Jason Sudekis To Leave ‘Saturday Night Live’
Jason Sudeikis announced that he will not return to “Saturday Night Live” when it resumes in the fall, during an interview with David Letterman on the Late Show with DAVID LETTERMAN, Wednesday, July 24. Read the transcript of the conversation below.
LETTERMAN: “Now, how many years have you been regularly employed at ‘Saturday Night Live?’”
SUDEIKIS: “Regularly? If you could call it regularly employed, 10 years. Ten years, yeah, yeah.”
LETTERMAN: “Ten years, wow, good for you. And are you the dean of the cast there now? Are you the one that’s been there the longest?”
SUDEIKIS: “Oh, no, no, no. Seth Meyers has been there the longest. He was there about two years before me in the cast. And then Kenan [Thompson] started in the cast when I started as a writer, yeah. I wrote for two years and been on camera for eight.”
LETTERMAN: “And how long will a person continue with this, you suppose?”
SUDEIKIS: “A person in general, or me specifically?”
LETTERMAN: “Whatever you like. Either way, or both.”
SUDEIKIS: “Well, I mean, a person can go as long as they want. I mean, Lorne [Michaels] has been kicking butt at it for 33 out of the 38 years, you know. But me, yeah, no, I’m definitely done.”
LETTERMAN: “Really? You’re leaving?”
SUDEIKIS: “Yeah, I’m going to leave. Yeah, I’m not coming back next fall.”
LETTERMAN: “You won’t be back in the fall?”
SUDEIKIS: “No, no, no.”
LETTERMAN: “Now, do they know that? I mean, have you run this by someone?”
SUDEIKIS: “I don’t know what kind of ratings you’re getting these days, but, I mean, you know, I would hope someone would, you know, would tell them after this point, yeah.”
LETTERMAN (Laughs): “No, you should have called first.”
SUDEIKIS: “I should have, right?”
LETTERMAN: “So now, but that’s going to be – it doesn’t seem weird now, because you’re on break.”
SUDEIKIS: “It’s not weird, no.”
LETTERMAN: “Normally, you’d be on break.”
SUDEIKIS: “Absolutely.”
LETTERMAN: “But now when it’s time to go back, it’s like going back to school. You won’t be going back.”
SUDEIKIS: “Yeah, you start to get that itch probably in August, where all these sketch ideas will show up and I’ll be like, ‘Well, can I make this sketch idea last 90 minutes and turn it into a movie?’ Probably not. Probably not, yeah.”
LETTERMAN: “Well, so congratulations on a great career over there.. Good for you.”
SUDEIKIS: “No, it’s been fantastic, yeah. It’s been really, really amazing, yeah. I was very, very lucky.”
Sudeikis’ entire interview can be seen on the Late Show tonight (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Sudeikis has been at “Saturday Night Live” for 10 years. He joined the sketch comedy/variety show in 2003 as a writer, became a featured performer on the show in 2005 and went on to become a regular “SNL” cast member in September 2006. He stars in the new film “We’re the Millers,” which hits theaters August 7.