Ashley Padilla said Wednesday she was not yelled at after breaking character with Ryan Gosling on Saturday Night Live, though she said she was terrified she might lose her job after the moment aired. Padilla, speaking at NBCUniversal’s Emmy Kick-Off luncheon, said, “I did not get yelled after that,” and added, “I, of course, afterwards was terrified that I would lose my job entirely.”
Padilla said the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, told her, “This show takes on Ryan’s spirit.” She said she wrote the “Passing Notes” sketch with Streeter Seidell, Mikey Day and Alison Gates, and that she asked them to write the notes in a way that might make her break. “I wrote that sketch with Streeter [Seidell] and Mikey [Day] and Alison Gates,” she said. “We just wrote the structure, like the teacher and stuff. And I said, you guys write the notes and see if you could make me break essentially.”
The comments came as Padilla described how the show handled another Gosling bit that never made it to air. A follow-up to the Beavis and Butt-Head sketch from Gosling’s previous hosting stint was planned for his return last month and reached dress rehearsal before it was cut. SNL often posts cut-for-time material online, but this one did not make it to YouTube. Padilla said she was in the sequel sketch and played the talk show host, but felt it did not outshine the rest of the episode. “It was my talk show,” she said. “I think it didn’t trump the other things in the show, because I think Ryan is someone who lives off of that fresh moment, and that’s what makes him break and be who he is. And I think because he already lived that one, maybe that’s why it was not as exciting.”
Padilla also said she did not break in the Beavis and Butt-Head sequel during dress rehearsal and was trying hard not to lose control during the show because she knew the “Passing Notes” bit was still ahead. “I did not break character in that one, I think because I also knew that I had the Passing Notes’ sketch gonna happen, so I was trying very hard not to break in the show because I didn’t want to get in trouble,” she said. Gosling had played one of three dimwitted cyclopes in the “Cyclops” sketch, while Padilla portrayed a guardian of hidden treasure. For fans who expected a sequel to the earlier viral bit, the answer is simple: it was planned, it made it to dress rehearsal, and then it was cut before it reached the audience.
