Bill Hader has changed his tune on returning to the role of Stefon
After asserting last year that he wouldn't return to the role of Stefon, Bill Hader now asserts: "I don't know why I said that."
Aux News Stefon
It’s been nearly half a decade since Bill Hader last visited the Weekend Update desk as Stefon, Saturday Night Live’s connoisseur of New York’s hottest clubs. But despite previously asserting he would never return to the role, the Barry star now seems to have changed his tune a bit, telling The Independent he “probably would play him” if the opportunity arose.
Fitted out in an Ed Hardy style under-layer and a Justin Bieber-meets-club-kid haircut, Stefon swiftly became an audience favorite and one of Hader’s most revered characters, in large part because of Hader’s commitment to the soft-spoken, exuberantly strange bit. But last year, Hader told The Guardian that he had turned down a tentative offer to revisit Stefon—an openly gay character— due to the political climate.
“I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s really a good thing to do now,’” he said at the time. “I mean, we had an openly racist, homophobic and misogynistic president, and half the country voted for him – twice! So [those attitudes] are really prevalent.” For Hader, recognizing that Stefon could be construed as an amalgamation of hurtful tropes about gay men was a tough but necessary pill to swallow, sharing: “I really love Stefon and it never occurred to me that he would be seen as a stereotype, and that really hurt.”
Although Hader had a pretty strong stance on a potential Stefonaissance back then, he’s since walked it back a bit.
“Honestly, I don’t know why I said that,” Hader tells The Independent of his comments to The Guardian. “I probably would play him. I think just being asked the question at that point in time kind of made me anxious.”
The anxiety, clearly from a well-meaning place, conflicts with the response Hader has received from the gay community on Stefon. “I’ve never had any gay man come up to me and be offended that I [played Stefon],” he shares, emphasizing that more often than not the feedback he receives from fans focuses on how much they love the role.
The same can’t be said, however, for Vinny Vedecci, the brash Italian talk-show host who became another of Hader’s most consistent characters. Although Hader says he wouldn’t return to the role of Vinny today, he also opines that online outrage culture has led to “blurred” boundaries between blatant punch-down comedy and thoughtfully created character work.
“I sympathize with and understand the sensitivity,” Hader says. “But as someone who creates things, I think you want to be able to create things in a genuine way and in an honest way. And what’s happened, especially on social media, is that there are people who aren’t funny, or content that is just offensive.”
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“And what’s happened…is that there are people who aren’t funny, or content that is just offensive.”The AV Club
Okay, but what about his big penis… oh wait I’m not on Jezebel
“The anxiety, clearly from a well-meaning place, conflicts with the response Hader has received from the gay community on Stefon.”
What the fuck are you talking about? His anxiety is a personal thing that has -and SHOULD have- nothing to do with the gay community.
Didn’t Hader play Stefon a few years ago when John Mulaney hosted? According to Google, it was in 2018. So it’s been more like a half-decade since he last did the bit.
“So it’s been more like a half-decade since he last did the bit.”
That’s what the article says.
Anthony Peter Coleman should come back
I’d rather see an Anthony Peter Coleman origin flick, centering on his time in Grenada.
Nobody was laughing out loud that day in Grenada. But many people were saying OMG. Me, I was saying TTYL to my innocence.
Top Five all time SNL skits.
There was a rebel village five clicks down the road. Word came down from top brass: make it disappear. We…we didn’t know any better. We were…we were kids! I watched myself pick up the flamethrower…I just…went…OFF!
Okay, let’s not act out murder scenarios with our puppets, okay?
I have never seen this before, having skipped about two decades of SNL around that time, and I thank you for your contribution.
There are the occasional gems— just wait for people to point them out, don’t go sifting through the shows because, yeah they’re rough.
I seriously did not know that Fred Armisen had even been on SNL until the second season of Portlandia, and I asked someone, where did this guy come from? I then flipped out when I also realized that he was the “mi scusi” guy from Eurotrip.
Ehhh… This is a little like people thinking The Office should have had Creed-centric episodes. Characters like this are best left to exist as is. Exploring them rarely pays interesting narrative dividends.
Did Scrubs ever do a Kelso-centric episode showing all the hard choices he had to make to keep the hospital running despite how unpopular that made him? I know they touched on it like where Perry ended up having to fire Clay Aiken but I don’t know if they ever centred one on Kelso.
People were pissed about Vinny Vedecci?? Like, American people? It’s about as harmless a play on European Italian stereotypes as you’ll get. I’ve only seen the Malkovich one but it was pretty damn funny, if not terribly inventive.
I barely remember the sketches, but I thought the joke was the “Hollywood” interview with foreign press left the guest on the show with no understanding of the context for the interview.There were some stereotype-y bits (I’m picturing Fred Armisen holding a plate of spaghetti…so I really hope for my sake that happened), but they were hardly the point.
Yeah his producers are off to the side, irate that their meal is being interrupted with the information that the guest doesn’t speak Italian, Hader’s ashtray has about 200 cigarette buts crammed into it, he placates his distraught child with cigarettes, and happily dives into an orgy pile (also while smoking). It’s funny, but mostly because the stereotypes are so deliberately over the top that they become the butt of the joke.
Was that maybe the episode of Portlandia where Peter gives up pasta then…devolves?
ALF was a previous guest.
I just mostly didn’t think they were funny, and couldn’t figure out why they kept doing that one.
