This week on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast we welcome Ashley Bower back to the show, this time to discuss the four-time host, Adam Driver.

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[0:41 ] All right. Thank you so much, Doug DeNance. It is a thrill to be here back in the SNL Hall of Fame on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. My name is JD and welcome. Before you come on in, though, please do me a favor. Read the mat. Wipe your feet. eat. The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and add them to the ballot for your consideration. Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall. And that's how we play the game it's just that simple now one of the things we do before we play the game is we talk to our friend matt ardill and we get some trivia but before we do that i think it's important we know that we're going to be talking about adam driver today uh i gotta tell you he's one of my most favorite guests of this new era this new generation it would be mulaney and and driver for me for sure i could see them both being in the hall at some point it'll be interesting to hear what ashley bauer has to say in terms of building a case ash and we're thrilled so let's uh walk down the hall and talk to our friend mr ardill oh matt adam.

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[2:10 ] Driver yeah yeah um One of my favorite hosts, to be honest. Six foot two, born November 19th, 1983 in Fontana, California. Did not expect him to be a Californian. I don't know why. Just doesn't have that. Yeah, just doesn't have that California energy. He attended Mishawaka High School and the University of Indianapolis before going on to graduate from Juilliard. This is a another juilliard grad uh who appears on snl uh he has been in had he has had 57 acting roles six soundtrack credits and two producer credits um as a youth he appeared in how to succeed in business without really trying uh into the woods and guys and dolls uh he's he's one of of those people who's had you know when you see an actor and they're like they just have depths that you didn't expect, Because they have lived experiences, and I feel Adam is one of those. He worked as a door-to-door vacuum salesman.

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[3:19 ] He applied to Juilliard, was rejected, so decided, what the hell, I'll join the Marines. Where he was a Lance Corporal before being discharged due to an injury prior to deployment that made him unable to go into combat. So he decided, what the hell, I'll try Juilliard again. And this time was accepted. Does not like to watch his own performance and will decline to watch them in interviews, because he just does not like seeing himself on screen. Uh he's been nominated for oscars in lincoln a black k a kk black kk klansman i don't know how to pronounce the spike lee movie yeah it's a three k's it throws me off um and marriage story of course uh his wife is actor joanne tucker uh the uh their her grandfather is the politician henry Tucker, who is considered one of the most important politicians in Bermuda in history, who led the first government of Bermuda in 1968.

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[4:29 ] Um watching his roles it's clear he's a bit of an intense person um because like after watching fight club he actually came away with the wrong lesson and decided to start a fight club in his high school um yeah so that was a choice uh now he did appear on broadway in mrs warren's profession and man and boy before going on to appear in Girls. Growing up, he was raised by a father and a stepfather who were both preachers, who had him sing in the church choir, which he doesn't really show off to the best of his ability inside Llewellyn Davis.

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[5:13 ] Which is, to be honest, where I first fell in love with him as the singing cowboy. Boy uh but he's actually a very talented musician and in that episode where he played the piano on snl he actually played the piano he does know how to play the piano um now he's gone on found a charity uh called arts in the armed forces with his partner a non-profit that brings art to the active duty service members around the world and support staff free of charge uh together they have have a son uh but he actually kept it hidden for two years before the new yorker finally uh let it slip in 2019 so he is a man of uh many nuances and layers sounds that way what an onion he is yeah you know when i carve into an onion i often cry and when i listen to a thomas conversation Conversation with a guest, sometimes two, I often cry. Let's go to Thomas now.

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[6:19 ] Grab your tissues. How's that for a segue, Matty?

