Ana Gasteyer says Will Ferrell crashed Diddy's closed-set “SNL ”rehearsal as a bit: 'Very uncomfortable'

"It's the greatest thing that's ever happened," she said. "He really did not roll with it."

Will Ferrell had no interest in respecting Sean Combs' wishes when he first appeared on Saturday Night Live.

Ana Gasteyer recalled the Anchorman star violating Diddy's closed-set protocols while he rehearsed for his musical performance in a 1998 episode of the series. "When P. Diddy came," Gasteyer said on Las Culturistas, "he of course, like, shut down the whole building."

Gasteyer said that closing the SNL set for rehearsal was a rare — and generally frowned-upon — practice during her tenure there between 1996 and 2002. "You can tell like the five assholes in the six years that I was there when they would be like, 'So and so is in the building, everybody stay in your dressing rooms!'" she explained. "Which is applicable if you're a presidential candidate. But apart from that, really, it's my house. For P. Diddy, he demanded a totally closed set."

The comedian said that Combs was rehearsing "Come with Me" — his song from the Godzilla soundtrack that sampled Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and featured the band's guitarist Jimmy Page — with the New York Philharmonic. During the Thursday rehearsal, Ferrell was dressed as an ex-SNL crew contributor named Ron as part of an elaborate ongoing bit, and decided to violate Diddy's set protocols as a gag.

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"They were like, 'Wouldn't it be so funny if Ron just went in?'" Gasteyer remembered. "And he did! He went on down the stairs and he marched right in. And I have the video from the control room where Sean Combs is rapping with like, 'Da-na-na, da-na-na, da-na-na, da-na-na' behind him. And Ron's walking around, looking really disoriented [in character]."

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Looking back, Gasteyer is thrilled that Ferrell ended up messing with Combs, who went on to become a notoriously controversial figure with numerous allegations of abuse against him. "It is the greatest thing that's ever happened because what a deserved person to have their 'Kashmir' moment interrupted by Ron, and he really did not roll with it," she recalled. "He was very uncomfortable, but it was also just like, the artifice of all that faux importance. Like what's gonna happen? You're gonna walk into the studio and you're gonna be like, 'I'm in the studio. I work here.'?"

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Later, Las Culturistas host Matt Rogers reflected on Combs' persona at the height of his fame. “What's crazy about the P. Diddy of it all is it's like, you look back at his time of being like, when he was huge, huge, huge in pop culture, it was always weird," he opined. "If you go back and watch Making the Band, the way that he treats people is so crazy. The way he talks to these — especially like, I think it was the second season where they were making Danity Kane. The way he talks to these girls is absurd."

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Gasteyer remembered facing abhorrent treatment from men in the entertainment industry in her early career. "You wouldn't believe how they talked to us in the '90s," she said. "Every now and then I look back and I'm like, 'Wow, like the things that we sort of endured.' But I mean, whatever, like it all evolves."

Listen to the full Las Culturistas ep with Gasteyer above.