Bowen Yang Recalls Being “A Vibe Killer” During ‘SNL’ Audition With Lorne Michaels

Seven years after he joined the talented lineup of Saturday Night Live, Bowen Yang is revealing how creator Lorne Michaels warmed up to him.

The 4x Emmy nominee recently recounted his awkward first encounter with Michaels from his 2017 final audition for the NBC sketch comedy show, which he said “was a disaster,” despite ultimately landing him a spot on the long-running show.

“I had screen tested in 2017. The final step in that process is that you have a one-on-one meeting with Lorne,” he explained on a recent episode of Hot Ones. “It was him and another producer, Erik Kenward. The first thing out of my mouth was, ‘I’m Canadian, too. I grew up in Montreal. I grew up in Quebec’ — and immediately it was done, it was a vibe killer. Like, I didn’t get the job because I had pandered to his Canadianness and it was a disaster.”

Yang also recounted how he and Michaels overcame that cringe experience and formed a connection with some help from an SNL alum.

“Aidy Bryant was the one who told me, ‘You can be, like, friends with him now,’” said Yang. “I think Lorne at one point was hanging out with Aidy and was kind of chuckling about it like, ‘I think Bowen sees me as a mountain to climb, and I don’t want him to think that anymore.’ And that kind of gave me the encouragement to just go up to him and be like, oh, we can relate to each other on a human-to-human level, which I never thought would happen with him.”

After joining the SNL writing staff in 2018, Yang was promoted to on-air talent a year later for Season 45. His performance on the sketch comedy show recently earned him his fourth Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.