- Kenan Thompson says he and Lorne Michaels will likely “ride until the wheels fall off.”
- The SNL star opens up about how a medical condition has impacted him on the show.
- He discusses breaking in a sketch with former costar Andy Samberg earlier this season, and he contemplates if he should’ve stopped himself.
Saturday Night Live’s longest-serving cast member isn’t ready to say goodbye anytime soon.
“It would be cool if I never left the show. That’d be crazy,” Kenan Thompson, who joined SNL at age 25 in 2003, tells Entertainment Weekly.
Now 46 and in his 22nd season, Thompson surpassed previous record-holder Darrell Hammond’s benchmark of 14 seasons long ago. He spent years determined to reach 20, which he hit back in 2022. Then he made it to the show’s current landmark 50th season and celebrated at an anniversary special that included many of his former castmates, long past their time on the show. What target does the “What Up With That?” star have his sights on next?
“I guess the only other milestone would be just to be the forever cast member. Just never leave the show,” he says. “I don’t really know. Thirty [seasons] is like, okay, that’s just another number kind of thing. Twenty was just such a thing that nobody had ever done. People had gotten into their teens before, but nobody had gotten all the way up to 20. And then I was close to doing it. Once I started getting into 17, I was like, well, if I can, I would love to stick around till 20. And now here we are at 22, so I don’t know.”
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So, who’s likelier to leave first, Thompson or someone else whose departure has been long-speculated, show creator Lorne Michaels? “That’s a great question,” the cast member replies. “I have no idea. I feel like we’ll both just ride until the wheels fall off.”
The SNL star is speaking with EW on behalf of his new GERD Is No Joke campaign with Phathom Pharmaceuticals to raise awareness about the condition and treatment options such as Voquezna.
After about a decade of experiencing acid reflux, which he attributes to “comings and goings of poor diet choices,” like drinking soda instead of water, Thompson was diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). More than 65 million Americans are affected by the chronic condition, in which stomach acid flows into the esophagus, causing irritation and heartburn, among other symptoms.
“It was highly uncomfortable and it definitely started to affect my work in certain ways,” he explains. “If you’re not sleeping well or not able to do your job, that can bring on sadnesses. I’m not necessarily prone to depression, but I can see how those things can be triggers. I wanted a serious kind of solution, so thank God I was able to find Voquezna thanks to my doc.”
One of the Emmy winner’s recurring symptoms is blowing his voice out fairly easily, not ideal for a live performer.
“All of a sudden I was hoarse or I was raspy. That’s not good when you’re supposed to be speaking to the back of the house,” he observes.
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“I sing the warm-up before the show actually comes on, and that’s kind of my major gauge, whether or not I can talk normally afterwards. And that’s when I know if I’m in my better health zone or not,” Thompson says. “There were some cold opens where I was very raspy and hoarse and voice crackly because I had just finished singing and my throat hadn’t had a chance to calm down yet, but we had to go right into the show.”
Thankfully, the Good Burger star’s voice didn’t fail him as he got to enjoy reuniting with former costars Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg, who made frequent cameos earlier this season as 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff.
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“It is so nice to have your buddies back and engage their different senses of humor,” he says of reuniting with Rudolph, who joined the cast four seasons before him, and Samberg, who started two seasons after and has been gone for well over a decade, just to put Thompson’s longevity into perspective.
“It’s the best when they come because they make it that much more comfortable,” he reflects. “It’s just one less thing to stress about. You feel a more settled kind of energy because there’s just more pros in the building. There’s more people to turn to in case something goes left. It’s nice to have people that have that kind of pedigree in the room, on top of laughing, man.”
One of those laughs came during the Ariana Grande-hosted episode last October when Samberg joined his former costar in a sketch set in the Italian Renaissance and replied to Thompson’s lute player by saying, “Ah, yes-a, Kenan.” Thompson couldn’t contain his laughter at being called his real name by his old friend.
“I have a habit of enjoying things in the moment. So anything that I find humorous, I’ll respond to that,” the former Nickelodeon star admits of breaking with Samberg.
“I have to get better at not…” He stops himself and changes his mind, “Or maybe not. Because it is a live show. If we were doing it filmed and trying to do the perfect version, then I would just play everything straight and do it by the book. The fact that it is live allows me to still be a human being and not be overstressed about it all.”
Learn more about Thompson’s GERD Is No Joke campaign here.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.