Anthony Michael Hall Looks Back at ‘Grueling’ Experience as “Saturday Night Live’s” Youngest-Ever Cast Member as a Teen

Hall explained his challenges on the show while looking back at his career with Danielle Fishel

NEED TO KNOW

• Anthony Michael Hall was cast on Saturday Night Live for the 1985-1986 season
• While he was honored that he made it, the then-teenaged actor found it hard to keep up with the show’s “grueling” schedule each week
• Hall remains the youngest person to ever join the late-night sketch comedy show’s cast

Anthony Michael Hall has great respect for anyone who’s ever graced the Studio 8H stage.

The actor, 58, recently appeared on Teen Beat podcast with Danielle Fishel, where he looked back at leaving his John Hughes roots behind and moving on to Saturday Night Live.

Hall was 17 when he joined the cast for the 1985-1986 season. He remembers the opportunity as “very exciting.”

“It’s an amalgam of a couple things. It’s like live theater, stand-up comedy, rock and roll, everything kind of rolled into one and in a very high-pressure work atmosphere,” he shared.

Hall recalled weeks, which would begin with “everybody writing” on Mondays, preparing for sketches to be evaluated on Wednesday.

“And this is back in the day when people would have the assistants type them up,” he continued. “So we would have a read-through at about four o’clock on a Wednesday with the major key department heads in the cast and Lorne Michaels. Basically, whatever got the most laughs, Lorne would be taking notes, and then he would go back to his office after the read-through and start designing the show on the cork board you’ll see with the index cards.”

Hall remembered the days getting longer as the week progressed, noting, “They’re like 12-hour days, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, same thing all day.”

“It’s a grueling job. I have a lot of love and respect for all the men and women who have been great on the show, and especially people like Kenan Thompson, who I worked with recently, who’s been there the longest. It’s a really high-pressure, high-stakes, intense kind of environment.”

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Hall did share that the live show would be a “cathartic release” before starting the cycle again.

“You’re there, you’re feeling the energy — the whole cast and crew, and the audience, of course, most important. And then the live band that week, I mean, it was really a thrill to be a part of,” he shared. “Even in weeks where you knew you didn’t have so much to score with, you know, very challenging, exciting environment to work in.”

He concluded, “There’s a lot of that built-in, competitive Spirit, which is good. It’s healthy. I think it makes people thrive.”