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[6:51 ] Well, hello, JD and Matt. Welcome to another edition of the SNL Hall of Fame Conversation. We are in the middle of a wonderful season six, continuing that today with a great nominee, one of my all-time favorite hosts. I'm going to be up front about how much I like today's nominee. It's Adam Driver, of course, and I'll be up front about how much I like today's guest as well. A very special guest first timer last season with kate mckinnon who i think uh will probably get in this year i mean a little soon after after her tenure at snl to get into the snl hall of fame i guess the voters decided that but i think um ultimately ashley will have gotten kate mckinnon into the hall um ashley uh joined me and daramie on a round table uh at the end of season five so So this is her third appearance to the show. So Ashley Bauer, thank you so much for joining me today on the SNL Hall of Fame, Ashley. Thank you so much for having me back. I'm kind of working my way toward my own five-timers club, hopefully. That's the goal. Slowly but surely. Yes, yes, you'll get there. You were very impressive in your first go-around, so I had to have you back this season. I've been following your exploits on Instagram, I'm not going to lie. So you're a world traveler, you're a Taylor Swift fan, so why don't you tell me, like, how's your summer going in both of those regards, Ashley? I'm kind of jealous.

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[8:18 ] So it's a little bittersweet. So yeah, I went to Paris to see Taylor Swift at the Aris Tour in May, and it was everything I thought it would be and more. Like it was like being in Barbie land. Everybody supports each other. It's women supporting women. And it's this like happy, wholesome environment. And she's just such an incredible performer. And she was so amazing. And I was so depressed after the concert was over that I couldn't accept the fact that I would never see an AeroStore concert again. So I immediately booked another trip with a separate friend. And we were scheduled to go see her in Vienna. Just a couple of weeks ago but if anyone was watching the news they saw that the vienna shows did not happen um you know just terrorists or whatever no big deal wanted to blow up the venue so very grateful uh shout out to all of the national security agencies um in that country and whatever other countries may or may not have assisted because i'm here to talk on this podcast with you but yeah I know love traveling you're right 100% as often as I can get out of the country and go see somewhere new I'm gonna do it and if I get to combine it with Taylor Swift like.

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[9:41 ] What better trip could I plan? So yeah, made the best of it, even though we didn't actually get to see her in concert. But got to explore. Still did some kind of musical stuff. We went on a Sound of Music tour in Salzburg. So made lemons, excuse me, made lemonades out of lemons. Yes. And now I'm just back in the U.S., I guess. Just back to the boring life. Yeah, just normal everyday real world. Not in Barbie land anymore.

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[10:11 ] Oh, that's cool. So that's awesome. Again, I'm like admiring your travels from afar, admiring your Taylor Swift adventures from afar. So I'm glad you've had a great summer. And I'm glad you're back here with me in season six to talk some Adam Driver. And I'm going to be upfront, Ashley. I think Adam might be in my top 10 all-time hosts. He's a four-timer. I think he's already there for me. So I'm going to start the conversation with that to be full, you know, full disclosure with the listeners. I think I have him as a top 10 all time host. Is that aggressive on my part? No, not at all. And I promise he's not paying me to say this or to just agree with him. But like I 100% he needs to at least be in the five timers club. He is so natural. Like it was like he was born to be an SNL host or somehow like he needs to somehow be associated with SNL for as long as I'm capable of watching the show so yeah not aggressive at all and I know we're going to talk a lot about why, he's just so freaking good at it like it's hilarious it's intense it's everything.

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[11:21 ] Yeah, and I was doing this exercise because I made an appearance on the Saturday Night Network's host countdown this summer. And I was just kind of doing my list and going through the hosts and everything like that. And I surprised myself and was like, I really have Adam Driver this high? I guess I do. And I guess I think he deserves it. So that's where I'm coming from. I think that's where both of us are coming from with this episode. So that's why I was so excited to do this one. So a little brief background on Adam. He did a little acting here and there. Until 2012, he started really getting breaks in 2012. He was in Lincoln, Francis Ha, the Greta Gerwig movie.

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[12:02 ] Girls, though, was arguably his biggest break. So I first saw Adam Driver on Girls. Is that the case for you and your first exposure to Adam? Or was it li