Lin-Manuel Miranda Left His Movie Premiere to Watch Cecily Strong’s Impression

Lin-Manuel Miranda is having the biggest year an artist could ever aspire to have. His Broadway show, Hamilton is the toast of Manhattan and he’s the talk of Hollywood with everyone wanting a piece of him.  But one of the biggest signs that you’ve reached cultural icon status is being asked to host Saturday Night Live. He’s so excited that he is getting to host this week.  “I’m freaking out,” he told Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show, Tuesday night. “I taped every episode as a kid. My favorite episode was when Fred Savage hosted because he was my age and I was like ‘oh my god, they let a kid host Saturday Night Live, it could happen to me one day!'”

Even before hosting, he attained SNL-approved cultural icon status last week when he received the highest form of flattery via a Cecily Strong impression. Strong played Miranda in a celebrity family feud sketch and he was so excited that he ran home from the New York Film Festival to watch it. “I was at the premiere of the Hamilton documentary at the NYFF and Lindsay who works on the show emailed us and said there’s an impression of you tonight. I looked up at my wife and said, we have to go home. And we ran home to watch the show.”

Watch the clip from the Tonight Show below and tune into SNL this Saturday to see Lin-Manuel make his SNL hosting debut.