Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night Live film SNL 1975 has found its Gilda Radner, as first reported by Jeff Schneider and confirmed by Deadline.
Ella Hunt will play Radner in the upcoming origin film, which is based on the true story of Saturday Night Live’s opening night show in October of 1975. Other newly announced cast members include Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin.
The three actors join an already impressive cast. Gabriel LaBelle (The Fablemans) will play SNL creator Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott is set to play original staff writer Rosie Schuster, and Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) will play NBC executive Dick Ebersol. Reitman will direct from a script he co-wrote with Gil Kenan, based on interviews conducted with Saturday Night Live’s inaugural cast, crew, producers, and writers.
The film’s logline reads: “On October 11, 1975, a troupe of young comedians changed TV forever. Follow the behind-the-scenes story in the moments leading up to SNL’s first broadcast.”
In addition to appearing in SNL 1975, Ella Hunt will feature in Kevin Costner’s upcoming two-part western, Horizon: An American Saga, this summer. Hunt previously starred in the Apple TV+ series Dickinson from 2019 to 2021.