Oscar Isaacs makes his debut as the host of Saturday Night Live tonight, speaking in his opening monologue about the upcoming Disney+ series Moon Night, which will serve as his introduction to the MCU, and more.
"I'm so excited to be here. It's my first time hosting SNL," Isaac said at the top. "They actually asked me to host it back in 2015, but I said, 'No, I'm ready' I am not I want to wait till after the pandemic. And they were like, 'What an epidemic?'"
The actor further said that his stage name is Oscar Isaac, his full name is Oscar Isaac Hernandez Estrada. "I told Hollywood, 'You can choose two of these names.' Guess who they went with? White people,” he joked. “I’m half Guatemalan, half Cuban—or, as the casting directors say, ‘ethnically ambiguous. According to him, I can play anything from Pharaoh to Timothée Chalamet's dad."
You know the joke about a priest, a rabbi, and a minister roaming the bar, Isaac asked? "Yeah," he said, "I could play anyone in that joke."
Isaac is then inspired to express his excitement about "joining the Marvel universe" with Moon Knight, in which he plays the mercenary of the same name. This, he said, is "a full-circle moment", noting the fact that the first film he made was The Avenger. “Not The Avengers, which was a huge blockbuster. No. No. It was The Avengers, a movie that I wrote, directed and starred in when I was 10 years old,” he explained. “It was from my friend Bruce Ferguson. Backyard, was shot on location in our hometown of Miami, Florida. I play a ninja assassin training to fight his nemesis, and we actually have a clip. ,
Then we cut to the clip, which offers a glimpse of Isaac's wannabe killer. "[The movie] is arguably better than the actual Avengers, and I made it for half the budget—only $110 million," he continued. "But I took it really seriously — maybe a little too seriously. Like in this scene."
Cut to Isaac "acting out of [his] heart" as his friend Bruce's father cleans his pool in the background. The actor then offers to give Bruce a shout out, noting that he is watching SNL tonight, and has no idea that a movie they made together is being shown on national TV. “I actually had to sign a licensing agreement to show it. It’s true,” Isaacs said. “NBCUniversal now owns The Avenger, coming this fall in Peacock.”
Isaac then set up a third clip, which featured him playing two characters, one of whom was licking blood with a sword. Naturally, he praised himself for showing an "absolute commitment" to his craft from the start.
“Now you might be asking, Oscar, why are you using your monologues to show us old home videos? And that’s because it’s important to encourage kids to be weirdos,” Isaacs said, as they A bloody prop sword was handed out to lick on stage. "Because every once in a while, one of those weirdos grows up to host SNL."
Moon Night debuted on Disney+ on March 30. The stars of the series, who also recently appeared in Denis Villeneuve's Dune, are joined by musical guest Charli XCX on tonight's episode. Isaac's opening monologue can be found above.