A Legendary SNL Writer Speaks |
Jim Downey is your favorite comedian’s favorite comedian. The writer, who worked for Saturday Night Live from 1976 until 2013, can move through life much more anonymously than the comics he helped turn into stars. But bring his name up to anyone who crossed paths with him at the show, and their eyes light up—from Conan O’Brien to Adam Sandler to David Letterman to Maya Rudolph to John Mulaney. Now Downey is having perhaps his most public year ever: He plays a pivotal role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, and he’s also the subject of a new Peacock documentary called Downey Wrote That. Andrew Buss caught up with him for a chat about coming out of the shadows and why Downey’s very happy not to be writing about Donald Trump.
Elsewhere in HWD, Tom Freston looks back at the early days of MTV in an excerpt from his new memoir, Unplugged; Martin Scorsese explores his darkest chapters in the new documentary Mr. Scorsese; Savannah Walsh chats with the women behind Nobody Wants This as season two looms; and Princess Diana’s nephew makes his film debut—under a pseudonym. |
Subscribe to our Royal Watch newsletter and get an overview of the chatter from Kensington Palace and beyond.
|
