Murray recently headed over to Sirus XM, where he appeared on The Howard Stern Show. The two men got to talking about Murray’s familiarity with Saturday Night Live, and Murray noted he actually always tapes SNL and makes it a point to watch. Apparently, he's liked what he's seen over the past decade or so too, as he later told Stern he thinks Bill Hader has actually outperformed every other cast member in the long and storied history of the show.
“ I think Bill Hader probably did the best work anybody ever did on that show… It took him a little while to get going, but I think when he got rolling, it was extraordinary.”
It’s funny that Murray mentioned Hader, a former SNL cast member who, like Murray, made a name on the late night show and is now moving forward to enjoy a movie career. (Check out, The Skeleton Twins, it's brilliant.) It’s also interesting that Murray noted Hader took a while to get rolling before he became more than the guy with epic facial expressions in sketches. Murray himself had a similar trajectory on Saturday Night Live and wasn’t well-liked until he put together his infamous “Apology Speech” sketch for the show.
Regardless, Hader is obviously not the only SNL name that Murray has been impressed by. He went on to note that there is incredible talent in the new cast that has emerged over the last couple of years. When pressed about the other names who have made an impact on them, he hesitated to try to list them all, but did eventually name a few.
“There’s been extraordinary talent, let’s get real. I mean, I don’t want to start listing names because there’s too many that I would forget. Between Eddie Murphy and Carvey, Mike Meyers and Will Ferrell and so forth.”
Ferrell, Murphy and the others are all names you would expect Murray to remember and keep up with over the years, but Hader is way more surprising, considering he hasn't broken out fully in the movie world. That being said, it really makes sense that talent would recognize other talent. Much of Bill Hader's work during his run was understated and in support of other performers. The effort and talent that takes may have been lost on other comedians, but Bill Murray obviously knows what to look for.
You can catch the full interview over at Howard Stern's site.
