--- title: Saturday Night Live: Melissa McCarthy Almost Not Sean Spicer description: It turns out the SNL role of gum-chewing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer almost went to someone other than Melissa McCarthy. canonical: https://time.com/4779172/snl-sean-spicer-interview/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-15T16:53:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:39.794Z og:title: Here's Who Almost Took Melissa McCarthy's Place as Sean Spicer on SNL og:description: Someone else was in the running for the role of the gum-chewing Spicer og:url: https://time.com/4779172/snl-sean-spicer-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6409f5699fff5cfc/6988cd44cd1bba73d1705301/melissa-mccarthy-sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Saturday Night Live - Season 42 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Who Almost Took Melissa McCarthy's Place as Sean Spicer on SNL twitter:description: Someone else was in the running for the role of the gum-chewing Spicer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6409f5699fff5cfc/6988cd44cd1bba73d1705301/melissa-mccarthy-sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Who Almost Took Melissa McCarthy's Place as Sean Spicer on _Saturday Night Live_ > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=84f5669e-a9e1-438c-bc28-f6e68150ee35&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer May 15, 2017 4:53 PM UTC  Melissa McCarthy as Press Secretary Sean Spicer during the 'Sean Spicer Press Conference Cold Open' on Feb. 11, 2017. Melissa McCarthy as Press Secretary Sean Spicer during the 'Sean Spicer Press Conference Cold Open' on Feb. 11, 2017. Will Heath—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer May 15, 2017 4:53 PM UTC Since [Melissa McCarthy](http://time.com/4778402/melissa-mccarthy-saturday-night-live-sean-spicer/) made her [Sean Spicer debut](http://time.com/4660549/melissa-mccarthy-sean-spicer-saturday-night-live-donald-trump/) on [_Saturday Night Live_](http://time.com/4769896/saturday-night-live-where-is-kellyanne-conway/)in February, the impression has come to provide much of the show’s political comedy fodder. However, it turns out the role of the gum-chewing White House Press Secretary almost went to an entirely different person. In a recent interview with [_The Hollywood_ _Reporter_](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/snl-trump-ratings-bump-you-almost-feel-like-a-war-profiteer-1003540), head writer Kent Sublette revealed that cast member Beck Bennett — renowned in the _SNL_ world for his portrayal of Vice President Mike Pence and Russian President Vladimir Putin — was also in the running to play Spicer. “If it hadn’t been Melissa, it would have gone to Beck,” he said. “He has an amazing impression. In fact, he reads Spicer for the read-through because Melissa’s not usually there.” Although Bennett probably would have done an excellent job, it’s hard to imagine any one but McCarthy pulling off the part so hilariously. The _SNL_ alum herself spoke about what it was like to realize the impression had been such a hit. “I was so nervous that first time,” she said. “It was very quiet at first, and I’m thinking, ‘The audience is already turning before they even know what’s going on.’ There was this weird, great delay, and first people figure out it’s Spicer and then they figure out it’s me. You could just feel it in the room. And then I get off, and I have all of these texts, like ‘Oh, my God, are you looking at what’s happening?” I didn’t quite know what to do with the reaction.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4779172/snl-sean-spicer-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4779172/snl-sean-spicer-interview/"},"headline":"Here's Who Almost Took Melissa McCarthy's Place as Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live","datePublished":"2017-05-15T16:53:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:39.794Z","description":"Someone else was in the running for the role of the gum-chewing Spicer","url":"https://time.com/4779172/snl-sean-spicer-interview/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","SNL","Saturday Night Live","TV","melissa mccarthy","Late Night Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6409f5699fff5cfc/6988cd44cd1bba73d1705301/melissa-mccarthy-sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6409f5699fff5cfc/6988cd44cd1bba73d1705301/melissa-mccarthy-sean-spicer.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saturday Night Live - Season 42","caption":"Saturday Night Live - Season 42","creditText":"Will Heath—NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4779172/snl-sean-spicer-interview/","name":"Here's Who Almost Took Melissa McCarthy's Place as Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live"}}]}] ```