Josh O’Connor took the Saturday Night Live (SNL) stage for the first time on December 13, and he didn’t waste any time addressing the elephant in the room, or should we say, the rat in the kitchen. During his opening monologue, the Emmy-winning actor hilariously tackled the internet’s ongoing campaign to cast him as Linguini in a hypothetical live-action Ratatouille remake.
The whole thing started innocently enough back in 2020 when a fan pointed out O’Connor’s uncanny resemblance to the gangly, red-haired chef from Pixar’s 2007 culinary masterpiece. Things escalated during the Challengers press tour when O’Connor admitted that Ratatouille is one of the few films that makes him cry. The internet ran with it, and suddenly everyone was dreaming of a live-action remake with O’Connor front and center.
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The public rejection that wasn’t really a rejection
O’Connor explained to the SNL audience that he didn’t even know about the fan campaign until Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter publicly shut down any possibility of a live-action remake. The kicker? Docter specifically mentioned that it wouldn’t happen “no matter how much Josh O’Connor wants it.”
“Do you know how it feels to be publicly rejected from a job I didn’t even want?” O’Connor joked. He then quickly pivoted, adding with perfect comedic timing, “For the record, I don’t even want a live-action Ratatouille. I don’t have the time for it.” But just seconds later, he couldn’t resist breaking character: “Sorry, sorry, for what it’s worth, I would kill as Linguini.”
The Knives Out star even started fantasy casting the project, suggesting Jeff Goldblum would be perfect as the intimidating food critic Anton Ego. When he caught himself getting too invested, O’Connor tried to backtrack with a quick “No, no, no, no. I mean, yes, but later.”
It’s the kind of self-aware humor that perfectly captures why fans love him in the first place. O’Connor has built a reputation as Hollywood’s “soft boy”, someone who embroiders, scrapbooks, and gardens in his free time. His earnest charm and physical comedy skills really would make him an ideal Linguini, even if Pixar has zero interest in making it happen.
The monologue came as O’Connor promotes Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which hit Netflix on December 20 after a limited theatrical run. It’s been a packed year for the 35-year-old British actor, who also starred in The Mastermind, The History of Sound, and Rebuilding.
While we’ll probably never see O’Connor cooking with a rat puppet on his head in an official Disney production, his SNL appearance reminded us why the internet’s casting dreams exist in the first place. Sometimes the best roles are the ones that almost were.
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