Kenan Thompson reveals why he almost 'quit' acting after very first film role
The 48-year-old star appeared in hockey movie sequel D2: The Mighty Ducks in March 1994, just one month before his debut in Nickelodeon sketch show All That, but he has revealed how he nearly walked away after a particularly difficult day preparing for the project.
Appearing on Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast, he said: "Sure, I put it on my resume under special skills that I could roller skate, but you know, I never in a million years considered hockey.
“I wanted to learn, but after that first day of hockey camp, which was on my birthday, my 15th birthday, I wanted to quit it all.”
Kenan, who went onto star in the likes of Kenan and Kel, Good Burger and Saturday Night Live, is gratefully his mother stopped him from quitting.
He added: "I was like, ‘I don’t want to be an actor. I don’t want to if this is what it’s about'.
“Thank God my mom didn’t let me quit. She was like, ‘No, go back tomorrow.’”
Kenan did learn how to ice skate over the next couple of months, and even returned to hockey camp for 1996 sequel D3: The Mighty Ducks.
Podcast host Amy Poehler, who joined SNL with Kenan in 2003, praised his skating skills, describing him as one of the best among her friends.
He quipped: "I pride myself with that, because it’s not like a big known thing amongst the Black community to just ice skate like that.
"There’s only certain people that do it. There’s only a few people in the NHL or whatever kind of thing... to get good at it is wild.”
Meanwhile, Amy recalled how Kenan often showed off his talent as part of SNL's festive send-off at the end of the Christmas episode, when the cast would appeared underneath the iconic Rockefeller Christmas tree to wave to the audience.
She explained: "We would be on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, just us, at one o’clock in the morning.
"And I go down there and I see Kenan, and Kenan is… you are skating forward, skating backwards, skating sideways, doing a thing, shooting the moon, doing 45 million tricks.
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