The SNL50: The Anniversary Special was one of the biggest moments in “Saturday Night Live” history earlier this year, but a few SNL familiar faces were notably missing.

Bill Hader and Dan Aykroyd were two of the top “Saturday Night Live” stars who skipped the event, and Hader has finally revealed why he missed it.

Hader stopped by “Late Night with Seth Meyers” to reunite with his SNL co-star, host Seth Meyers, with whom he often paired up for Hader’s most famous character, Stefan.

Meyers brought up how open Hader has been about his anxiety after leaving SNL, and that was ultimately the reason that he did not attend SNL50.

For those who watched the SNL50 special on Peacock, that might seem quite ironic, as there was a pre-recorded digital short about everyone at SNL having anxiety. When asked if that skit was based on Hader’s decision, he revealed he had originally been written into that sketch.

“Andy called me and was like, ‘Hey, so we’re doing this short about how everybody had anxiety. And it’s me calling you,’” Hader said, regarding Andy Samberg calling him to pitch the sketch, to which Hader said, “I don’t know if I want to do that.” When pressed by Andy, Hader doubled down and said, “I don’t want to do it.”

He chose to skip out on the short about “everyone at SNL” having anxiety, because of his anxiety.

The short still ran during the anniversary special, but ultimately, current-SNL star Bowen Yang played the other half alongside Samberg.

The Anxiety Digital Short certainly seems to have been written very tongue-in-cheek, based on Hader’s choice to sit it out. This isn’t very surprising given Samberg’s close relationship with Hader and his playful writing style.

Particularly, the opening credits, where Samberg calls Yang asking him if he’s attending the anniversary or not, are an obvious sign that Samberg was still thinking of Hader when they put the skit together.

Hader was on “Saturday Night Live” from 2005 to 2013 and has not returned to the program to host since his departure. He did return for the 40th anniversary special in 2015 to reprise his Californians character.

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