Bowen Yang doesn’t plan to be at Saturday Night Live forever.
The actor-comedian recently opened up about his future during an interview with People, noting that the recent 50th anniversary special — which saw several SNL alums return — got him thinking about what life after the sketch comedy show could look like.
“SNL, it’s just this moving, living, breathing thing,” he said. “Especially after the 50th, I’m seeing what life after the show is like and how beautiful it is, and how so many people, no matter how long they were at the show, are just with their families and loving their lives and not letting the years take away any of that experience for them.”
Yang has been a castmember on the long-running sketch comedy program since 2019, after initially joining the writing team the year prior. Some of his most memorable sketches include “Weekend Update: The Iceberg on the Sinking of the Titanic,” “Bowen’s Straight,” and “Weekend Update: U.S. Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon,” among others.
He explained that since SNL is “this growing, living thing … new people come in and you do have to sort of make way for them to grow and to keep elevating themselves. And that inevitably requires me to sort of hang it up at some point — but I don’t know what the vision is yet.”
Another reason the Wicked star said he will eventually want to step away from the NBC show is due to the demanding production schedule, which impacts his personal life.
“The new season of SNL, I’m just like, ‘Oh, right. My time isn’t my own.’ And I tell my friends, ‘I’m not going to really see you guys until June,’” Yang said. “And people that I’ve gone a couple solid dates with I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s not for lack of interest. My time is really slipping away from me and I’m so sorry and it’s not a you thing, it’s a me thing.’”
However, he’s still enjoying his time on SNL, noting that the collaborative nature of the show has pushed him out of his comfort zone, especially with some of the wild sketches over the years.
“I think one of the best parts about working at SNL is that whenever you’re not working on your own, because you are helping someone else, a cast member, execute on their vision, and so they’re coming up to you being like, ‘You need to dress up as a drone and you need to dress up as a Chinese spy balloon and do blah, blah, blah.’ And you’re like, ‘Okay, sure.’ ‘You need to do up with Lady Gaga,’” Yang said. “And you can’t think anything of it.”
“You get shot out of a cannon in so many of these situations that it kind of breaks down all of your hesitancies around doing anything that has only served me,” The Wedding Banquet actor continued. “I mean, every now and then, a lot of times it’ll be like egg on your face, you’ll make an ass out of yourself, but I never, ever weigh that against the wonderful things that I’ve gotten to do.”