‘SNL’: Timothee Chalamet and Bruce Springsteen Banter With Cecily Strong Ahead of Tonight’s Show

This weekend’s Saturday Night Live features one of the most popular young talents in Hollywood and one of the living legends of music. Actor Timothee Chalamet is hosting the show for the first time, and he gets Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band as the musical guest. The two worlds collided for a hilarious preview clip for the episode, which airs at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

“Good news, the whole band is in the cast now!” Springsteen said in the first promo. This prompted guitarist and former Sopranos star Steven Van Zandt to raise his hand. “Can I play Dr. Fauci?” Van Zandt asked. “Yeah sure, why the hell not,” Cecily Strong shrugged. In the second promo, Strong asked Chalamet to recreate one of the most famous scenes from Call Me By Your Name, with each other calling the other by their name. Springsteen seemed a little perturbed by the scene, and broke it up by muttering, “And I’m Bruce.”

Chalamet’s appearance on SNL is not timed for any particular project, since everything he starred in that was supposed to come out in 2020 has been delayed. He worked with Wes Anderson on The French Dispatch, which was originally supposed to hit theaters this summer. It is set to come out in 2021, but Disney’s Searchlight Pictures has not set a new date. Chalamet also has the lead role in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, which Warner Bros. rescheduled for Oct. 1, 2021.

As for Springsteen, he has plenty of new material to play at Studio 8H. Back on Oct. 23, Springsteen released Letter To You, his first album with The E Street Band since 2014’s High Hopes. The new record was met with widespread critical acclaim and was accompanied by a documentary released on Apple TV+. Springsteen previously performed on SNL in May 1992, October 2002, and December 2015.

This weekend’s episode of SNL is the second since the 2020 presidential election wrapped. Last week, the show featured Jason Bateman as host and Morgan Wallen as musical guest. On Saturday, Dec. 19, former SNL cast member Kristen Wiig will host just days before Wonder Woman 1984 is released on HBO Max. Her musical guest is “Don’t Stop Now” singer Dua Lipa, who was scheduled to perform at the end of last season, but her episode was canceled due to the pandemic.