The first time Melissa McCarthy impersonated Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live in February 2017, viewers on both sides of the aisle went wild on social media. But the news did not reach the then-White House press secretary himself until hours later.
“I didn’t know until Sunday morning,” Spicer, 46, recalls to Us Weekly exclusively. “My wife [Rebecca Miller] and I always DVR it and we’ll watch the next day since we’re always asleep by the time it comes on!”
Miller was the first person to tell her husband to turn on the TV while they were getting ready to go to church with their two children. “My wife had mentioned, ‘Did you get a chance to see SNL yet?’ and I said, ‘No,’” he says. “She said, ‘Well, you’re going to want to see last night’s. I think they did a skit about you.’”
At first, Spicer brushed it off. “I made nothing of it,” he tells Us. “While I was in church, my phone started going off, buzzing nonstop. Once Mass wrapped up, I looked at my phone and just saw [a text message that read], ‘That was unreal. Holy smokes.’”
Suddenly, the political aide’s interest was piqued. “We beelined it home, pulled it up on the DVR, trying to fast-forward to figure out where [the sketch was],” he says. “It was surreal — there I was.”
Spicer (whose book The Briefing: Politics, The Press and The President is out Tuesday, July 24) has not crossed paths with the Bridesmaids star, 47, though. “I’ve never met her,” he tells Us. “I think she’s a very talented actor.”
One famous face the former Republican National Committee communications director has met is James Corden. The Late Late Show host, 39, gave Spicer a kiss at the 2017 Emmy Awards in a photo that quickly went viral and prompted Corden to issue an apology on his CBS late-night show.
“It was just weird,” Spicer recalls of his appearance at the September 17 awards ceremony. “I walked back in the green room and LL Cool J was in there. … They were just saying, ‘Hey, Sean. Good to see you.’ Very pleasant, of course. Nothing pro or con. [I’m] just sitting there, saying, ‘LL Cool J knows my name.’ … I clearly didn’t expect a kiss from James Corden, but you take it where you can get it.”
As for whether he would ever appear on the comedian’s famous Carpool Karaoke segment, Spicer says, “I think if James Corden or anyone heard me sing, they would not invite me on Carpool Karaoke. They would have the windows rolled up.”
With reporting by Jennifer Peros
