Jonathan Majors Jokes About Costar Idris Elba's Good Looks in 'SNL' Hosting Debut: 'It Humbles You!'

The Lovecraft Country star made his hosting debut on Saturday Night Live alongside musical guest Taylor Swift

Jonathan Majors has made his Studio 8H debut!

During his first hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, the Lovecraft Country star, 32, appeared on the sketch comedy show alongside musical guest Taylor Swift.

In his opening monologue, Majors joked about the downside of working alongside Idris Elba in the Western film The Harder They Fall, which is now streaming on Netflix.

"It was fun filming that movie, but if you ever want to feel bad about how you look, definitely spend two months standing right next to Idris Elba! It humbles you!" he said.

Saturday Night Live/Youtube

The actor also reflected on his journey to becoming a leading man, explaining, "Growing up, I was a military brat. My father was in the Air Force, my mother was a pastor, so hallelujah, and I moved around a lot."

He continued, "I like to say I was born in California, raised in Texas, educated in North Carolina, roughed up in New York City, and re-educated in New Haven, Connecticut, which I guess is my roundabout way of saying, yeah, I went to Yale."

"When I was 17, I was homeless living in my car, working at Red Lobster and Olive Garden," Majors said. "But you know what? I learned from that experience. You know, I learned that Red Lobster and Olive Garden are owned by the same parent company, so you can work at both places with no problem!"

"That experience, it taught me a lot," he added. "It taught me that work hard, if you trust the plan great things can happen. I've got a beautiful daughter. I'm going to be the next Marvel, Ant-Man movie, or as the Black community likes to call it 'Not Black Panther.'"

On Thursday, Saturday Night Live released its first promo for the episode, in which Majors introduces the "Lover" singer, 31.

"Hi I'm Jonathan Majors, and I'm hosting SNL with musical guest Taylor Swift," he says. Immediately after, Aidy Bryant chimes in, saying: "And I'll also be singing one song from a yet-to-be-released album."

"I will also be doing a song from an album I haven't even written yet," Bowen Yang adds. Swift finally interjects with: "I'll also be doing music if there's time."

The promo ends with a hilarious clip of the quartet reciting Majors' opening line together, switching off with every word. Once they succeed, they cheer as Bryant remarks that it took seven takes to master the bit.

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Majors first burst onto the scene when he starred as activist Ken Jones in the four-part ABC limited series When We Rise, which followed the gay rights movement in 1970s San Francisco.

At the time of his casting, the actor was still getting his MFA from Yale School of Drama. Two years later, he costarred in 2019's The Last Black Man in San Francisco, which was one of the most acclaimed independent movies of that year.

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Earlier this year, Majors' performance in HBO's Lovecraft Country earned him an Emmy Award nomination for outstanding lead actor in a drama series. He has also starred in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods and Marvel's Loki on Disney+.

His upcoming projects include Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Creed III.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. PT/11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.