“He did not roll with it” — SNL alum Ana Gasteyer says Diddy did not like Will Ferrell crashing his close-set rehearsal for the show
Saturday Night Live (SNL) alum Ana Gasteyer opened up about hip-hop mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs' appearance on the show. While appearing on the Las Culturistas podcast, Gasteyer recalled that the 55-year-old rapper "shut down the building" when he appeared in a May 1998 episode of SNL as a musical guest.
The 57-year-old comedian and actor further recalled that six-time Emmy Award winner Will Ferrell decided to crash Diddy's rehearsal for his track Come With Me on set while dressed as a crew contributor named Ron. Come With Me sampled Led Zeppelin's legendary 1975 song Kashmir. According to Gasteyer, Farrell's involvement did not sit well with the rapper. She recalled:
"It is the greatest thing that's ever happened because what a deserved person to have their 'Kashmir' moment interrupted by Ron, and [Combs] really did not roll with it. He was very uncomfortable, but it was also just like, the artifice of all that faux importance."
"For P. Diddy, he demanded a totally closed set": Ana Gasteyer
Last Wednesday, former Saturday Night Live star Ana Gasteyer recalled her time on the show in an appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast, hosted by SNL star Bowen Yang and comedian Matt Rogers. Gasteyer recalled the moment Sean Combs made a 1998 SNL appearance.
As mentioned earlier, Diddy was all set to perform his 1998 hit track Come With Me for the episode. The track was also featured in the 1998 movie Godzilla. For his performance, the rapper was also joined by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page alongside a 40-piece orchestra.
Gasteyer recalled that the now-incarcerated hip-hop mogul had stringent demands when he was on set. The comedian remembered:
"You can tell like the five a*sholes in the six years that I was there when they would be like, 'So and so is in the building, everybody stay in your dressing rooms.' Which is applicable if you're a presidential candidate. But apart from that, really, it's my house. For P. Diddy, he demanded a totally closed set."
At the time, the rest of the cast members did not take too kindly to the rapper's demands. It was suggested in a writers’ room that it would be funny if Will Ferrell, who was dressed as a character based on SNL contributor Ron, interrupted Diddy's rehearsal session.
Ana Gasteyer said that Ferrell immediately went down the stairs and "marched right in". While Sean Combs was rapping to the heavy riffs of Kashmir, Gasteyer narrated that Will Ferrell promptly popped up "looking really disoriented". As mentioned earlier, this was not appreciated by the rapper who allegedly felt "very uncomfortable" with the bit.
However, Gasteyer thought that the rapper "deserved" the interruption. She stated:
"Like what's gonna happen? You're gonna walk into the studio and you're gonna be like, 'I'm in the studio. I work here.'"
The comedian also boasted that she had the whole encounter which took place in the control room caught on tape. The whole incident has been previously backed up by Will Ferrell, who recalled in a 2020 episode of SNL's Stories From the Show that he sprinted on stage as part of a dare. Ferrell remembered:
"I didn't really know what to do once I got up there. Oh, then we shook hands, that was good."
The feature even showcased the taped moment of the whole incident. The footage showed writer Paula Pell asking Ferrell what he thought about Sean Combs after he returned backstage. Ron replied that he was not "familiar" but that Diddy "seemed fine".
