'SNL' alum recalls Diddy demanding 'closed set' — and getting pranked by Will Ferrell
"Saturday Night Live" alum Ana Gasteyer doesn't look back fondly on Sean "Diddy" Combs' appearance.
In an interview on the "Las Culturistas" podcast, the former "SNL" star described the embattled music mogul as one of a handful of guests who exuded an obnoxious sense of "faux importance" by demanding cast members stay in their dressing rooms when they were in the building. Combs was the musical guest in a 1998 episode of the NBC show.
"He of course shut down the whole building," she said, adding, "He demanded a totally closed set."
Gasteyer recalled feeling this sort of treatment would only be appropriate for a presidential candidate coming to visit the show, but "apart from that, really, it's my house."
According to Gasteyer, the set was sealed off on the Thursday before the show as Combs rehearsed his performance of "Come with Me," which sampled the Led Zeppelin track "Kashmir." But despite Combs demanding a closed set, Will Ferrell decided to have some fun by going down to interrupt the rapper while dressed as his character "Ron."
"(The writers) were like, 'Wouldn't it be so funny if Ron just went in?' And he did," she remembered. "He went on down the stairs and he marched right in, and I have the video from the control room where Sean Combs is rapping, and Ron's just walking around looking really disoriented."
"It is the greatest thing that's ever happened, because what a deserved person to have their 'Kashmir' moment interrupted by Ron. And (Combs) really did not roll with it. He was very uncomfortable."
Ferrell previously reminisced about this moment in a video for the "SNL" YouTube channel in 2020, which featured footage of the comedian walking on stage during the rehearsal.
"We were in this writers room watching Puff Daddy rehearse, and someone said, 'Ron should go up on stage.' And before everyone turned to see, I had sprinted out the door."
After Combs was arrested in September following a sex trafficking investigation, some celebrities have looked back at their encounters with him in a different light.
In a TikTok, the rapper's former neighbor, Rosie O'Donnell, said she was "in shock" about the allegations and remembered an instance where Combs kindly rented out a movie theater for her and her family after they were turned away from his party.
"I know that there's perhaps a naivety to me in some way, but I think, how could a person live knowing that they had done that and then be a public person and continue to do it?'" O'Donnell asked. "Didn't he feel the footsteps of the law behind him at all times?"
Combs has pleaded not guilty and denied all of the allegations of sexual assault against him.
As for "Saturday Night Live," the show has mocked Combs numerous times amid his sex crimes case. In one "Weekend Update" segment last month, Michael Che joked, "It was reported that last month, the U.S. added 245,000 new jobs. Unfortunately, they were all 'Diddy accuser.'"