Glen Powell reveals tips for Tom Cruise’s ‘Running Man’ stunt
Glen Powell shares Tom Cruise’s advice and reveals the most difficult stunt he did in The Running Man.
“Saturday Night Live” features Jeffrey Epstein’s emails.
The show’s latest cold opening stars James Austin Johnson as President Donald Trump defending himself after the House Oversight Committee released emails from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this week. Trump’s name appears in the email, and Epstein wrote that the president “knew about the girls.” President Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s sex trafficking.
The sketch takes place during a White House briefing, and begins with White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt (Ashley Padilla) claiming, “There’s been no news this week, nothing has happened to the president, and no weird information has come to light!” Padilla, who shares Mr. Levitt, insisted that the president had done nothing wrong after being pressed by reporters about why Mr. Trump’s name appeared in Mr. Epstein’s emails.
“If anything, his sin was that he loved too much, and perhaps too young,” she says.
Mr. Johnson, like Mr. Trump, quickly took over the press conference and declared that Mr. Epstein “has very little to hide,” but said there was “enough to be very suspicious.”
“Jeffrey Epstein, I barely knew the man. This is probably a book we’ll all be looking forward to reading, as evidenced by the thousands of photos of us together dancing and gnashing our teeth at various parties, always staring and pointing just outside the camera,” he added.
The sketch ended with Johnson’s President Trump announcing that he had pardoned a turkey for Thanksgiving who is “completely coincidentally a convicted sex offender.”
Glen Powell hosted the Nov. 15 episode of SNL, the day after the new action movie Running Man was released in theaters. This marks the actor’s SNL hosting debut, and he made a cameo appearance when his Anyone But You co-star Sidney Sweeney hosted in 2024. Olivia Dean was the musical guest on Powell’s episode.
In his monologue, Powell addressed critics who are “tired of seeing my face” after a busy few years. “Who doesn’t get tired of seeing my face? It’s your mom,” he joked.
Last week’s “SNL” opened with a sketch parodying a White House event in which a man passed out behind Trump in the Oval Office. In the sketch, Johnson, dressed as Trump, declared that his “normal” reaction would be to “stand there and stare like a sociopath.”
Johnson, who played Trump in the sketch, touched on a number of other topics, including rising food prices and flight cancellations due to the ongoing government shutdown.
“We promised that food prices would plummet, and that’s exactly what happened. They plummeted in one fell swoop,” he said. “People say, ‘But how are you going to buy your family a turkey for Thanksgiving?’ Well, the good news is your family isn’t coming because all the flights are gone.”
Powell was preceded by comedian Nikki Glazer, who hosted the Nov. 8 episode of “SNL” and shocked viewers with a humorous monologue about dark topics such as sex trafficking and pedophilia.
“SNL” is currently in its 51st season of six episodes, which premiered in October after several cast members, including Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim, left the show during its summer hiatus.
During Saturday’s episode, it was announced that Melissa McCarthy would return to “SNL” and host the Dec. 6 episode, which will feature musical guest Dijon.
Contributors: Bart Jansen, Erin Mansfield, Joey Garrison, Josh Meyer, USA TODAY
