Lorne Michaels Told Bill Hader, Who Was ‘Prone to Anxiety Attacks,’ to ‘Calm the F— Down’ Before Hosting SNL

The co-founder of the late-night sketch comedy show has “different approaches” for “different personalities,” Susan Morrison writes in her biography of him

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Published on January 15, 2025 02:53PM EST

Lorne Michaels‘ approach as the leader of Saturday Night Live might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

In an upcoming biography about the founding member of the late-night sketch comedy show, his tendency to adapt how he treats his colleagues depending on his relationship with them is on display.

“To some, Michaels will bark, ‘Don’t f— it up,'” Susan Morrison writes in Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, according to an excerpt in The New Yorker.

In the case of Bill Hader, who was a cast member on SNL from 2005 to 2013, and who Morrison said is “prone to anxiety attacks,” Michaels, 80, went for a more aggressive approach.

Hader, 46, told Morrison he remembered Michaels “coming to his dressing room when he hosted and snapping, ‘Calm the f— down. Just have fun. Jesus Christ.'”

In the case of Molly Shannon, Michaels was “warmer,” Morrison wrote, as she revealed the actress “treasures the memory of how, when she was nervous just before going onstage, Michaels would ‘reassure me with his eyes.'”

Like Hader, Shannon, 60, was a cast member on SNL from 1995 to 2001.

“Although Michaels has firm rules about sketch comedy, he is more flexible about the talent-management aspect of his producer role,” Morrison wrote. “Different personalities, he believes, require different approaches.”

Hader is far from the only former SNL staffer who has some rather intense memories from working on the show.

In November, Conan O’Brien, who worked as a writer from 1988 through 1991 admitted on his podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, that there are definitely things he would change about his three years in Studio 8H.

“People always say no regrets. I regret being so intense about that job,” he said. “I was way too intense, and I think I robbed myself of some fun that I could have had. I did have a lot of fun, but I think I could have had more fun. And I think I could have maybe written there a little longer if I didn’t make it such a grind for myself.”

Tom Hanks, who joined O’Brien on the episode, agreed with the former Tonight Show host. He recalled the writers working on SNL always being stressed during the show — particularly when a sketch they’d written was being performed. “A guy who wrote it with great passion is over there in between sweating bullets and vomiting out of anxiety.”