First season, third season, sixth season — it doesn’t matter. Showing up as a cast member to a new year of Saturday Night Live “just slaps you in the face,” Chloe Fineman confessed yesterday on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Fineman says she isn’t any less nervous for her sixth go-round than she was for her first — a condition that SNL veteran Meyers says makes her the same as every cast member ever. “I think (cast members) show up with this expectation of, ‘Oh, you know what? It’ll be better because I’ve been doing it so long. I’ll just show up and feel good,’” he explained. “And then it doesn’t.”
How does Fineman deal with the anxiety? “I have to confess,” she said, “I still vape occasionally.” As recently as Monday (this is SNL show week — the Jean Smart-hosted premiere airs Saturday night), Fineman believed she was ready to put down the vape for good. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. I’m going to quit. I’m finally going to quit. I don’t need this.’”
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By Tuesday? “I’m like, all right,” she said, miming a panicked inhale. “I was so anxious and cracked out.”
It’s a feeling that has haunted Fineman since her first day on the show. She brought along the ID badge created when she began, featuring a picture of the comic trying not to panic. “This is the face of fear,” she said, inviting the camera to move in for a close-up. “Bug-eyed and, like, the most clenched face.”
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Fineman says she’s accidentally/on purpose lost her ID 30 times, hoping the security gods will allow her to take a new picture. But so far, no luck. That’s tough, responded Meyers, since the picture comes up on a screen every time it’s swiped to enter a restricted area.
He should know. Meyers still has his first badge as well, though he claims his is more “egregious” since it’s 24 years old.
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Fineman was impressed, but not with the host’s youthful appearance. “You look like you got a DUI.”