Bill Hader Quotes

1. I'm crazy lucky. I was trying to be a filmmaker. I was doing Second City classes as a way to be creative. I was a PA for a long time. I was working as an assistant editor on "Iron Chef America" when I got "SNL." It was one of those situations where you're concentrating in one thing and the peripheral thing popped.


2. I got invited to the Playboy Mansion with the Lonely Island guys after their first season on "SNL," and I sat in the corner drinking coffee and talking to Akiva Schaffer about what aspect ratio he was going to shoot "Hot Rod" in. Like, that's what we talk about.

3. (on leaving "SNL") It was a hard decision, but it has to happen at some point. It got to a point where I said: "Maybe it's just time to go"…I'd heard stories that you get very emotional in those conversations, and I've had other people tell me: "Oh, I cried." I didn't, but I did think I was about to faint.

4. I'm never going to say: "Well, I'm never going to do comedy again." I love comedies, and it's what people know me for, so I love doing it…I don't really think about it in terms of "Well, I should do this because it's comedy or drama."

5. (on leaving the show) The nature of SNL is that it's so in-the-moment. I feel like I'm going to wake up in August and turn to my wife and say "Was I really on SNL?" It went by so fast.

6. I remember seeing "Spinal Tap" at a young age and being like: "That's how you perform comedy."


7. Fred Armisen does a pretty good me.

8. (on "SNL" continuing without him) There's a new sensibility happening, and if it isn't totally apparent on the show yet, I see it on Wednesdays at the table reads. I found myself looking up and watching the new people do their sketches. I like watching Kate McKinnon do something - there's a joy in seeing a new move from somebody and going: "Oh, she can do that."

9. If a movie doesn't even have financing yet, they'll do a table read for it at a casting director's office with actors, for the producer and the writer, just to hear if the movie is working.

10. I just did this movie with Kristen Wiig called "The Skeleton Twins." That's a straight drama. We play estranged twins, and I end up moving in with her and her husband, played by Luke Wilson. But it's a drama, and the Duplass Brothers produced it and this great guy, Craig Johnson, directed it. And that was great, you know?

11. To be totally honest? I don't know if I'll keep doing more impressions. People told me I had a facility for it, and I was like: "Okay, I'm the impression guy." So you imagine the cast at "SNL" is an A-Team, and you've got the explosives guy, and I'm the impression guy.


12. Going to any loud place is terrible for me. I'm bad at loud restaurants.

13. When it comes to comedy, it might be interesting to know why an airplane works, but really? Maybe it's better not to know why certain things work. Just fly the thing, and if nothing falls apart, you'll be fine.

14. I moved out to L.A. to be a filmmaker or director. I didn't even think about doing comedy or even acting. I wanted to be like Paul Thomas Anderson or Wes Anderson, but I wasn't going to a lot of comedy.

15. Yeah, improvising only really works 100% when you're with somebody.

16. I started "SNL," and I became the one who did impressions. I did that, but then I wanted to get an original character on, and that took a long time to get one on that stuck. And then I got Vinny Vedecci on - "Oh great" - and then it took a couple more seasons to get Greg the Alien on. You have to have some patience.



17. I was at Second City L.A., going through the conservatory, and I graduated in 2004 and I got "SNL" in 2005.

18. I was always self-conscious about the fact that I didn't have as much comedy experience as other people at "SNL," and I kept thinking they were going to realize they'd made a mistake by hiring me.

19. A lot of times I think people, when they're doing a movie that's a family movie, they're worried about this being too esoteric or too dark or too weird.

20. I took Second City out of desperation, and that's what ended up working out. It shows that you should be doing a lot of different stuff, taking whatever opportunities are there, to see what works.

21. I've always admired Jeff Bridges. I really like how one can never get a handle on what he's doing.

22. I was never that good on stage with live improv. I was much better on film or writing something and then thinking about it. I was too in my head when I was on stage.




23. As far as post-"SNL" career, whatever kind of comes my way that looks interesting, I'll do it, you know?

24. I don't think I could do what Woody Allen or Clint Eastwood or Ben Stiller do, where they direct a movie and they star in it. I would just be like: "Oh, I don't even want to look at my face."


What do you think of Bill Hader's quotes?


Feel free to comment and share this blog post if you find it interesting!