Why Saturday Night's Nicholas Braun Is Playing Two Real-Life Characters Explained By Director

Director Jason Reitman's comedy drama Saturday Night (written by Gil Kenan and Reitman) features a stacked ensemble cast, including Succession star Nicholas Braun, who plays not one, but two roles in the biographical film. The movie, which illustrates the 90-minutes leading up to the first broadcast of NBC's award-winning show Saturday Night Live, follows longtime showrunner Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LeBelle) as he prepares a dysfunctional cast and crew for the airing of SNL's first episode in an origin story imbued with non-stop humor and chaos.

In an interview with The Wrap, Reitman explained why Nicholas Braun was cast to play both the performance artist Andy Kaufman and the creator of The Muppets, Jim Henson. Reitman said they thought of Braun "immediately" for the role of Henson. Benny Safdie was initially earmarked to play the role of Kaufman, but became unavailable when his movie The Smashing Machine was greenlit by A24. Read his comments, below:

We kept thinking about who could replace [Benny Safdie as Kaufman] ... we kept coming back to Nick Braun. At some point, we went, ‘Well, on ‘SNL,’ you can play more than one character. Why did you not do that in the movie?"

What It Means For Nicholas Braun To Play Two Roles In Saturday Night

It's Not Unlike A Real Episode of SNL

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Braun, who excelled as the scrappy nephew Greg Hirsch in HBO's Succession, plays two meticulously introverted performers in Saturday Night, even opening the film as Henson. Nailing the mannerisms, voice, and humor of two distinct characters isn't an easy feat, and it wasn't a responsibility that Braun took lightly, who scoured the internet for videos of Kaufman and Henson to study and imitate (via Vanity Fair.) This is not unlike the reality of Saturday Night Live, where actors often play numerous distinctive characters throughout a season, like the many recurring characters played by Bill Hader and Andy Samberg.

Related Saturday Night's True Story & What Happened On SNL's First Episode Explained 2024's Saturday Night Live movie chronicles the show's origin and first episode, telling the true story behind Lorne Michaels' late-night series.

However, unlike the characters of SNL, Braun had to imitate real people who could be performed incorrectly and flatly. Baun was nonetheless excited to be given two roles, regardless of the extra responsibility. "I get to be there more and be a bigger part of what this movie is—and then also the responsibility of playing two really important, legendary guys," he said. "I was stoked. Just felt very honored to be entrusted with them." Thus, he donned the Foreign Man accent and blonde beard, respectively, and stepped in front of the red blinking light of the camera.

Our Take On Two Nicholas Brauns On Saturday Night

The Show Must Go On

Just weeks before the cameras started rolling for Saturday Night, Braun was asked to play two characters and put a lot of work into portraying not one, but two comedy legends. Much like the original cast and crew of Saturday Night Live, the cast and crew of Saturday Night faced a creative process fraught with its own chaos and last-minute changes. It goes to show that whether you're in the business of making movies or giving laughs, the show must go on.

Source: The Wrap, Vanity Fair