Paul Wight Confirms Moments He Improvised Live On SNL
Paul Wight might be best known for his work inside the professional wrestling ring, but throughout his career, he has also had plenty of opportunities to dip his toes into the acting world, and he admitted that he's "always had the itch" to do that.
The AEW star spoke to Nick Hausman in a Wrestling Inc. exclusive interview where he made it clear he's "always wanted to do things that were outside of my wheelhouse to be entertaining or to bring something different," which includes the desire to do dramatic roles like his latest part in "Marcus."
It was an opportunity for him to show a more serious side of his acting as he has predominantly been put into comedic situations up until this point in his career, but even that is something he had to work for.
"For the longest time, I had to fight really hard to let people know that I was funny to do comedy," he said. "Because when I first started, it was, 'You're a giant, you can't be funny.' It's like a broken record ... But, finally, I was able to convince WWE and the opportunity with The Big Show Show to say, 'Hey, I am funny.'"
One of his first big breaks in terms of acting in a comedic manner was on "Saturday Night Live" where he got to appear back in 2000, and he admitted that WWE was "blown away" by the humor that he was able to showcase. Although he did joke that he "did such a great job, Rock never asked me back."
"I saw that as a live show. Like, they can't tell me no 'cause it's a live show,' so I was going to go out there and do anything I could to be funny ... [The Rock] was super cool at that time with the way he was building his career and ... just being around him and knowing his work ethic and just knowing how people reacted to him, you kind of knew that like, 'This guy's not going to be in wrestling long. He's got too much; there's just too much there.'"
"SNL" is well known for actors and comedians being able to showcase their comedic chops. This is an environment Wight thrived in, as he added in the interview that the spot where he hid the chair behind his back "was all impromptu".
"I was so big then. I came back and Vince was smart enough to know that I was hiding something," he said. "I went back on stage and I had Chris Kattan in my arms like, that wasn't planned either... When I went on stage, I went like this [waves towards himself], and he's so funny, he just jumped up in my arms and I walked back into scene with him. That was all impromptu stuff, we were just having fun, clowning."
For Wight, that was somewhere he didn't look back from as he has spent the rest of his career being able to thrive in doing comedic bits whether it was impersonating Hulk Hogan in the wrestling ring or playing a variety of characters in the television and movie world.
"It was important then to try and take that opportunity and make the most of it because I always wanted to have an opportunity to go into sitcom and being funny, that was something I knew was in my wheelhouse that I could do," he said. "It took me a while, but I eventually got The Big Show Show, which was a lot of fun doing a family comedy."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Wrestling Inc. for the transcription with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.