SNL's Kenan Thompson on Tough Accents, New Sketches, and His Dream Guest Host

The Saturday Night Live process can take a lot out of a person, as Movieline found out last week while speaking with Kenan Thompson in between rehearsals for the now legendary Betty White episode. In fact, the actor -- whose skilled impressions (Al Roker, Whoopi, Tiger Woods) and inventive characters (Deandre Cole, Jean K. Jean) have made him the hardest-working male cast member this season -- was so busy writing and rehearsing that he had no idea that Alec Baldwin had been confirmed as the season's finale host. In spite of Kenan's grueling schedule, he still found the energy to tell Movieline about the sketch he is dying to get on the air and the actors he would love to see host the show next season.

Hey Kenan. How is Betty White week going?

Great. It's going awesome.

She was kind of forced on you by the Internet.

I mean, it's like forcing chocolate down my mouth. I'm not complaining.

And you guys are closing the season with Alec Baldwin next week. That is a hell of a way to close out the year.

Is that confirmed that he is coming? I don't know if he is really coming. Is he really coming?

NBC confirmed it.

Well if he is, that's great. I love Alec when he hosts.

Do you have any sketch ideas for him?

No, not yet. I'm still just trying to get through this week.

I loved your Al Roker sketch a few weeks ago -- where he hosts the late night show Ruff, Rugger & Roker. How did that come about?

Thanks. It came about with my buddy Bryan Tucker that I write the "What Up With That" sketches with. He came to me with a song from the Neptunes and he was picturing an all night thing. I'm not sure if he was picturing an Al Roker thing. He might have said that it would be Al Roker doing a P. Diddy-style thing. I don't remember. It was a collaboration though. That's how we get down.

Did you get any feedback from Al?

Nah, I heard he tweeted about it though.

Do you think it was well-received? Will we see it on the show again?

Yeah, I thought it was cool. It was pretty well received.

I'm curious about how the grueling SNL schedule messes with your memory. Each week you have to learn a ton of lines because you're not sure exactly which sketches will air and which won't. And then immediately after the show, you have to forget those lines and learn the next week's. Do you remember what happened on shows last month or is your brain programmed to just run on short-term memory these days?

I mean, I forget the lines right away but I still remember the sketch ideas. But if somebody's asking me what happened on last week's show, I don't know. If I wasn't in certain sketches, then there is a good chance I have never seen those sketches because I was probably changing backstage or something.

I think you do the funniest impressions on the show, and they are really unique to you. They aren't straight, Rich Little style-impressions. There is always some Kenan still in there, whether you're doing Tiger or Whoopi. What is your process like for fine-tuning those?

I guess I just really try to get the sound of their voice right. If they talk in a funny way or something like that, I try to get as close to that as possible. Sometimes I'm way off and I just try to do my own interpretation of that person. Like my Whoopi is a lot lower than her actual voice because that just makes me laugh more that way.

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