Kenan Thompson holds the distinction of being the longest-running cast member of Saturday Night Live. But during the 90s, he fondly remembers going against another young actor on the rise, Anthony Anderson.
“Anthony Anderson, I would always see his name on the list,” Thompson told PEOPLE. “Whether I would see him at the actual audition or not, he was always in the running.”
“We’ve been in the same conversations for characters, probably in a lot of things throughout the ‘90s for sure,” he added.
Over the years, Thompson has admired Anderson’s work. His favorite project the Black-Ish star was the blockbuster film The Departed.
“I know what that movie did for his career,” Thompson said. “Before that, he was the go-to guy for Barbershop and comic relief roles. But The Departed was like, ‘Oh sh*t, this guy’s in a [Martin] Scorsese movie. Then, very soon after that, Law & Order.”
Thompson would go on to star in the Mighty Ducks franchise, Kenan & Kel on Nickelodeon, and the cult classic Good Burger. Eventually, Thompson relocated to Los Angeles to begin college. After finishing his Nickelodeon career, Thompson moved to Los Angeles to start college. He recalled how his fame slowly started growing.
“Nickelodeon just took a while because it was cable, it was a smaller show,” Thompson said. “I was going to college and it was blowing up, nobody in college was watching Nickelodeon.”
“I was famous early-ish if I would go to Chuck E. Cheese. It was little kids at the time and the show was out and it was fresh,” he added.
In 2003, he relocated to New York City to join the cast of SNL where he said he experienced “real fame.” To nab the role, Thompson’s audition in Studio 8H went over 11 minutes which is more than twice as long as the typical SNL audition.
His spot-on impressions of Bill Cosby and Al Sharpton landed him a spot on the show that he’s still on 22 years later.