Saturday Night Live has found a pretty big star to go head-to-head with Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump for the upcoming 46th season of the NBC series. In a new interview with Vulture, SNL boss Lorne Michaels revealed that Jim Carrey has signed on to play Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. “You’ll see the same people. I mean, Maya Rudolph is coming back, and Alec [Baldwin] will be back. And Jim Carrey is going to do Biden,†Michaels said, explaining that the casting started with Carrey expressing interest in the part and then “it came down to discussions of what his take was … He will give the part energy and strength, and [Laughs] hopefully it’s funny.â€
Prior to Carrey stepping into the role, Biden was portrayed by three different people throughout SNL’s 45th season. Woody Harrelson played Biden three times, starting with his hosting stint for the season premiere in September 2019. Jason Sudeikis, who played Biden on SNL during Barack Obama’s presidency, returned to play him during RuPaul’s episode in early February 2020, followed by a single appearance by John Mulaney during his episode later that same month.
In addition to the Carrey news, Michaels also revealed to Vulture that SNL has added three new featured players to the cast: Lauren Holt, Punkie Johnson, and Andrew Dismukes. Read our full interview with Michaels about the upcoming season of SNL here.