Chevy Chase Had A Brutal Reaction To The SNL Movie Saturday Night

Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night" is a stressful, chaotic movie that covers the 90 minutes leading up to the first-ever episode of "Saturday Night Live" airing back in 1975. /Film's own Ethan Anderson gave it a glowing 9 out of 10 review, but "SNL" alum Chevy Chase had a different reaction. As Reitman explained on a recent episode of the "Fly on the Wall" podcast (which is hosted by "SNL" alums David Spade and Dana Carvey), Chase told Reitman his thoughts on the film after an early screening:

"Chevy loves to say the thing you're not supposed to say — to the extreme [...] I have an example for you [...] So, Chevy comes in to watch the movie, and he is there with [his wife] Jayni, and they watch the film, and he's in the group, and he comes up to me after, and he pats me on the shoulder and goes, 'Well, you should be embarrassed.'"

Carvey then offered a possible explanation for what Chase said, noting that perhaps he was just joking to make Reitman uncomfortable. "Well, he knows that's funny — like, that's the roughest thing you could say to a director in the moment, or right up there," Carvey pointed out. Reitman later explained how, although he appreciated the humor in having his own "Chevy Chase was a jerk to me" story to tell people, it still sort of stung:

"I'm trying to balance it because, in my head, I know, 'Alright, I'm getting a Chevy Chase moment that's 1,000 percent only for me right now.' And from a comedy point of view that's really pure, and that's kind of cool. But also, I just spent two years of my life recreating this moment and trying to capture Chevy perfectly, and, even in the ego, find the humanity and give him a moment to be loved. And no, none of that s*** played. He's not talking about that stuff."

Although a lot of the cast members portrayed in "Saturday Night" have publicly praised the film (including Dan Aykroyd, who called it a "propulsive, engaging, funny, beautifully cast and acted, suspenseful, adventurous, music-filled ride"), Reitman admitted that he could see why an original "SNL" cast member might not be thrilled about seeing themselves on screen this way.

"I've done two movies about real people, and this is what inevitably happens," Reitman said "You interview the original person. All they wanna know is who's gonna play them and if they're attractive and how tall they are. And then they watch the movie and they just can't figure it out. Like, there's just silence after. [...] They're just freaked out by it. They're freaked out by watching themselves. It's emotional."

Making this unavoidably surreal experience harder for Chase is that "Saturday Night" doesn't portray him in a particularly flattering light. He may have been the show's first breakout star, but Chase was also (and still is) infamous for being difficult to work with behind the scenes, and the movie doesn't shy away from this aspect of his personality. The actor playing Chase, Cory Michael Smith, also never spoke with Chase before portraying him; it's a decision that was probably for the best creatively, but which likely didn't endear him to the "SNL" alum.

Regardless of how much Chase was joking when he said that brutal remark to Reitman post-viewing, hopefully Reitman doesn't actually feel embarrassed for the job he did. Chase also reportedly struggled to understand why certain scenes on "Community" were funny, something that partially led to him parting ways with that TV show too. When it comes to getting helpful creative feedback, Chevy Chase isn't always the best guy to ask.