15 Celebs Who Struggled On "SNL" But Went On To Thrive After Leaving The Show

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Then: Despite lasting three seasons on the show, Julia hasn't had many good things to say about her time working there. In a conversation with Stephen Colbert, she described her time on the show: “I was unbelievably naive and I didn’t really understand how the dynamics of the place worked. It was very sexist, very sexist." She continued, "It was a pretty brutal time, but it was a very informative time for me. I learned I wasn’t going to do any more of this show business crap unless it was fun. ... I just thought, I don’t have to do this.”

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Then: RDJ did a single season of SNL in the mid-'80s and opened up about his time on the show during an interview on The Off Camera Show. "I learned so much in that year about what I wasn’t," he said. "I was not somebody who was going to come up with a catchphrase. I was not somebody who was going to do impressions. I was somebody who was very ill suited for rapid-fire sketch comedy." When asked if he found the experience to be terrifying or exhilarating, he replied, "I was like, 'Wow, this seems really hard and like a lot of work.'"

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Then: Jenny was a one-and-done cast member, appearing in Season 35. The big story was that she was fired because she dropped an f-bomb on live TV, but she dispelled that rumor in a 2019 interview with InStyle: "Everyone always thinks I got fired for saying 'fuck'; I didn't — that's not why I got fired. I just didn't belong there." She continued, "I didn't do a good job, I didn't click. I have no idea how Lorne [Michael] felt about me. All I know is, it didn't work for me, and I got fired."

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Then: Laurie was on literally only ONE episode before the show was put on hiatus and completely retooled. Talking about her experience with Vulture, she recounted, "I was so out of my element; I had no idea what I was doing. But I know that I did it because there is proof, there is footage." She continued, "I was scared to death. Acting is scary enough, but doing it live on TV, that’s got to be as stressful as it gets. I was not cut out to do something like that."

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Then: Another cast member who only lasted one season, Chris recounted his time on the show, saying, "I seriously have no memory of it. And I think it was just such a miserable experience that I have sort of blacked out a lot of these things. That whole year, I was just embarrassed."

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Then: Lasting just two seasons on the show, Casey talked about the experience in her book, The Wreckage of My Presence: Essays. "In the year and a half of utter madness I was there, I began taking antidepressants to lift myself up from rock bottom," she wrote. "When I was not asked back for what would have been my third season, I felt a rush of relief and utter disappointment in myself. I had the chance, and I didn’t take my shot. But I never cried. The relief outweighed the regret. I’ve made peace with most of my regrets, including being let go from Saturday Night Live."

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Then: Tim became a featured player in 2012 and spent one season in the cast before transitioning to the writing staff, a rarity in SNL history. The New Yorker asked him about his experience going from on set to behind the scenes, and he said, "It wasn't my choice. No, it wasn’t my choice. At the time, I was angry. And frustrated. And then, you know, now I feel OK about it... The pressure is a lot lower, and you end up having way more fun."

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Then: Janeane didn't even last a full season of the show, leaving midway through Season 20 (1994–1995). She told New York magazine that it was “the most miserable experience of [her] life.” Further talking about the experience in the book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, she said, "I did not think we were doing a quality show, and if you mentioned that, you found you were an extremely unwelcome guest.”

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Then: After being featured in only 15 episodes of Season 35, Michaela recounted her time on the show to the Daily Beast’s The Last Laugh podcast: “I feel like it was a marathon, but the week I got there, they cut my Achilles. They’re like, okay, start running. I don’t feel like I came in into a soft landing at all.” But she also said that her failure to launch on the show helped fuel her to find success after she left. "It was a real humbling moment that I think personally was a huge growth for me. It forced me to sit with a lot of uncomfortable feelings and sadness and rejection and think about how I wanted to shape my life going forward.”

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Then: Lasting only 12 episodes, the comedian felt the show was not a good fit for him, and he "wanted to get fired." In an interview, Damon told The Breakfast Club, "They had me in scenes where I would just hold a spear. I’m like, ‘I’m not doing that. My mother’s going to watch this show.’ No lines! Just holding the spear in a thong. I’m like, ‘I can’t do this.’" He further explained, "I said, ‘Y’all need to hire an extra for this.’ And so they told me, ‘You’re not a team player.’ I said, ‘No, I’m just not a slave.’"

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Then: Sarah was on the show for just one season before getting fired in 1994. In an interview with The Pulse With Bill Anderson, she said, "It was a huge defeat for me, but overcoming it, you know it's like a broken bone, it heals stronger. ... There's a moment when you're fired from Saturday Night Live where you're like, 'Am I still in show business?' I had to go back to the basics."

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Then: Ben worked on the show for just five weeks before quitting. Talking with Howard Stern, he explained that the show was just not a good fit for him at that time in his life. He said, "At that point, I just wanted to make short films. I knew that I wasn’t good live because I would get nervous.” He continued, "I just felt I couldn't do well in that situation. ... I was very happy directing and not acting."

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Then: Appearing on just one season of the show from 1981 to 1982, Christine told the Village Green, “I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, I literally had just come off the road playing Guenevere in Camelot with Richard Burton and Richard Harris, and then all of a sudden I’m thrown into this arena of stand-up comedians.”

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Then: After being a cast member for two seasons, Jay didn't hold back when talking about his experience there. "I wasn’t enjoying it, even when it was going well ... I was so self-obsessed with survival — survival on the show and then mental health survival and back to survival on the show.” And he had less-than-stellar things to say about his coworkers. He said, "The cycle of asshole would start with [Rob] Schneider chiding me as a rookie in front of everyone and then proceeding to treat me like garbage for two weeks straight."

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Then: Martin had a one-year contract with the show that was not renewed, and in an episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers, he described the "panic and despair" of being on the show. "It was so stressful for me every week because I treated it like it was final exams every week. I think if I had known I would be there for five years, I would have taken it easy."