James Marsden bombed an ‘SNL’ audition because he itched like a chicken

Although James Marsden was able to land a guest role on NBC’s “30 Rock,” he failed to become a regular at the studio after failing his “Saturday Night Live” audition.

The “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” star said on a Dec. 18 episode of “Live with Kelly and Mark” that he once auditioned for the prolific sketch comedy show “if you can call it that” but got the thumbs up downwards after failing to deliver on the talent scouts’ direction.

“They were doing a nationwide talent search, and one of my friends in my drama class, or whatever, that I used to do these comedy skits with said, ‘Let’s go down and try it.'” I think they got us to…’Create an interesting character,’ or whatever,” Marsden said. “It was like, ‘do whatever stupid thing you want to do.’ I don’t know why we chose to do this, but we clucked like chickens and just walked around each other.”

In retrospect, Marsden admitted that “it was a bad choice” to commit to the chicken bite.

Marsden added that he would “love” to one day host “SNL,” recalling a time when he expressed his desire to join the show to his “30 Rock” co-star and “SNL” legend Tina Fey.

“I did a little bit of ’30 Rock’ with Tina Fey,” Marsden said. “And I said, ‘You know, my dream was always to be on SNL.’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, well, you’re going to host at some point.’ And I say, ‘No, like a regular. I want to be the guys!’ She said, ‘Well, you can if you want to.’ But yeah, I just love doing impressions and different characters.”

This year, “Saturday Night Live” marked its 50th season on the air. This Saturday, Martin Short, a former cast member, will host accompanied by musical guest Hozier.