“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” actor Tom Holland has revealed why he is “so petrified” by the prospect of hosting “Saturday Night Live” that he has turned down multiple offers to do it.
The actor appeared on Tuesday’s episode of the “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” podcast, where he talked with the former “SNL” star about his career. During the conversation, he opened up about why his own struggles with dyslexia have held him back from accepting the “SNL” team’s offers to host the long-running NBC sketch comedy series.
“I’m heavily dyslexic, which is one of the reasons why — and I’d love to talk to you today about it actually — is why I’ve never done ‘SNL,’” Holland revealed, adding, “I’m just so petrified at the concept of like trying to read something and [the cue cards] change.”
“Oh, this is interesting. I’m sure they have had many dyslexics host,” Poehler responded, to which Holland replied, “Totally. It’s just that for me, I can read fine. But when I have to read out loud, it just becomes like a kind of — it’s like a mental block and I can freeze. So for me, my worst day at work is the read-through. Like at the read-through, I will really try and highlight everything and learn my lines ahead of time, so that I’m more kind of skimming it than I am reading.”
You can watch Holland’s full “Good Hang” interview yourself below.
Holland confirmed to Poehler that NBC and the “SNL” creative team have reached out to him periodically about hosting over the years.
“I’ve been really lucky that they’ve asked me a few times to do it, and the truth is that I’m actually just really scared at the prospect of [it],” Holland said. “I love the show and I love the idea of having fun and making a fool of yourself in such a fun, creative way. It’s just that thing of the cue cards.”
Poehler, for her part, offered Holland a humorous anecdote to soothe his “SNL” hosting fears.”You have to remember there have been people that have hosted that have been fully on drugs,” Poehler said. “So I think you can do it.”
“That is true,” a laughing Holland responded. “And who are those people?”
“Well, I’ll tell you after,” Poehler assured him with a playful smirk.
