Saturday Night Live: Julia Stiles Makes Surprise Appearance for Save the Last Dance Joke

Saturday Night Live delivered another surprise appearance tonight with none other than Julia Stiles appearing on Weekend Update for a hilarious moment. In recent weeks, the 2001 movie Save the Last Dance has been going viral, largely in part for how ridiculous it is on the surface. For those unaware, Julia Stiles starred in the movie as a dancer that fails to get into Juilliard but then manages to learn something about herself and the world after moving to Chicago where she incorporates street dancing into her ballet routine. As you can imagine, this moment has not aged particularly well in 2023.

On tonight’s episode of Saturday Night Live, series cast member Chloe Fineman was brought on to talk about the Christmas season. First appearing in an outift that perhaps implied she would be talking about some naughty gifts you could give your partner, Fineman removed her Santa outfit to reveal a recreation of Julia Stiles’ costume from Save the Last Dance where she then explained the film and began to perform the “street ballet” routine. As the dance reaches its apex, and both Colin Jost and Michael Che are wondering if Sara makes it into Julliard thanks to her “street ballet,” only fr Julia Stiles to enter the set and confirm that yes, she does.

“Sarah DID get into Julliard,” Julia Stiles reveals. When asked “How?” by Colin, she notes, “Well you didn’t see the end of the dance.”  Julia Stiles and Chloe Fineman then complete the routine to applause. When asked what he thinks, Colin complete the gag by noting “Well I can’t say this on the record yet, but welcome to Julliard.” You can watch the moment yourself below. 

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Who is on Saturday Night Live tonight? 

For the fourth time, Adam Driver is hosting Saturday Night Live, with Olivia Rodrigo performing as the musical guest. As we noted above though, Julia Stiles also made a surprise appearance.

Who is in the Saturday Night Live cast?

Cast members for Saturday Night Live season 49 include almost the entire cast from season 48 of SNL. Returning stars include Michael Che, Mikey Day, Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, Punkie Johnson, Colin Jost, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang. Featured players that are part of the cast include returning stars Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow, and Devon Walker, plus the show’s only fully new cast member for the year, newcomer Chloe Troast. The comedy troupe Please Don’t Destroy, made up of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, are also a recurring part of the series. 

New Saturday Night Live Hosts

With the SAG-AFTRA Strike still without a resolution, Saturday Night Live is unable to tap actors to host new episodes since previously they would only appear on the series to promote some new work (prohibited by the rules of the SAG-AFTRA strike). As a result comedians and musicians have been the only hosts confirmed for Saturday Night Live season 49 with Pete Davidson, Bad Bunny, and Nate Bargatze taking the spotlight for the first three episodes.

Saturday Night Live Season 49 is ongoing now with new episodes airing on both NBC and Peacock, starting Saturdays at 11:30 PM ET. All 48  seasons of Saturday Night Live are also now streaming on Peacock.