Chevy Chase Told SNL Biopic Director He ‘Should Be Embarrassed’ by Film

Chevy Chase had some choice words about the Saturday Night Live origin movie, Saturday Night.

Director Jason Reitman shared Chase’s reaction to the film on a recent episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’s “Fly on the Wall” podcast. Setting the scene for the story, Carvey, 69, quipped: “Chevy loves to say the thing you’re not supposed to say, to the extreme, where it can go wherever it wants to go.”

Reitman, 47, began by noting he’s known Chase, 81, “my entire life” and grew up as friends of his kids. “So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie, and he’s there with [his wife] Jayni and they watch the film,” he explains. “And he’s in the group, and he comes up to me after and he pats me on the shoulder and goes, ‘Well, you should be embarrassed.’”

The comment prompted laughter from both Carvey and Spade, 60, the latter of whom stated: “What an exact Chevy thing. You couldn’t even write it better. How funny.”

Carvey, meanwhile, added: “He knows that’s funny, like, ‘OK, that’s the roughest thing you could say to a director in that moment.’”

Following Chase’s review, Reitman said he tried to “balance” the meaning of the actor’s words. “I know, ‘Alright, I’m getting a Chevy Chase moment that’s 1,000 percent only for me right now. And from a comedy point-of-view, that’s really pure and that’s kind of cool,’” he stated. “But also, I just spent, like, two years of my life recreating this moment and trying to capture Chevy perfectly, and also, even in the ego, find the humanity and give him a moment to be loved — no, none of that s— played. He’s not talking about that stuff.”

Spade, for his part, was also unsure how much of Chase’s comment was comedy and how much was truthful. “It’s a funny thing to say, but then, you gotta look at the meter and go, ‘What percentage was real? Was it all a joke, or was there a little bit he’s not happy [with]?’” he said. “But you just don’t know and he leaves, and you go, ‘Well, he saw it.’”

Saturday Night, which hit theaters in October, follows the cast and crew of SNL in the hilarious and hectic 90 minutes leading up to the show’s first broadcast in October 1975. Cory Michael Smith plays a young version of Chase in the film alongside Kaia Gerber as Chase’s then-girlfriend Jacqueline Carlin.

Gabriel Labelle recently scored a 2025 Golden Globes nomination for his performance as the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels. The cast also includes Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster and Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol.

Reitman shared his story shortly after fellow director Chris Columbus told Vanity Fair that he dropped out of working on 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation after a meeting with Chase.

“I talked about how I saw the movie, how I wanted to make the movie. He didn’t say anything,” Columbus told the outlet in an interview published on December 23. “I went through about a half hour of talking. He didn’t say a word. … Forty minutes into the meeting, he says, ‘Wait a second. You’re the director?’ And I said, ‘Yeah … I’m directing the film.’ … He said, ‘Oh, I thought you were a drummer.’”

He continued: “I left the dinner and I thought, ‘There’s no way I can make a movie with this guy. First of all, he’s not engaged. He’s treating me like s—. I don’t need this. I’d rather not work again. I’d rather write.’”