Q&A: Lamorne Morris on New Girl's enduring fandom, playing Garrett Morris in an SNL biopic and why he's more like LeBron James than you think

Lamorne Morris is hitting his stride, which is pretty noteworthy in and of itself for someone two decades into their Hollywood career. And if it feels like you're seeing the New Girl actor everywhere these days, well, it's because he is.

That's Morris doing commercials for BMO Harris Bank. There he is again, guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! Did you catch the new episodes of Unstable on Netlifx? Yep. Morris is there, too. Next he'll begin filming Amazon Prime's Spider-Noir alongside Nic Cage and Brendan Gleeson. Don't forget to check out the latest season of Fargo, which earned the actor his first Emmy nomination — and led to an even better reaction video when his three-year-old daughter couldn't help but mock Morris' tears (the comedy bug runs in the family).

So it only makes sense the man who's always working would partner with Mike's Hard Lemonade for a "Jobstacle Course" in New York City on August 20. Those who sign up will battle their way through "job-related challenges" to reach the break room, where the spiked lemonade is waiting for them.

It promises to be the second most-notable drinking game associated with Morris, after New Girl's bonkers True American that, well, most fans on the internet are still trying to figure out all the rules to.

Which begs the question: Can you play True American with Mike's Hard Lemonade?

"The thing about Mike's is it's a little different from what we were drinking on New Girl," says Morris, who played Winston Bishop on the show for seven seasons. "Mike's actually tastes really good. It's kind of a treat drink, if you will. On True American we kind of chug beers and just toss the can. With Mike's, and the [glass] bottle, you can't.

"Also, you don't want to chug it, you kind of want to enjoy it. So the game would take a lot longer. People would be relaxing, people would be having conversations, and before you know it, you're not playing the game anymore. You're just having a good time. It's a little different than when you're playing True American."

Fair enough, especially since Morris doesn't get to relax for long these days. Fortunately, For The Win was able to catch up with the 41-year-old Chicagoan on the enduring fandom of New Girl, which quotes get shouted to him on the street and how he got into character to play Garrett Morris in Jason Reitman's upcoming Saturday Night Live biopic.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity

You're now getting industry recognition for your current work at the same time more people are discovering New Girl on streaming. How do you balance the growing fandom from a show you did years ago with all of your new projects?

It's great. It's great because I appreciate New Girl. I appreciate the fans of New Girl, and I'll continue to pour myself into that show any way I can, because it's like the gift that keeps on giving. Fans love it, and I perform for the fans. So it's great to give them other things as well. But if something that you've done still resonates with people, that's great. You kind of just have to sit in it and enjoy it, because it's not easy to get a job like that. It's really difficult. It's really, really difficult. The years and years and years of grinding just to get auditions, and when you hit something as gold and as New Girl was, you embrace it and you cherish it forever, because things go away and so far, New Girl is still rolling.

I know how to separate the two as well. You know, fans still show up. They still show up for the other things that you're doing, and you still get the recognition. I’m very grateful to have an Emmy nomination. And that's a testament to fans of my work, and fans of the things that I do, and a lot of those fans come from, from the New Girl universe, which is awesome. A lot of times I'll hear stories about folks who kind of alienate their fan base because they want to move on to something else. I had kind of the opposite. You know, it's, it's one big party with me, like, let's all hang out. Let's all not take our lives so seriously and just have fun. You know, it's entertainment at the end of the day

Is there a particular line from New Girl that fans shout at you?

Yeah, I get "Winnie the Bish!" all the time. But every once in a while, there's someone who didn't quite understand that "Bish" is "B", "I", "S", "H", and someone will just randomly scream, “Hey, Winnie The Bitch!"

I go, "That's not... that's not. Was that intentional, sir? Is that? It's not, that's not my name." And so they call, you know, they do that. I get that a lot. Winnie, the Bish or the Bitch.

Online I get Prank Sinatra because folks will tag me in all their pranks and things like that. Or they'll buy, like, Prank Sinatra shirts, and tag me in them.

You're notably a huge NBA fan. What player would you compare your career to?

Um, I would probably say I am the LeBron James of acting.

I feel like as a performer I can do a lot of different things. You know, if I'm on a set and we need the scene to kind of take a turn this way or that way, I'm able to do those things, you know,you know, hosting, whether it's doing comedy, whether it's drama, I just have fun doing it all. And LeBron James, kind of is a Swiss. He's a bit of a Swiss Army Knife on the court. So, yeah, I would compare us, LeBron and I.

SNL 75 has a new title, \u0022Saturday Night\u0022 and a release date (October 11), this feels like a huge one

Yeah, this is going to be a good one.

I don't want to give away any plot points, but it's out there. This is all about the first day at SNL. It comes out October 11. It's, I don't know, man, it's going to be a really good one, a really, really good one and we have such a fun time shooting it.

It's going to be one of those movies that, I think, historically, for folks who were fans of SNL and newer fans of SNL and just fans of great filmmaking. [Director] Jason Reitman crushed it on this one. The cast is awesome. The experience of filming was awesome. We would always just go kick it and hang out after work, you know? And that's that was one of the better experiences filming for me.

Were there any cast members who absolutely nailed their SNL counterpart?

Well, damn near everybody. But one person in particular, Nicholas Podany.

Nick Podany is a great actor. He plays Billy Crystal. That's all I'm going to say. That's all I'm going to say. And he does one hell of a job. And everybody, again, everybody does, everybody knows my hell of a job. But he vocally, and it's a, yeah, [Podany] is a freak of nature.

What did you learn about Garrett Morris going into this project and how did that change after filming?

Well, I knew surface stuff about him, you know what I mean?

I knew it was a, it was a racially-charged time, and he was the first to be in a situation like this, or one of the first, but on SNL in particular, he was the first black man to be on the show. That came with a lot of obstacles.

What I didn't know was how hard he worked to overcome those obstacles. It was a very difficult job for him, in the beginning, to navigate a new medium for him, because he was a playwright. He was a writer, but he wasn't used to writing sketches, and so he didn't know where his place was on the show set with the backdrop of a racially-motivated time. He was kind of in his own world.

I didn't realize he had kind of had this feeling of of loneliness a bit until speaking with him and uncovering a lot of these things that that he was dealing with while while filming.

How do you tap into that as an actor trying to give an honest portrayal?

You have to have a great leader. Our director, Jason Reitman, did a great job of setting the tone for everyone also painting the picture that you know, we're not doing exact impressions of these people.

We're telling the tale of what happened that day from this iconic show, and the best way to tell it is through great storytelling. I think when you see the film, you'll know, you know, Jason Reitman had his hands all over this. And the entire crew it. It lended itself to a very warm environment, let's just say, because you can take risks and you can try different things, and you can try big, you can try small, but the environment was very, very warm, and the table was laid quite nicely by by Jason and his team.

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Q&A: Lamorne Morris on New Girl's enduring fandom, playing Garrett Morris in an SNL biopic and why he's more like LeBron James than you think