Hosting Saturday Night Live is never an easy gig, but Kate Winslet had a particularly stressful experience when it came to be her turn in 2004 — seeing as it was right after the most disastrous SNL episode of all time.
In a clip from the Hamptons International Film Festival’s A Conversation With… series, the Oscar winner recalled the tense environment on the set of the NBC series the week following Ashlee Simpson’s infamous lip-syncing gaffe.
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She remembered:
“When I did SNL I was on the week after Ashlee Simpson. I was the next show after. Let me tell you, that studio was just a hotbed of anxiety.”
Oh, we can imagine!
The Titanic star went on to explain that all the stress caused some delays in her opening monologue, which naturally did not ease the actress’ nerves. She shared:
“There’s this thing of the opening monologue and they kept saying to me, ‘Kate we’re so sorry, we just don’t have it yet, give us a moment.'”
As it grew closer to Saturday, Winslet was still without her monologue, and she became more and more nervous. She spilled:
“It gets to Friday when we have the dress rehearsal, no opening monologue. I’m literally sh***ing myself. [I said,] ‘Guys please just make something up, let me make something up, just tell me what I’m doing.’…They go, ‘Can you tap dance?'”
Winslet said she then learned a tap-dancing and singing routine in three hours before attending the dress rehearsal, adding with laughter:
“And then we’re recording the show live.”
….From New York!
The episode prior, as you likely know, contained one of the most memorable (read: cringe-worthy) moments in television history.
Related: Kate FINALLY Takes Responsibility Working With Woody Allen & Roman Polanski!
Lest we forget, Ashlee was a performer on the show and was set to close out the night playing her song Autobiography. Instead, her song Pieces of Me started playing on the speaker system, including a recording of her singing — even though she hadn’t raised the microphone to her mouth.
Not knowing what else to do, Jessica Simpson’s sister awkwardly danced around before leaving the stage completely, with the show abruptly cutting to commercial.
The pop-rocker later revealed that she had completely lost her voice due to an acid reflux flare-up the week of the show, but her music career was never the same after the incident. Oh, how we miss the days where the most embarrassing television moments didn’t involve the President…
Ch-ch-check out the video (below) to hear more from Kate’s interview.
[Image via Nikki Nelson/WENN]
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