Seth Meyers on His Early Dreams of Movie Stardom: ‘Sometimes Ambition Led Me Away from My Strengths’

NBC’s late-night talk show programming has been dominated by “Saturday Night Live” veterans for the better part of the 21st century. Jimmy Fallon has found success as the host of “The Tonight Show” since 2014, having previously hosted “Late Night” for five years following Conan O’Brien’s departure from the show. (O’Brien was a long-tenured writer on “SNL.”)

Fallon’s promotion to the 11:35 slot created an opportunity for Seth Meyers to bring his distinct brand of “Weekend Update”-influenced political comedy to “Late Night,” which he has hosted since 2014.

It’s a format that suits Meyers — especially since he transitioned from a traditional standup monologue to delivering jokes from behind a desk. That’s Meyers’ comfort zone; it just took some time to find it.

In a recent appearance on NPR’s “Wild Card with Rachel Martin,” Meyers said that he initially believed his stint on “SNL” would lead him towards movie stardom.

“I think that sometimes ambition maybe led me away from my strengths,” Meyers said. “You know, being on ‘SNL,’ obviously, there were a lot of people that I was colleagues with who both were on ‘SNL,’ and they were having robust acting careers outside of ‘SNL.’ And I was covetous of that. And I mean, I guess it’s ambition, I was like, ‘Oh, I want to be in movies, too.’”

Meyers said it took him too long to realize that he wasn’t cut out for acting. But once he did, the playbook unfolded.

“And very slowly it dawned on me, and it probably should have dawned on me faster, ‘Oh, this isn’t the thing I’m supposed to be doing. Like, I’m good at some other things, but being an actor isn’t one of them,'” he said. “You make this mistake of, you walk down a hallway and you see pictures of former cast members and you think because you work at the same place they do, you’re going to have the same career path, you know? But it’s a mistake to say just because you got hired at the same place as Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, that doesn’t mean you’re going to have their career.”