Sporting platinum blonde hair and a cropped pantsuit, Aubrey Plaza made a stop on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night (January 16) to talk to host Jimmy Fallon about her two latest projects – season 2 of The White Lotus and the crime thriller Emily the Criminal.
During her appearance, Plaza also discussed the time in her career when she unsuccessfully auditioned to be a cast member of the long-running sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live.
“I didn’t make it to the Lorne [Michaels] audition, the famous final audition,” Plaza said, referencing the SNL creator and producer. “But I did a preliminary first-round showcase.”
During that showcase, Plaza said she performed two original characters. “I remember one character I did was a Puerto Rican news reporter that was always trying to make all of the news stories sexy, even if they were horrific news stories,” she said. “I was just trying to sex up the news or something.”
The second character was a “pill-popping housewife” who hosted a talk show called Celebri-Tails. “I would just name celebrities and name what kind of tail they would have if they had a tail,” she said. “Like I would say, ‘Lindsay Lohan would have a bushy squirrel’s tail.’ Or ‘Bill Clinton would have a polar bear’s nub.’”
Although Plaza didn’t make it to the final audition, she did get to intern at the studio in the design department. Luckily, SNL would come calling later. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Plaza would host the show for the first time in her career on January 21, 2023.
“I’m scared,” Aubrey Plaza said when Fallon asked if she was excited about the gig. “Hold me.”
We’ll see if her Puerto Rican news reporter makes an appearance this Saturday at 11:30 p.m. EST on NBC.