Lamorne Morris likens himself to his ‘Saturday Night’ character: ‘You’re the Black dude’
For his Emmy-winning performance as Deputy Witt Farr on “Fargo,” Lamorne Morris underwent a complete physical transformation. In his latest role, he’s far closer to himself.
The Chicago-born actor portrays Garrett Morris (no relation) in “Saturday Night,” the Jason Reitman-directed feature film about the birth of “Saturday Night Live,” released Oct. 11. The elder Morris was the first Black cast member on the legendary sketch comedy show — an experience the younger Morris identified with.
While playing the sole Black lead on the sitcom “New Girl,” he told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday, fans would often tell him, “Oh I know that show. You’re the Black dude.”
Lamorne Morris joined the “New Girl” cast shortly after Damon Wayans Jr., who played Coach in the show’s pilot, exited due to scheduling conflicts. Early into production, the newcomer was often frustrated by the writers’ blurry vision for his character, Winston Bishop — which he struggled to believe wasn’t personal.
Times reporter Yvonne Villarreal spent the afternoon with the actor, a first-time Emmy nominee, as he got ready to attend the awards ceremony. He won, too.
“The first two years of ‘New Girl,’” he told the Post, “I was like, ‘What am I doing?’”
The “Woke” star said he imagines his character in “Saturday Night” asking himself the same question a half-century ago, on the night “SNL” debuted. Then a 37-year-old playwright and singer, Garrett Morris was decades older than most of his castmates — and the only Black member of the show’s creative team.
“With ‘Saturday Night Live,’ suddenly I was representing Black,” Garrett told Lamorne in a Variety interview published Saturday. The conversation was hardly the pair’s first, because despite “Saturday Night” director Jason Reitman’s wishes, they were in contact even before filming began.
“Jason didn’t want us to reach out to the real actors. His thing was, you’re an actor. You already know what to do,” Lamorne Morris said. “But I called Garrett anyway.”
During several subsequent phone and Zoom calls, the two learned they “shared a very, very similar walk,” he said.
In Reitman’s words, the “Fargo” actor was “born to play this role.”
“Lamorne just kind of inherently understood that search for identity that Garrett was going through,” the director told the Post, adding that Morris brought a sincerity to his rendition that makes for one of the film’s most compelling character arcs.
Luckily for the actor, who as a child admired Garrett Morris so greatly that he used to tell people they were related, his performance also landed with the “SNL” alum himself.
Watching the film, Garrett Morris said, was “a very cathartic experience.”
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