProp styling and art direction: Shawn Patrick Anderson\/Acme Studios; Assistant prop styling: Joseph Bell\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This interview is part of Variety and CNN\u2019s Actors on Actors series. Watch the full video interview now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[166957,12395,236,88,46919,12015],"class_list":["post-691775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-actors-on-actors","tag-bowen-yang","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-rachel-sennott","tag-saturday-night-live"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691775","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=691775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}