Chris Kattan SNL Injury: American actor and comedian Chris Kattan has a 6 million dollar fortune. Chris Kattan’s work on the weekly NBC sketch comedy program “Saturday Night Live” is probably what most people are familiar with. Nevertheless, his “Saturday Night Live” career did not entirely contribute to his wealth. He has performed a range of roles in both cinema and television.
Chris Kattan SNL Injury
Chris Kattan has kept a secret for 18 years and is now prepared to reveal it: The comic claims that while doing a routine on “Saturday Night Live” in 2001, he cracked his neck, which he claims nearly incapacitated him, caused him to suffer with addiction for years, and derailed his career.
The details of Kattan’s injuries, which he claims occurred during the show’s May 12, 2001, broadcast, are revealed in his new memoir, “Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live,” which was exclusively made available to Variety before its May 7 release. He describes falling backward on a wobbly chair, crashing forcefully on the stage, and suffering a terrible head knock in one sketch.
To explain why he was acting so stiffly on stage during his 2017 appearance on “Dancing with the Stars,” Kattan revealed the existence of an old injury for the first time. But up to this point, he has never claimed that it occurred on “SNL.” On NBC’s website, a scene videotape may be seen, and Kattan laments that it still affects him in the book.
He stated, “Even now, I still find it difficult to open my hand wide enough to use my fingers regularly on the keyboard. My injuries and following operations significantly negatively influenced my work, but more importantly, the consequences were devastating to some of my closest relationships.
In an interview with Variety this week, Kattan claimed to have alerted SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels and producer Ken Aymong about the mishap. The comedian said that Aymong pledged to “take care of it” and that Michaels forwarded a physician’s referral. Additionally, Kattan revealed to Variety that NBC covered two of the five operations he underwent over the years.
Michaels turned down an invitation to be interviewed for this article. An NBC spokeswoman declined to comment further and stated that the network has no record of any such claim. Insiders who have worked closely with Kattan as a member of the “SNL” production team and who would have also been present on set and aware of any follow-up accusations were among those cited by Kattan in his book when Variety talked to them. But even when they asked around internally to check if anybody else remembered Kattan’s injuries, none of them could remember it.
Kattan could not produce proof that NBC was aware of the injury, and Variety made repeated attempts to get in touch with Kattan’s doctors but received no responses by the time of press. (UPDATE: Variety has received a response from Dr. Carl Lauryssen; read the story’s conclusion for details.) According to insiders, if Kattan had broken his neck while filming the episode, the network’s legal counsel and human resources would have been called in because of the incident’s seriousness and the fact that it was captured on tape. However, they weren’t, leading insiders to question Kattan’s memory.
However, Kattan goes to great lengths to describe what he thinks occurred the night he fractured his neck. In the spoof “MSNBC Investigates,” a comedy about some youngsters who dress up as the “Golden Girls,” Kattan intended to fall backward in his chair for many laughs, according to wrote. The comic claimed he questioned the move’s safety and requested a substitute chair from the props department, but it never materialized.
He claimed to have struck his head hard that evening, and he said that in the weeks and months that followed, he started to have discomfort, but he believed it would pass. After almost a year, as it got worse, Kattan claims his chiropractor persuaded him to get it looked at. Beyond that, he claimed, he never actually asked NBC, “SNL,” or Michaels for assistance. When he eventually approached attorneys to check for workers’ compensation years later, they informed him that it was too late.
After the second operation, he wrote that NBC stopped covering his medical expenses. I was no longer being cared for by the “SNL” family, and eventually, I couldn’t afford things on my own. However, I never really stood up for myself or made any demands. I never considered the potential legal repercussions of what had occurred to me on the set and what was placed at the moment.
I had been taught to take care of myself. I had no intention of suing anyone. I never wanted to be that person, battling a network all my life while being weak. I tried to keep things hidden, acting as though I was OK and in decent enough form to go out and be social.
Today, Kattan tells Variety that he regrets not speaking up but says he may have done so. Instead of keeping silent because he believed it would interfere with his ability to work, he remarked, “Had I known how things would turn out. I would have been better off doing something about it.” “People now have the freedom to speak out about harassment, injuries, and other issues if they experience them. It wasn’t too long ago, but speaking up was frowned upon, especially if it included your Hollywood family.
After a seven-year career, Kattan left “SNL” in 2003, claiming that the program had mistreated him since then. For instance, the actor was not asked to perform in the 40th-anniversary gala “SNL” special. He told Variety, “I think everyone has their relationship with the show. But whenever I return to visit, everyone welcomes me with open arms and is kind. A distinct vibe is present compared to when you were in the cast. It is wholesome. For some reason, the instant you leave and return for a visit or guest stay, Lorne and everyone miss you a lot. And the show is missed. When your trial is over, that’s one of the connections with the performance you should have that is most healthy.
With the release of “Baby Don’t Hurt Me,” Kattan hopes to signal his return to action following a difficult period that included a slew of painful operations, a broken marriage, the loss of his father, drug and painkiller addictions, and lost professional prospects. And he’s prepared to discuss it. He said, “I attempted to speak the truth. “It feels lovely to have everything out in the open at this point. I don’t believe it affects anyone; I simply needed to say it.
Beyond the “SNL” stories and encounters with famous people like Tom Cruise, “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” tells the story of Kattan’s odd upbringing, which was spent mainly as a lone child living on Mt. Baldy with his mother and stepfather. He would spend the weekends with his father, actor and Groundlings improv theatre co-founder Kip King. King was a significant influence on Kattan’s career.
In recent years, Kattan has secured voice work on animated programs, including “Bunnicula” and the movie “Hotel Transylvania 2” in addition to starring parts in “The Middle,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Sharknado 5.” However, he still has restrictions as a result of his neck injury.
As a physical comic, he admitted, “I had always been concerned that I would wake up with a completely different physique one day. “That terror became a part of my life. My physique will never be the same after those 45 seconds on the “SNL” stage in May 2001.
Dr. Karl Lauryssen Meeting Chris Kattan
UPDATE: Dr. Carl Lauryssen, currently the director of neurosurgery at St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center in Texas, spoke with Variety. He oversaw research and instruction at Cedars-Sinai Institute for Spinal Disorders in the early 2000s, where he worked until 2005. He met Kattan there, who had already had one operation.
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Although he didn’t see a video of the skit or look into the actual occurrence himself, Lauryssen claimed he remembered Kattan informing him that he had been hurt on the “SNL” set. “When someone visits me, I don’t always think about how it happened. When someone comes to see me, I assess them and decide what I can do to help them based on the situation. From a surgical standpoint, what happened in the past doesn’t affect how I will help someone.
It was evident, according to Lauryssen, that Kattan was not in good health. He explained that the man had incomplete spinal cord damage. “Insufficient spinal cord damage can occur without requiring breaking your neck… I believe he fell backward. However, I am unsure of the circumstances of the spinal damage. He damaged the spinal cord due to the lower cervical spine injury he sustained throughout that process.
For almost 4 years, Jason Martin has been a freelance writer for newspapers, journals, blogs, books, and online material. He covers the most recent news as well as many other topics.