Ryan Gosling thought he was joining SNL’s infamous "Five-Timers Club" during his most recent appearance. His math may have been off, but he’s no newbie at 30 Rock. In fact, he’s gone through a number of quick changes during his time on the show. How does he go from a popular sketch like “Beavis and Butthead” to another requiring a giant costume swap like “Cyclops”? It turns out, Saturday Night Live has a secret weapon.
Her name is Donna. That is, Donna Richards, the longtime costume and wardrobe department maverick on NBC’s late night sketch series. She’s dressed some big names over the years, and Ryan Gosling is among them. The actor was promoting his recent movie Project Hail Mary on Late Night With Seth Meyers when he realized Donna was also a staple on that late night series.
You really got the a-team. If you want to know how you go from like ‘Beavis and Butthead’ to a cyclops in two minutes, it’s Donna who makes that happen. Sometimes she has to like prod you, slap you. [She] rips your clothes off, ‘Turn around,’ slaps you [on the butt].
Seth Meyers then joked about Donna's role on the late night series he also used to star in.
On Monday, they make you sign a thing being like, ‘I will not report Donna to HR.’
Of course, he is just kidding, but I’d imagine the quick changes on SNL leave little to the imagination. In fact, I know this to be true, because Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig both confirmed “they’re literally tearing clothes” off behind-the-scenes and everybody is seeing everybody else’s bits. Even when the quick changes don’t necessarily involve nudity, they can be brutally fast-paced. You can see the full exchange, below.
To keep the guest host in a good mood, Donna is apparently a superhuman, and brought Ryan Gosling pop tarts from her relative's bakery.
Donna gives them at the beginning of the show, so you’re just running on pop tarts the whole time.
Seth Meyers seemed perplexed by this admission, leading Donna from the sidelines to sheepishly mention Ryan Gosling is the only one getting the pop tarts on the SNL set. Sorry to all of the other upcoming guest hosts and musical guests, but Ryan Gosling is definitely getting a little special treatment on the show. That will probably continue, too, because he's very close to finally landing that Five-Timers club laud. And since he's got his first big franchise movie in Starfighter (which means we're finally getting another upcoming Star Wars movie) coming up, I expect this opportunity will come sooner than later.
I hope Donna doesn't forget the pop tarts.
