It turns out Samuel L. Jackson isn’t banned from “Saturday Night Live”, after all.
The actor said the F-word on a 2012 episode, with him joking on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in March that it was Kenan Thompson’s fault.
He told “Ellen” guest host Leslie Jones, “Kenan got me banned from ‘Saturday Night Live’.”
“He didn’t cut me off soon enough and I said the forbidden word on television,” he shared. “He was supposed to cut me off!”
Jackson brought up the supposed ban on Entertainment Weekly‘s “The Awardist” podcast, insisting he’d bumped into “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels in an elevator in New York City recently.
Jackson said Michaels didn’t recognize him in a mask, so he pulled it down to show his face and asked, “Are you ever gonna let me back on the show?”
Michaels was said to have responded, “You’re not banned!” which resulted in the pair going back and forth, “Yes, I am!” “No, you’re not!”
Jackson concluded, “So, maybe I’m not. I don’t know.”
Thompson then responded to Jackson’s claims while chatting to Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show”.
He said of the alleged ban, “I don’t have the authority to do that, I don’t know why he thinks that,” adding that the actor was “welcome anytime” from what he’d heard.
“He dropped the F-bomb on the show, but he says I was supposed to cut him off before that,” Thompson, who insisted the cue card only had the letter “F” and not the actual curse word on it, said. “We kinda expect the F-word out of Sam Jackson, so no harm done. Then he doubled down and said it again, and I was like, ‘Yo, my man, we got to pay for those.’
“He’s been mad at me for that, so my bad, bro,” Thompson continued. “I didn’t think he was gonna do it like that. Come on in whenever you want. It’s Sam Jackson — who doesn’t want Sam Jackson on the show?”
