CNN –
Some may know Chloe Fineman as the lead impressionist on “SNL,” but she says she may leave season 49 with a new nickname.
“I'm this year's 'girl picked up by attractive men,' and I'm really not mad about it,” she recently joked to CNN, referencing two memorable skits in which she followed the “Aquaman” star in Jason Momoa and “Euphoria” star Jacob Elordi jumped in arms.
In fact, it's been a pretty exciting season for Fineman, who has appeared on the long-running sketch show since 2019. She was seen performing street ballet with Julia Stiles and confronting Timothée Chalamet after doing an uncanny impression of him.
While promoting her new campaign with NÜTRL Vodka Seltzer, Fineman spoke to CNN about some of her hottest skits from arguably her best season yet.
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(From left) Colin Jost, Chloe Fineman, Julia Stiles and Michael Che during a “Weekend Update” sketch on “Saturday Night Live” in December 2023.
It wasn't until about 11:30 Friday night before the live taping of a December episode of “SNL” that Fineman learned from a producer that the “Save the Last Dance” sketch she had suggested was in the works.
And as the clock struck midnight, the first call was made to the 2001 film's lead actress, Julia Stiles, to ask if she was available for a cameo in the skit paying homage to the film. Luckily, not only was Stiles awake at this hour, but she was also downstairs recovering.
“She happened to be in New York and said, 'Sure, yeah, I'll get a sitter!'” Fineman said.
The last-minute decision to proceed with the sketch left little time for pre-show preparation.
Reading cue cards and performing choreography at the same time in a live show was a new challenge for Fineman, so she worked hard with a choreographer to learn the dance on the day of the live show “in this weird gym, that we have on 30 Rock that supposedly only Seth has. “Meyers trains at.”
Stiles arrived around 5 p.m. to rehearse with Fineman, and she was ready to “practice and get it right.”
In the sketch, Stiles and Fineman demonstrate that their idea of the perfect “intimate” Christmas gift is the central Juilliard audition dance that Stiles' character performs at the end of the film. Fineman explains the plot while giving a hilarious take on the routine.
In the end, Stiles was greeted with loud cheers and applause as she took the “SNL” stage to appear with Fineman in a surprise cameo.
“For the audience to freak out like that,” Fineman said, “I thought it was so special and so cool.”
Although the sketch was a success, the final product was not as originally intended. According to Fineman, it was originally written for Adam Driver, who hosted the episode and would have been the recipient of her hot Christmas present, until the sketch changed direction and included Stiles instead.
“I was doing a table read and Adam Driver just looks at me and I think, 'Another day at the office making fun of the greatest actor of our generation.' “Cool, cool, cool,” she recalls, laughing.
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Chloe Fineman as Timothée Chalamet in a November 2023 “Saturday Night Live” sketch.
When Timothée Chalamet first hosted “SNL,” Fineman appeared in a sketch impersonating him.
When Chalamet returned as host of “SNL” for a second time in November and appeared in a skit in which Fineman played him again, it wasn't the first time he witnessed Fineman's attitude toward him up close.
The skit was a pre-recorded segment that aired during the live broadcast, in which Fineman and various cast members recorded celebrities acting as audiobook narrators for Britney Spears' memoir “The Woman in Me.” auditioned in 2023.
Fineman opens the sketch with her iconic portrayal of Spears before appearing as a laughing, mumbling Chalamet. Fineman's version of Chalamet in this sketch comically can't read his lines, but it seemed like she was somewhat afraid of it.
“At first I was like, 'I don't want to do this, I don't want to make him uncomfortable because I really love him,'” she admitted. But the series' team of experienced writers encouraged her to just trust the process.
Your advice paid off.
“He really enjoyed it; he really laughed!” she said. “My favorite [thing] is that he laughs the way I think he does, so it's kind of meta-crazy.”
Fineman developed the concept for the sketch shortly after the publication of Spears' vivid memoir. She worked with “SNL” writers Jake Nordwind and Mike DiCenzo on the perspective, choosing which impressions to include and who in the cast could portray them.
“It's kind of the joy of the show: you have all these great people who can surprise you with their impressions,” she said of her cast, highlighting Molly Kearney's impression of actor Kevin James and Mikey Day's Steve-O. “I love a skit like this because everyone scores points.”
Ultimately, the celebrities Fineman does impressions of are carefully selected and always created with admiration. “I will never leave an impression of someone who, in my opinion, has no sense of humor or is fragile,” she said.
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(From left) Mikey Day, Chloe Fineman, Bowen Yang, Molly Kearney, Marcello Hernandez and Jacob Elordi on “Saturday Night Live” in January.
Fineman isn't entirely sure how she got lucky enough to play a character who shares an on-screen kiss with Jacob Elordi during a January sketch, but she has a sneaking suspicion.
“I was also lucky enough to have Jason Momoa lifted by a hunk,” she said of a skit that aired in November, when the “Aquaman” actor hosted the episode. “Maybe it's because things were going so well with Jason Momoa that they thought, let's try Jacob.”
In the Elordi sketch, Fineman stars in a dating reality show aimed at men of below average height. In the end she decides on the 1.80 meter tall Elordi, with whom she ends up having an overdramatic kiss.
It was all a lot of fun, according to Fineman, who said Elordi and Momoa were “some of the nicest hosts we've ever had and so laid back” when it came to the intimate skits.
“To be honest, they said, 'Yeah, sure, whatever' and knew it was funny. It was easy,” she said. “They were beautiful and so big.”
Fineman, a self-proclaimed “little queen,” admits she had to exercise some self-control when coming into contact with some of the show's sexiest hosts, equating her nervousness to the girly high school feeling you can get if you encounter one, crush it.
“I'm just like, 'Just make it cool,'” she joked. “I just try not to be weird, which is obviously the hardest thing when you're being pulled up by Momoa.”
The Elordi and Momoa sketches were written by Nordwind and DiCenzo, but Fineman revealed that she also wrote and pitched a sketch for Chalamet's episode “Where He Lifted Me Up and We Had to Kiss.”
Unfortunately, the Chalamet sketch was cut during the episode's dress rehearsal, but Fineman realized a pattern was emerging.
“I feel like it's partly because my idea isn't being put into action. If it belongs to someone else, I don’t know, maybe it’ll just work out,” she guessed.
“SNL” airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. EDT/8:30 p.m. PDT on NBC. This week's host is comedian Shane Gillis with musical guest 21 Savage.