Is Bill Hader OK? I like Barry and all, but I worry that making it has not been the most healthy thing.
He’s said that Barry is a fairly therapeutic character for him because he was in terrible mental shape during his tenure at SNL and that time informed the series. He’s said that the show’s main concept of “how come this thing you are so good at brings you so much pain” was pretty much him during the peak of his fame.
As long as he’s OK with returning as a game show host who is some combination of chaos, evil and, most likely, Satan himself.
People debate is God a woman, but everyone seems pretty sure the Devil is a fella.
Either way, wears the heck out of a blue dress.
Truly.
Prada to be exact.
The internet’s hottest website is the AV Club. This place has everything:
Slideshows, Matthew Perry quotes, typos, Don’t Worry Deerling—which is that thing of when a midget dressed up like a deer spits on Harry Styles…
Dan Cortese
…is still walking the Earth while Jerry Springer is cooling on a slab somewhere.
The AV Club has everything: Slideshows that aren’t needed, underpaid writers barely reworking press releases into “articles, grey out long time contributors, and limp dick racist incels popping up with vile comments.
Succession spoilers! Aubery Plaza EVERYTHING! AI written reviews!
Bill Hader’s huge cock.
And Sidney Applebaum
An old mining town that used to be booming, with one crazy prospector left, who slightly rewrites press releases issued by publicists and top 20 lists written by bots. But, then… a celebrity said something that you could conceivably miscontrue and… internet consequences! Then, I once saw like this movie that was like over eight years old, and…
C’mon man, doesn’t anyone want to make Dawes jokes anymore?
That sweet Laurel Canyon sound, how soon we forget…. OF COCK!
lol MAXIMUM OWNAGESLAYER, BITCH
First! Wait, what?
What’s funny about Dawes? NOTHING! That’s what!
Inexplicably, comprehensive coverage of the Real Housewives franchise
Stomping ground of the Legendary RockHard™
Articles about celebrities pointing out where outrage media can become a legitimate problem, while simultaneously also participating in outrage media in the same exact article
MOM???
…my nuts?
MTV’s Dan Cortese.
A Puerto Rican car wash. Seth: What’s a Puerto Rican car wash?That’s where you lay down on the ground and a bunch of nude Puerto Rican men in roller skates skate around you and pee on you.
Dan Cortese!
Stray Observations, both Emilios Lizardo, and the Jonas Smothers. That’s when Dickie Smothers sits on Kevin Jonas’s face and just lets go, but then Kevin has to baby bird it into the mouth of one of his brothers, but not the one you think.
I just hope one day we get to see his Roger Corman on acid movie with Joe Dante. The script reading for that thing has to be one of my top 5 LA nights ever and I can’t get it out of my mind. Hader was goddamn brilliant!
Great seeing his writing and directing get even better in the meantime. Genuinely excited to see what the fuck he attempts next.
Hader confessed that his peak times at SNL coincided with gigantic panic attacks which at least partially informed Barry, so I’m not shocked his first impulse was to say “oh hell no” in this case.
As a horror fan, I was deeply offended by his Vincent Price impersonation.
As a horror fan, I was deeply offended by Vincent Price’s Charles Dexter Ward impersonation.
The thing is – on the whole accurate but exaggerated portrayals can become hurtful stereotypes. Many of the reasons a particular portrayal may ring true is because a vast portion of the audience may know people that are exactly like that taken to an extreme.
In a different genre, Apu from the 80’s has been revisited to death but for people who lived in the 80’s and 90’s, there was an element of reality to that portrayal. Many of us knew that immigrant(s) personally. It was stereotypical and you can argue about who should have been cast (the Simpson’s saved money by having few actors).
So Bill possibly changing his mind totally makes sense. You can do work that “fits” 10-20 years ago that as times change and people change around you will simply no longer work. When its not about characterization but instead about references or current events, we just call it dated.
I love Hader and Stefon, but “I really love Stefon and it never occurred to me that he would be seen as a stereotype” is some straight bullshit. Being a stereotype of a NYC club kid was the whole joke.
I really, really enjoyed Vinny Vedecci.
Really really?
100%.
Like it matters.
……Kevin?!?
New York City’s hottest club is…YOUR MOTHER AND I ARE SEPARATING
Bit of a tangent, but has anyone watched John Mulaney’s new stand-up special ‘Baby J’? It’s interesting to see him working against his old persona to an extent. It’s still as polished as his old stuff, but with a distinctly new vibe.
On behalf of all gays, I hereby grant Bill Hader permission to play Stefon any time he wants.
Seconded! The only people offended by this character are probably people that think gays shouldn’t be on TV.
Has it gotten so bad that the Left (“my” Left BTW) would actually waste time and energy going after Bill Hader for performing Stefon?? Honest to freaking God, just stop some of you. Just stop.
No one on the left went after him. Shut up.
This site is just ignorant trolls now. YOU shut up…. I was referring to the fact that HADER said he was worried about being castigated for doing it, which is why he stopped. He must have had some reasons for it.
Quit crying.
Makes you wonder if people like Eddie Murphy or esp. Dice Clay would even gain traction in either standup or movies based on their previous material.I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing but couldn’t imagine life without having these on Play nonstop on my turntable (yes, turntable!) as a teen:
Speaking as a gay icon myself, I can confirm that Stefon is perfectly wonderful.