Cory Michael Smith had some big shoes to fill with his latest role.
The Saturday Night actor recently opened up about the “terror” of mastering his portrayal of Chevy Chase and his “very compulsive” process to prepare for the film, which premiered Friday on the 49th anniversary of Saturday Night Live‘s debut.
“I have loved Chevy Chase since I was a kid. He’s one of my favorite comedic actors,” he told People. “It was such an honor that I did not want to mess this up, and I didn’t want to mess my career up. So I really dove in, and for about two months I would only let myself watch Chevy Chase.
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“I just was like, I have to know how this man would say every line, what his body and face would be doing instinctually and sort of deprogram myself and my instincts from this, or else I would feel fraudulent the whole time, which just would not be okay,” added Smith.
Saturday Night takes place on Oct. 11, 1975, as a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers change television forever. Formerly titled SNL 1975, the film tells the true story of what happened behind the scenes that night in the 90 minutes leading up to the first-ever broadcast of SNL.
Although Smith “didn’t have the privilege of talking to Chevy” personally beforehand, he noted that Chase has seen the Jason Reitman-helmed film.
“I do hope that he saw a younger version of himself, which maybe that’s a joyful experience or not,” said Smith. “But this man played such a huge part in me wanting to be a performer and loving movies, so it was an honor to play him.”
The film also stars Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman/Jim Henson, Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol, Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin and Willem Dafoe as David Tebet.