Adrien Brody says he wasn’t banned from SNL after notorious Jamaican accent bit

But, “The Brutalist” star notes, he hasn’t been invited back.

Adrien Brody hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 2002. Photo:Andrew Toth/WireImage

Despite what audiences might have heard — or speculated — Adrien Brody says he’s not banned from Saturday Night Live. At least not that he’s aware of.

In an infamous moment from the May 10, 2003, episode hosted by Brody, the actor wore a wig of dreadlocks and spoke in an exaggerated Jamaican accent as he introduced the night’s musical guest, Sean Paul. The reggae artist hails from Kingston, Jamaica, while Brody was born in New York City.

Brody’s “ya mon”-filled introduction strayed wildly from the legendary sketch show’s standard line of “Ladies and gentleman, [musical guest]” format, leading to rumors afterward that he’d been banned from the famously non-improvised live show. The Brutalist star, who won Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, at Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, told Vulture in a new interview that he was never issued a formal ban. “But I also have never been invited back on,” he added. “So I don’t know what to tell you.”

The Asteroid City star explained that the bit was indeed his idea, but that he’d first done it during dress rehearsal for the Lorne Michaels-created show and that they’d provided the costume. “I think Lorne wasn’t happy with me embellishing a bit, but they allowed me to,” Brody explained. “I thought that was a safe space to do that, weirdly.”

The actor, who was fresh off a Best Actor Oscar win for The Pianist at the time, told the outlet the bit was just one of many he’d tossed around during his hosting stint at the sketch show. “They were all literally agape from me pitching,” he recalled.

Adrien Brody hosts ‘Saturday Night Live’ in May 2003.Mary Ellen Matthews/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Brody is not the only A-lister to clarify that he hasn’t actually been banned by the iconic NBC show currently in its landmark 50th season.

Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson first claimed in March 2022 that he wasn’t welcome back at SNL after he’d dropped an F-bomb on a 2012 episode as part of one of Kenan Thompson’s hilarious “What Up With That?” sketches, blaming the cast member for not cutting him off in time. However, Entertainment Weekly confirmed that there was no official ban in place for the Pulp Fiction star, who then explained on a May 2022 episode of EW’s The Awardist podcast that Michaels himself had also dispelled the notion that he could never return to the series.

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“Are you ever gonna let me back on the show?” Samuels recalled confronting the SNL boss during an encounter on an elevator in New York City, but said Michaels replied, “You’re not banned!”

Lack of ban aside, like Brody, Jackson has not returned to Studio 8H since, but keep your fingers crossed as Saturday Night Live has yet to announce its upcoming slate of hosts for the remainder of season 50.