This weekend Bill Hader is the voice of the animated The Cat In The Hat movie on the 2026 release schedule. But did you know that over a decade ago he totally dressed up as the beloved Dr. Seuss character for a Saturday Night Live sketch? When we chatted with the SNL alum, I had to ask about the memories of playing the role IRL.
Of course, Mike Myers famously took the live-action approach for the 2003 book-to-screen adaptation. In our interview, Hader seems to counts himself lucky to have just lent the voice to the character after spending a day in the literal paws of the character way back when. In his words:
I’m very happy to do it animated because that suit was very hot. And the makeup took a long time. It was the second music number, and then another pre-tape thing that I wasn't in just so they could put all the makeup on me. It was the last sketch of the night, so we did it really fast. So yeah, it was really hot and I had all that stuff on my face. I don't know how Mike Myers did it.
Myers' own process took two and a half hours and was very hot to act in a yak-hair suit all day. Jim Carrey had it even worse as The Grinch. He had to go through such a grueling process a specialist in torture was hired to help him withstand the eight-hour get ready time. In our interview above, you can see Quinta Brunson school Hader on what happened and watch his real-time reaction.
Instead of going through all that makeup time for months, it was just for one night. He played the character on October 11, 2014 in an episode he hosted in the season right after his exit from the show following an eight-year run. You can check out the sketch below:
It’s such a funny spin on the classic children’s book. When two sibling children are bored on a rainy day, they conjure up The Cat in the Hat, but something unexpected happens: he’s already acquainted with their mom, Linda. Playtime with the whimsical figure turns into an awkward reunion between The Cat and Linda. The best line has to be when Linda says: “He’s reliable. I don’t have to say a rhyme to make him come home.” ‘
And then, Linda’s husband ends up being Thing 2, who goes by Jona-Thing now. He comes home disappointed to see The Cat In The Hat with his wife and kids. The sketch hilariously ends with The Cat In The Hat saying “But oh, the places she let me go!” as he leaves them, which is obviously a NSFW reference to another Dr. Seuss book.
When CinemaBlend also spoke to the movie’s writer/directors Erica Rivinoja and Alessandro Carloni, we had to ask if the SNL sketch was involved at all with casting Hader. Here’s what Rivinoja told us:
It was completely random, of course, but we might wanna do a sequel with that character and with Linda. We're very excited about Linda.
Hader’s animated version of The Cat in the Hat is much different than SNL because it isn’t a parody like his first run as the character was. It’s a more family-friendly retelling of the picture book with an expanded story about where The Cat comes from, and involves an imaginative plot line that’s perfect for the medium of animation. It hits theaters this Friday, November 6.
