Charli xcx’s SNL stint bodes well for her Hollywood pivot

Charli xcx was in charge of Saturday Night Live this weekend, pulling what is known as “double duty” by hosting and performing live. It was a role that acted as both a celebration of her position as 2024’s pop queen, as well as laying the groundwork for an upcoming Hollywood pivot.

Acknowledging that the average NBC viewer might not know who she is, Charli used the opening monologue to both explain the significance of Brat (“it’s an attitude; it’s a vibe”), as well as forgive anyone who hadn’t heard of her before (“There is nothing wrong with being straight”).

The sketch that people seem to be talking about the most is “Mean Cute,” a rom-com flip in which Charli trades insults with the Please Don’t Destroy boys. It treads some of the same ground as the trio’s viral sketch with Dakota Johnson from January, but there is still mileage in watching Charli call them out for their nepo baby status (among other creative insults).

A few of Charli’s sketches played into her musical abilities, including one where she impersonated Adele and her tourmate Troye Sivan auditioning for Wicked. She also took part in an update on the Domingo sketch that first debuted when Ariana Grande hosted in October. The joke in the first sketch was that a group of bridesmaids (played by Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman) sang a song about the bride cheating on her husband-to-be to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” The sequel updated the story, with Charli joining the bridesmaids to spill more tea, this time to the tune of Chappell Roan’s “Hot To Go!”

The highlight of the show, though, was maybe “Here I Go,” a digital short featuring Charli and SNL veteran Andy Samberg as a pair of nosy neighbors who love nothing more than calling the cops on people. The song they sing while peeking through their curtains is legitimately very catchy. Is it too late to add it to the Brat remix album?

This being SNL, naturally, the sketches were hit and miss, with “Banger Boyz” (in which Charli played a producer on a manosphere podcast) unlikely to live long in the memory. The same goes for “Acting Teacher,” which was a little one note and didn’t really go anywhere.

As an excuse to have some fun and show off your charisma and some impressions, going on SNL makes sense for any major pop star. But Charli does seem to be taking the whole acting thing seriously. The “Upcoming” section of her IMDb page would make many aspiring screen stars jealous, with roles in new movies by cult queer filmmaker Gregg Araki and French director Romain Gavras among projects she is due to star in. Neither of those (nor Faces of Death, in which a content moderator discovers a tranche of snuff films) are likely to be similar to anything on SNL. But as a stepping stone between Brat and Hollywood, Charli used the show to great effect, and it’s exciting to see where she takes things next.