Watch Sam Rockwell's 'SNL' Opening Monologue

Sam Rockwell hosted SNL's first episode of 2018, and he had a good sense of humor about the fact [...]

Sam Rockwell hosted SNL's first episode of 2018, and he had a good sense of humor about the fact that most viewers probably had to Google him to see what they recognized him from.

Rockwell swaggered out onto the stage to huge applause. He looked cool and confident, and adopted a boisterous tone, but all that was undercut by the way he described his own career.

"My name is Sam Rockwell," he said. "No, most of you probably know me as that guy, from that movie... You know who I'm talking about. Not the main guy, but the other guy... And when you see him you're like 'oh, this guy. I like this guy! He's pretty good.' Well, thank you. That's me."

Rockwell won the Golden Globe Award last week for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. He joked that the award was the "worst thing that can happen to a character actor." Still, he took in in stride, leading into a walking karaoke, dance number, ninja-fighting sketch to get the night started.

Rockwell joked about his Golden Globes win throughout the night, but it was a serious accomplishment for him. As he pointed out in his monologue, he's been a "working actor" for over 30 years. Rockwell has had huge roles, such as Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2 and Zaphod Beeblebrox in A Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, yet he's never been type cast or put into a box. His versatility has kept him working in different capacities throughout the industry.

The decades of film work may not have prepared Rockwell for the chaos of Saturday Night Live. The actor seemed to struggle with the triple threat action of his opening monologue, as his Elvis Presley cover went off the meter almost immediately.

He also had a pretty serious profanity mishap, dropping an accidental "F" bomb early in the night. Still, Rockwell didn't let it throw him off. The actor saw the show through until the end and delivered some memorable performances.

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