- - Kenan Thompson Shares How He Refrains From Breaking Character on “Saturday Night Live”: 'Breathe Through It' (Exclusive)

Virginia ChamleeJanuary 30, 2026 at 8:00 AM

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Kenan Thompson

Chris Haston/NBC via Getty; Esther Kuhn/NBC via Getty

Kenan Thompson shares that while he appears skilled at not breaking character on SNL, behind the scenes, he's often just breathing through it

Speaking to PEOPLE, the actor and comedian said he tries to "pick my moments" to laugh during a sketch

Still, he adds he tends to get "back into professional mode" quickly

Kenan Thompson doesn't often break character on Saturday Night Live — but when he does, he tries to ensure it's off camera.

"I've tried to pick my moments when I'm off camera to kind of like let the release valve go a little bit," he tells PEOPLE in a recent exclusive interview tied to his partnership with Jim Beam.

Thompson, 47, adds that he when he does laugh, he tries to "get back into professional mode" quickly.

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Kenan on SNL

Esther Kuhn/NBC

As a longtime veteran of sketch comedy — the actor and comedian found success as a child actor in the 1990s on the children's comedy series All That, and on the sitcom Kenan & Kel — Thompson admits that breaking character on live tv comes with its own set of challenges.

"You have to be careful with that because, you know, it's live TV, so different buttons get pushed sometimes and the camera might cut to you ... you kind of have to stay present as much as possible, but I mean, I also enjoy what I'm doing and I enjoy the people I'm doing it with and I enjoy the reasons why," he says.

Thompson adds that he never wants to get "so robotic" about his job, but adds, "I do wanna respect the writing and things like that ... it's just a balance of a lot of things going on in your mind, and if you get lost in that, you probably get lost in the sketch while you're doing it."

In other words, he says, "I try to immerse myself as much as possible, but sometimes, things make me laugh and I'll kind of smile at it and, you know, breathe through it and then continue."

Thompson joined SNL in 2003 and is now in his 23rd season as a cast member.

While he acknowledges that the show is more of "a pressure cooker," than his other projects, he adds there are several characters and sketches of which he's very proud.

"I love 'What's Up With That?' and 'Scared Straight,' and 'Black Jeopardy' ... anything on the Weekend Update desk is always a lot of fun," he says, adding that in real life, he's far different than he is on set.

"I'm weirdly drastically different from my persona on television," Thompson says.

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”