Former Saturday Night Live Cast member Punkie Johnson has opened up about her reasons for leaving the popular sketch series ahead of its 50th season.
Talking to former colleagues SNL cast members Dana Carvey and David Spade Fly on the Wall On his podcast, Johnson admitted that he “just couldn't fit in” with the legendary NBC show. In fact, Johnson wanted to leave at the beginning of season 49, but his managers convinced him to hang on until the end.
“I talked to my team. I said, 'Look, I don't know if I really belong in this job, so maybe I should just step down,'” Johnson recalls. “But I told them very, very late, right after I found out I had to come back. And they said, 'Punkie, you need a plan. You can't just quit your job.'”
Through the first few weeks of his senior season, Johnson felt “tremendous” about the increased opportunities he was given. “I think I got three or four drafts in the first half. [of the season]”And usually, I only get two or three a season, so I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'm doing great. This is my season.'”
But things changed after Johnson's friend Ben Silva left the show's writing staff. “If I was telling him something, he knew how to do it. SNL “It's a format for me,” he said. “If I try to put it SNL “Formatting is the hard part.”
As a result, Johnson felt out of place next to other cast members who seemed more attuned to the fast pace of the business. “I never grew up in sketch, I never went to sketch school,” he said. “I didn't really feel like I fit in, I felt like it wasn't my thing. That show is for a different breed of person,” he said. “I'm crazy, I'm more offbeat, I'm all over the place. [show] is a structure.”
“I came from stand-up,” Johnson continued, “so I thought everyone came from stand-up. I started chatting with people and everyone was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s what we went to school for.’ I was like, ‘Did you guys go to school to come here?’”
Johnson has nothing but respect for the show and its creator, Lorne Michaels. When news of his departure broke, “I texted Lorne, ‘Look, you know I love you, I appreciate everything,’” he recalled. “There’s only four guys in this business who believed in me and paved a way for me, and Lorne is one of them,” Johnson said. “My relationship with the show is still strong, we just mutually understood that it wasn’t my space.”
Johnson joined SNL As a featured player on the show's 46th season in 2020. Johnson rarely played major characters in sketches, but was known for portraying an exaggerated version of himself on “Weekend Update”. Johnson SNLShe is the series' eighth black female cast member and the first openly gay black female cast member.
You can listen to Johnson in full Fly on the Wall The interview is below.
