Teyana Taylor is hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time ever in 2026, and to get fans hyped up, she threw it back to a movie made more than 30 years ago just to show off her impeccable Angela Bassett impression.
In a promo clip posted Wednesday (Jan. 21), the One Battle After Another star is hanging out with cast member Ashley Padilla, who complains that she keeps hurting herself while attempting Taylor’s iconic dance in Ye’s 2016 “Fade” music video. “Why you humping the floor so hard?” the actress hilariously asks the comedian.
Padilla then learns via text that her SNL bestie, fellow cast member Andrew Dismukes ate the chicken parm she’d been saving in the cast fridge. “Your so-called ‘best friend’ ate your perfect bite?” Taylor asks before going full Bassett mode. “He gonna regret eating that parm.”
The clip then cuts to the Golden Globe winner wearing a nightgown and robe to recreate Bassett’s iconic scene in 1995’s Waiting to Exhale. Set to dramatic music, Taylor starts tearing Dismukes’ office apart, throws his belongings in a cart and setting them on fire.
“This mother sucker’s psychotic,” she cries, nailing Bassett’s delivery in the original film. “Bernadine, you don’t deserve this!”
Taylor will host SNL on Saturday (Jan. 24), with Geese serving as musical guest. It comes one week after the series returned to air for the first time in 2026 with a Finn Wolfhard-led episode, on which A$AP Rocky performed.
Watch Taylor channel Bassett’s Waiting to Exhale character ahead of this weekend’s SNL below.
Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox
Sign Up
