Jason Sudeikis on ‘SNL’ Return: Romney Role ‘Not Enough’
Whether Jason Sudeikis returns to Saturday Night Live this season depends on the availabilty of fresh creative opportunities on the show, he tells the Los Angeles Times. After nine years on the cast, Sudeikis wants to be involved in a different way.
“I’d like the opportunity to use creative muscles that . . . haven’t been asked of me for the first nine years that I’ve worked there. It could be some sort of title change,” he said. “The least of the concerns is anything financial. I’m not buying a boat because of writing skits. It’s more having a desire to give more to a place I really believe in. To stay just for the juice of being in the public eye – of being Mitt Romney – is not enough.”
Sudeikis frequently portrayed Romney during the Republican primary season this year, playing him as jovial, but “a little square, a little boring, a little disconnected from the human experience,” Sudeikis said. The actor’s latest project involves politics, too. He stars in The Campaign, a political spoof that pits Will Ferrell’s vapid Democratic incumbent Cam Brady against Zach Galifianakis as a Republican challenger beholden to big-money interests in a North Carolina Congressional race. Sudeikis is also filming We’re The Millers, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston.
His hectic schedule allows Sudeikis to spend only half the week at SNL, which limits his role on the show. “You start at SNL when you’re young and hungry, but I don’t want my pro years to be my SNL years,”said Sudeikis, a college basketball fan. “This is me getting to play for [the University of Kansas] or Duke or North Carolina, with pro-caliber people, but I don’t want this to be it.”
If he chooses not to return, Sudeikis would be the third veteran cast member SNL has lost since the end of last season, along with Kristin Wiig and Andy Samberg.
The Campaign opens August 10th.