Originally appeared on E! Online
Live from New York it’s Andy Samberg feeling the nerves again.
The "Saturday Night Live" alum recently went back to Studio 8H to portray Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff for the NBC comedy show’s election coverage during season 50. But his seven years of experience on "SNL" have not made his return much easier.
"It's been fun, I gotta say,” Samberg said on the Oct. 28 episode of "The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast." “It's been really fun going back, but again, also inheriting — re-inheriting — the stress of it and being like, 'Oh, right, this is intense.’”
But the 46-year-old noted that he and fellow alum Maya Rudolph — who has returned to play the democratic presidential nominee — agree that the anxiety isn’t as bad as their original run on the show.
“Me and Maya have been talking about how it’s a little bit more mellow because we know why we’re there specifically,” he continued, noting that a moment from Oct. 19 left him particularly nervous. “I was like, ‘If this "Beetlejuice" thing doesn’t work, I’m just going to be here and not do anything.’ And that puts you right back in the feeling of being a cast member — of, you’re always at risk.”
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ICYMI, he joined host Michael Keaton for his opening monologue. "Hey, don't you normally play Doug Emhoff in the cold opens?" Keaton asked, to which Samberg replied, “Yeah the writers couldn't jam him in. So, here we find ourselves!"
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Back in 2012, after seven seasons on the show, the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star took his final bow as part of the late night show’s cast.
“For me, it was like, ‘I can't actually endure it anymore,’” Samberg said on a July episode of "Hart to Heart." “But I didn't want to leave.”
“Physically, it was taking a heavy toll on me and I got to a place where I was like I hadn’t slept in seven years basically,” he added. “We were writing stuff for the live show Tuesday night all night, the table read Wednesday, then being told, ‘Now come up with a digital short.’ So, write all Thursday, all Thursday night, don’t sleep, get up, shoot Friday, edit all night Friday night and into Saturday.”
After four days of little sleep, he admitted, “I just kinda fell apart physically.”
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