Saturday Night Live’s second episode of 2024 will also serve as a mini The Social Network reunion for Justin Timberlake and Dakota Johnson.
“We’ve come a long way. See you tonight, Stanford!” Timberlake, 42, wrote via his Instagram Story on Saturday, January 27, sharing a still of himself in bed from the 2010 film. He also tagged the official Instagram accounts for Johnson, 34, and SNL.
Timberlake played Napster founder Sean Parker in The Social Network, which told the story of how Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) invented Facebook. In one scene, Timberlake’s character wakes up after a hookup with a Stanford University student (played by Johnson). While Sean couldn’t remember his fling’s name, he did learn about Facebook after she left her laptop open to the webpage. (Sean later reached out to Mark to swap business tips.)
“We shot that scene in one day, and that day Terrence Malick came to set to watch how David [Fincher, the director] was working with digital, and I was like, ‘What?’” Johnson recalled during a January 2022 interview with Vanity Fair and costar Andrew Garfield. “I was so nervous. Before you shoot anything, I don’t sleep, and you kind of have that hollow, nervous, shaky feeling, but it was amazing. It was the best.”
Garfield played Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network, Zuckerberg’s app cofounder, and remembered feeling starstruck by Timberlake.
“I was accidentally brought into Justin’s — Justin Timberlake of stage, screen, and pop star fame — trailer by one of the second A.D.s one day.” Garfield, 40, added to the outlet. “And I was like, ‘This isn’t my trailer,’ and I saw some of his homework. I saw, like, a board with cue cards and some of his internal choices and substitutions and I was like, ‘Oh, I must leave and as I leave, I must let my eyes linger for as long as possible as I leave,’ because I mean, of course, because it’s just there and thank God it wasn’t anything bad. It was only cool.”
During Saturday’s reunion, Johnson will host SNL for the second time while Timberlake will be the musical guest.
“I cannot imagine that I won’t get pulled into a sketch or two. I mean, it’s only natural,” Timberlake teased of his appearance during a Thursday, January 25, Apple Music interview. “I’m here for it.”
Timberlake is already a member of SNL’s Five-Timers Club, having hosted the show five times previously. However, he hinted to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that he doesn’t still have the inductee jacket. “They’re probably reusing it,” he joked.
