While Bill Hader made an official announcement on his departure from NBC’s Saturday Night Live, Fred Armisen hadn’t made it clear whether he had wanted to stay or not. That is, until an interview he gave today in which he said it is ‘obvious’ that he is done with the sketch comedy show.
It was rumored last month that Armisen and Jason Sudeikis were ready to follow Hader out the door. Armisen has plenty of other interests, including his IFC hit Portlandia, while Sudeikis has taken his talents to the big screen. Then, the final sketch during the season finale made it clear that Armisen was leaving.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Armisen spoke with Splitsider about his projects and SNL. When asked if he was officially done with it after 11 seasons, he said, “I think it's clear.”
Armisen continued, “I didn't do any kind of official announcement, but I really felt like it was obvious. An ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to SNL and to Lorne and to the cast. There was a lot of emotion attached to it, but it was a very positive emotion.”
While he has nothing but fond memories of SNL, Armisen admitted that the pull of Portlandia was just too strong. “Portlandia started to pull me away more and more, schedule-wise, and I just felt like it'd be nice to focus on it a little more and go into the fall a bit more with shooting,” he said. “So it was because of that. And also it was just a feeling.”
image: NBC