On November 18th, 2008 host Paul Rudd, Season 34 cast members Andy Samberg and Bobby Moynihan, and special guest Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé played herself in the “Single Ladies” sketch. As per Justin Timberlake, it took some convincing from her “Until the End of Time” collaborator himself. In fact, Timberlake truly had to walk the walk (in heels) to make it happen via NBC.
The SNL Five-Timers Club member told the tale in Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music, Questlove and Oz Rodriguez’s documentary, which debuted on NBC on January 27th.
Rudd plays the director of her “Single Ladies” music video, who introduces Bey to her new backup dancers.
Timberlake stated that it began with a text from Samberg asking if he was in town.
“He said Bobby Moynihan has this great idea for a sketch about you, me, and him being Beyoncé’s background dancers that never made the cut,” he says in the documentary.
“I was like ‘full leotard’? And he’s like, ‘yeah.’ I was like, ‘This is too funny. We have to do this.’”
“When you pitch a sketch that the Musical Guest is involved in potentially, it can always go wrong,” SNL cast member Bowen Yang added in the documentary.
“There are a million reasons why they might say no. It is your job to respectfully convince them.”
When it came to this sketch idea with Beyoncé, Timberlake revealed she was not initially on board.
“She was very polite about it, but she was very hesitant. And when I say hesitant, I mean like, she was not having it,” he recalled. “I’m like: Does she know how funny this is gonna be? How beloved this whole moment will be?”
So Timberlake decided to get into character to convince her.
“I put the leotard and the heels and the hose on and everything, and put a robe on,” he said. “I walked and knocked on her door, I threw the robe down and put my hands on my hips and she was like, ‘No you didn’t!’”
And voila, an iconic moment was born. And Beyoncé did perform “Single Ladies” as a Musical Guest that night (this time with fully-qualified backup dancers).
