“I don’t believe SNL was perfect for my skillset at the time,” the “Misty Green” actor-director said during a panel discussion at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Chris Rock explains why he was ‘not great’ on Saturday Night Live

“I don’t believe SNL was perfect for my skillset at the time,” the “Misty Green” actor-director said during a panel discussion at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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September 13, 2026 2:28 p.m. ET

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Chris Rock at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival; Rock on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1991. Credit:

Leon Bennett/EveryStory2026/WireImage; Alan Singer/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty

- Chris Rock explained how he felt about his time on *SNL* during a TIFF panel discussion on his career.

- The comedian and *Misty Green* actor-director admitted *SNL* was “a learning curve” for him.

- He also reflected on why he thinks he was “not great” on the iconic NBC sketch comedy series from 1990-1993.

Chris Rock might be one of the most iconic comedians of his generation, but that didn’t translate into success on *Saturday Night Live*, the Hollywood legend admitted Sunday on stage during a Toronto International Film Festival panel discussion about his career.

When asked about the early stages of his breakout period in the early ’90s, Rock, 61, said he felt he was “okay on *SNL*,” but “not great” by any stretch during his tenure as a cast member on the NBC series from 1990-1993.

“I’m not one of the stars. It was a learning curve,” the comic said at the event, which he attended to promote the world-premiere screening of his new directorial effort, *Misty Green*, the night prior.

He then offered an explanation for why he felt he didn’t excel on *SNL*: “I don’t do impressions, and I was on *SNL*.”

He noted that “comedically, I can hang with those guys — some of which are my best friends even to this day — but I don’t believe *SNL* was perfect for my skillset at the time.”

Rock has since returned to host *SNL *four times*, *and has become a regular fixture on the program as a guest. Other *SNL* cast members who failed to make a big impression during their original runs on the show but later returned to become well-received hosts and guests include Sarah Silverman, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Robert Downey Jr., and Ben Stiller, among others.

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Rock added that he engaged in a “wild” era he categorized simply as “party, man,” and said he was also in an odd transitional phase of his career between being “ghetto famous,” as he described it, and a wider household name.

“Let me explain what ‘ghetto famous’ is to you. A movie like *New Jack City* makes $45-$50 million, right? But, 90 percent of Black people have seen it,” Rock estimated. “There’s a particular audience that you’re a f---ing superstar in. That’s ‘ghetto famous.’ Depending on what part of town I was in, I was like [Timothée] Chalamet” at the time of the Mario Van Peebles–directed film’s 1991 release.

The big break he was looking for, however, came in 1996 upon the release of his stand-up special *Chris Rock: Bring the Pain*, which catapulted him to superstardom.

While the special is now regarded as one of the best of all time, he said HBO didn’t initially have that kind of confidence in it — so little, in fact, that he was even able to secure the video rights to the project from the channel at the time.

Rock and his ‘Misty Green’ cast at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.

Leon Bennett/EveryStory2026/WireImage

Rock attended TIFF to promote his latest film as a director, the aforementioned *Misty Green*, which world-premiered Saturday night to a packed house at the city’s Roy Thomson Hall venue.

The film follows the titular character (played by actress Rosalind Eleazar) as a struggling, Emmy-winning actress attempting to reclaim her former glory amid a personal rough patch.

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“I love a mess. I love a messy woman. I like to make things I haven’t seen. I haven’t seen it, I haven’t seen it with a woman, I haven’t seen it with a Black woman. I wanted to see it, so I wrote it,” Rock told the audience at a post-premiere Q&A. “I gravitate toward female-driven movies, because women are I guess inherently in more danger in a movie. The guy’s not quite in as much physical danger and guys have guns in movies and s---.”

*Misty Green* releases Oct. 9. Watch footage from Rock’s special presentation at TIFF in EW’s video above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”