JOST GETS ANIMATED
Saturday Night Live vet takes role in Tom and Jerry revival seriously
Colin Jost doesn't have a doctorate in psychology, but he imagines all the therapeutic ways the animated rivalry between a cat and a mouse can help kids.
“Tom and Jerry, even though they're enemies, they also rely on each other,” Jost, 38, says from New York. “I think kids get angry and frustrated and they don't always know what to do with that. So to see a cartoon also dealing with those feelings is actually a cathartic thing for them.”
The Saturday Night Live head writer, Weekend Update co-host and 11-time Emmy nominee is in a new movie that mixes live action and animation to revive the decades-old feud between the classic cartoon characters.
Even though they're cartoon characters, they're deeply human.
COLIN JOST
Q Why did you say yes to Tom and Jerry?
A I really liked the idea of seeing 2D animation brought into a live-action world in a Roger Rabbit kind of way. I hadn't seen that in so long. I also liked the idea of creating this world — especially for younger people and families that are going to be watching the movie — where it felt like a total escape. There was a real magic to having these cartoon characters live in a hotel in New York City. Being a New Yorker, I thought that was such a cool thing. It reminded me a lot of Home Alone 2, where Kevin is living in the Plaza. As a kid that made me excited, and I thought it had a little of that magic to it.
Q Tom and Jerry have been mortal enemies for more than 80 years. Why have those characters stayed so popular?
A Even though they're cartoon characters, they're deeply human. You see how so genuinely frustrated and angry they get, and I think it's satisfying to see how violent they are (laughs). I think, because they're cartoons, they get away with it, but you can see real human frustrations acted out. You love seeing how they are going to one-up each other, both in how they attack and how they escape that attack. I think that's an endlessly satisfying cycle, because you can see them do it and know that they're going to still be OK at the end of the day. That's pretty fun.
Q I imagine on SNL you can improvise a little bit more. How did your work there inform what you did on Tom and Jerry?
A It's way easier to improvise on Tom and Jerry. At SNL, if you improvise, it's live. You might not even be on camera sometimes. So you have to pick your moments. The show is timed and there are a lot of moving pieces that aren't just you … so it's very liberating to be able to go for it on film and not worry about the consequences, versus being on a live show and always being slightly terrified of suddenly derailing the whole thing.
Q How did they depict the cartoon characters on set for you to act alongside?
A They sometimes had a full 3D model of Tom or Jerry, but then other times it was a cardboard cut-out of Tom and Jerry. I would think, “Are they just going to cut this (scene) out since they're not using the right Tom and Jerry?”
Q Several SNL alums have gone the acting route, and of course your wife is actress Scarlett Johansson. Was that on your radar for a while?
A For sure. Part of it was just time. I tour a lot with standup when I have time off from SNL. That's what I've done for the past 15 years. But I really missed acting. That's what I started out doing when I was in college. I find it really liberating and exciting to do. So I would like to continue to do more of it. I thought this was a good opportunity to throw myself into it and figure it out with other actors that I really trusted. I haven't got to do as much of it as I would have liked, but I hope to do more.
Q In your memoir A Very Punchable Face you say you're “preparing mentally to leave SNL in the near future.” Is that still the case?
A I don't know. I take it year by year because I don't like jumping ahead and thinking too far down the line. That's never how I've operated. I like to look at one project at a time and see it through and then decide what I want to do next. I'm not a big planner. So, I'm not sure yet. I like doing things like this and I would like to do more of them. But we'll see where that goes. It seems like such a limbo year, so it's hard to decide. It's not like the usual show and it doesn't feel like a normal year in any way. When I think about how many episodes or years I have left at (SNL), it almost doesn't feel like it counts. Right now, everything feels like survival. So, I'm trying to get to the end of this (season) before I make any decisions about anything in my life.