Tina Fey Recalls Awkward First Week at SNL with Sylvester Stallone

NEW YORK — Tina Fey, the celebrated comedian and former “Saturday Night Live” head writer, recently shared a cringe-worthy anecdote from her early days at the iconic sketch show. During a 1997 episode hosted by Sylvester Stallone, Fey was tasked with delivering an awkward note to the Hollywood star: he needed to enunciate more.

Fey recounted the story in Peacock‘s new docuseries about SNL‘s history, revealing that the directive came from producer Lorne Michaels. “During the dress rehearsal, Lorne gave us the note that he couldn’t understand Stallone in the sketch, and we should ask him to enunciate more,” Fey wrote in her memoir. “I stood nervously outside the host’s dressing room with [fellow writer] Scott Wainio. He had been there a year already, so I figured he’d know what to do. Scott’s experience level was evident when he looked at me and shrugged. ‘You tell him.'”

Fey, then a newcomer to the show, reluctantly knocked on Stallone’s door. “Judge Dredd himself was on the couch in an undershirt, smoking another cigar,” she recalled. “I muttered, ‘In the Rita sketch, you were a little hard to understand. Can you just enunciate a little more?'”

Despite the uncomfortable situation, Stallone took the note in stride. “Mr. Stallone was very nice about it,” Fey said. “Clearly not the first time in his life he had received that note.”

Fey joined SNL as a writer in 1997 and became a cast member in 2000. She described her early days as a trial by fire, particularly during the show’s competitive rewrite sessions. “Even though everyone at SNL is working together to make one thing, it is built on competition,” she said. “The rewrite tables were tough. They were grouchy.”

She added that writers would often mock sketches during these sessions. “People would take the rundown of the show and just go sketch by sketch and make fun of it,” Fey explained. “You would leave the room fully knowing that that writers’ room was taking a s— on it while you were gone.”

Fey, who left SNL in 2006, has since returned to host the show six times, cementing her status as one of its most beloved alumni. Her reflections on the show’s intense environment and her early challenges offer a glimpse into the high-pressure world of live comedy.

Peacock’s docuseries, which explores SNL’s storied past, is now streaming.