Former “Saturday Night Live” star and UF alumnus Darrell Hammond discusses his role as Truman Capote.

Multi-talented UF alumnus Darrell Hammond (BSADV ’78) is perhaps most well-known for his work on “Saturday Night Live,” where between 1995 – 2009 he became the show’s longest-running cast member. This summer, he took on a much different role as the troubled, legendary writer Truman Capote, in the award-winning play “Tru” by Jay Presson Allen at the famed Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

READ MORE ABOUT DARRELL HAMMOND IN “GREAT IMPRESSIONS”

The play was essentially a monodrama  a one-man playwith Hammond alone on stage for 90 minutes, delving into one of the deepest, darkest roles of his career. Set in Capote’s apartment in the mid-1970s, it featured Capote musing about his life and its downward spiral and soothing himself with drugs and vodka. Florida Online sat down with Hammond this spring to talk about the play, preparing for the role, and what we can expect next.

UF: Tell me about “Tru.”

Hammond: “It’s a 90-minute monologue, basically. The big difference between this and what I did on SNL is that on SNL, I was always making fun of characters. With him, with Capote, I’m not making fun of him. I have to scale back a lot. If you’ve read the script, it’s not a “Brady Bunch” reunion episode; it’s really dark stuff. It’s him moving toward the end of his life and wondering what it all meant.”

UF: You’ve played everyone from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump to Sean Connery. Why was Truman Capote a character that appealed to you?

Hammond: “Truman Capote was the ultimate success-suffering-tortured-poetic-powerful-famous figure and was rejected by everyone because of the stupid things he did. I know what that’s like. I’ve done some stupid s*** in my life that people rejected me for. I feel a lot of connection to him.”

Alumnus Darrell Hammond spent a month this summer portraying famed author Truman Capote at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Photo by Bill Cardoni

UF:  What have been some of the most challenging aspects of preparing for this play?

Hammond: “It’s tremendous pressure, physically. I’m working out with a trainer every day because I need to be really strong physically for 90 minutes to keep that voice up, to make that sound, and to make it accurately without making fun of him. You have to be really careful that people don’t think you’re making fun of his voice. It’s a small theater, and people who were his friends, and people from the literary community who know everything there is to know about him, will be sitting just a few feet from me, so it’s got to go right.”

UF: Have you ever had a firsthand experience with Truman Capote?

Hammond: “I saw him when I was at UF, actually. He was speaking at UF. There was a town celebrity called Gatorman at the time, and he used to wear alligator paraphernalia around. There was a Q&A session with Capote, and Gatorman went up there. Capote just looked at him and said, ‘Trick or treat,’ and the crowd went wild.”

UF: What’s up next for you?

Hammond: “I’ve done a pilot for TBS for this fall, I have a book coming out (“God, If You’re Not Up There, I’m F***ed: Misadventures with Fake Noses, Funny Accents, Addiction, and Saturday Night Live,” due out in October from HarperCollins), and I’ll be in a Broadway play next year.

UF: How do you remember your years at UF?

Hammond: There’s lots of really good memories there for me. U of F was a fabulous, fabulous place. I loved the campus. I was way into the Gator football team. I met some incredible human beings at the U of F.

— Kristin Harmel (BSJ ’01)