While SNL50: The Anniversary Special was stacked with special guest stars, Steven Spielberg didn’t make the final show.
Following the special’s ‘Close Encounters‘ sketch, Mikey Day revealed that he “originally had Steven Spielberg in it” but ended up having to remove the 3x Oscar-winning director’s appearance, resulting in himself “spiraling into an awkward abyss” with Spielberg.
“Everyone loves Steven Spielberg. I love this man so much. He’s so important to me and so many people,” he raved on The Tonight Show. “So we had Steven Spielberg come in at the end of the sketch playing himself. He’s like, ‘Hey, I have experience in this subject matter, and I’d like to make a movie based on your life.’”
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Although the Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) director was game for the cameo and was even at rehearsal, Day explained that the show was running long and everyone was forced to cut time from their sketches.
“And we’re like, ‘I think we have to cut Steven Spielberg,’ because it was an added thing! You know what I mean?” Day told Jimmy Fallon. “I don’t even like talking about it! It makes me uncomfortable. Dude, I don’t like that this happened. I hate it. It’s an awful thing.”
Day went on to recount “another awkward moment” at an event honoring SNL creator Lorne Michaels the next night, after relaying to Spielberg’s assistant that his part was cut, noting the Fabelmans director seemed to be under the impression “that the whole sketch had been cut.”
“And I have awkwardness with Steven Spielberg because we had to cut him out of our sketch,” he said. “So I briefly talked to him and then he goes, ‘Yeah, the whole sketch was cut.’ I know that it wasn’t, because I would’ve heard, but instead of going, ‘Oh, I don’t think that’s right,’ I just went, ‘Oh no! The whole thing was cut? Nooo!’”
Day continued, “A normal person would’ve gone, ‘Oh really? I don’t think so. Yeah, I think you might’ve heard wrong.’ But I just went, ‘Oh no, it was cut? Nooo!’ It was so awful.”
While Spielberg was cut from the sketch, Kate McKinnon reprised her role as Colleen Rafferty in the sketch, which also featured appearances from Meryl Streep, Pedro Pascal, Woody Harrelson and Jon Hamm, as well as fellow SNL alum Aidy Bryant.