Sylvester Stallone received an awkward note while hosting Saturday Night Live. He was the host of the show in an episode from 1997, right around the time when Tina Fey began writing for the series. Years later, Fey went on to become one of SNL's biggest icons, working on the show for over a decade and writing and participating in some of its most memorable skits.
Fey shared her experience working on the show in an episode of "SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night," a documentary series exploring the historic show and some of the most memorable performers who worked there. She revealed that on her first week of work, she had to deliver an awkward note to Sylvester Stallone.
“I think possibly my first week as a writer, Sylvester Stallone [hosted] and a note came back that was, ‘Tell him he needs to enunciate more. We can’t understand him,'" shared Fey. "And then the writer that I was working with, he was more experienced, and he’s like ‘Okay, you go do it.'"
Fey revealed that while the moment was uncomfortable, Stallone was nice to her. "But it's a great trial by fire," Fey said. "Mr. Stallone was very nice about it. Clearly not the first time in his life he had received that note."
In the documentary series, Fey revealed that the process of getting skits approved was tough, usually relying on the other writers in the room discussing it at length, making fun of the work, and even tearing it down to make it better.
"I don’t know if it's the same anymore and if it’s not, maybe it should get that way again a little bit," said Fey with a laugh. "I think it’s good."
Fey discussed the Stallone exchange in her memoir
Fey was deeply impacted by her encounter with Stallone, also discussing it in her memoir, "Bossypants."
She wrote that after she was asked to deliver the note, she had to go inside Stallone's SNL dressing room where she was faced by his intimidating persona.
“My trademark obedience kicked in and I found myself knocking on the door and being ushered in,” she wrote. “Judge Dredd himself was on the couch in an undershirt, smoking another cigar. He looked up at me. I muttered, ‘In the Rita sketch, you were a little hard to understand. Can you just enunciate a little more?’”
You can check out the full skit below.