Overview
- Witherspoon told the Armchair Expert podcast that leading Saturday Night Live’s return after 9/11 felt like an overwhelming burden for someone her age.
- She recalled Lorne Michaels calling to say the show would feature Rudy Giuliani, firefighters and Paul Simon, and asking her to help signal that America could laugh again.
- The actor said she was a new mother with a one-year-old and fresh off Legally Blonde, describing the pressure as intense at a pivotal moment in her life.
- Michaels told her she could cancel, but she chose to proceed and said she felt she “completely left [her] body” during the live broadcast.
- Her monologue did not mention the attacks, a choice later criticized by a former SNL writer as a disconnect, while Giuliani addressed the tragedy on air alongside first responders.