Daniel Kaluuya, the actor who is nominated for the Oscars for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah, debuted on NBC’s Saturday Night Live as the show’s host on April 3, where he said that the British Royal family would be surprised to know that he is British.
“First of all, I know you’re hearing my accent and thinking, ‘Oh no, he’s not Black — he’s British. Basically I’m what the Royal family was worried the baby would look like,” referring to Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle.
Daniel Kaluuya’s Monologue! pic.twitter.com/YioaXz4Aon
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 4, 2021
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed in March told Winfrey that the palace had raised concerns about their son Archie’s skin colour even before he was born. Choosing to keep the person anonymous, Markle had said: “You won’t be given security, not gonna be given a title and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
Explaining British and American racism, Kaluuya said, “Let me put it this way. British racism is so bad, white people left. They wanted to be free — free to create their own kind of racism. So that’s why they created Australia, South Africa and Boston.”
Speaking about his first stint with theatre that marked his foray into films, Kaluuya said, “I wrote a play that got performed at Hampshire Theatre with real actors and everything. This is a true story — that play was based on Kenan & Kel. And that play led me down a path that got me to this stage tonight with Kenan [Thompson] backstage right now. And I just want to take this moment to in front of Kenan and the whole world to say: Thank you, Mom. Thank you, God. And thank you Kel.”
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He went on to talk about his Oscar-nominated role as Fred Hampton, playing his acceptance speech on Zoom on Golden Globes, that was muted. He said, “I was muted — can you believe that? I told the best joke of my life, and I was muted. I felt like I was in a sunken place,” referring to the joke about his Oscar nomination for Get Out in 2017.
The show also had a segment where pop singer Britney Spears was seen welcoming rapper Lil Nas X who faced backlash for collaborating with MSCHF Product Studio and promoting their ‘Satan Shoe’ collection using Nike’s trademark. The international sportswear filed a lawsuit and has been granted a temporary restraining order against the art collective, as reported by the The Economic Times.