Samuel L. Jackson says Lorne Michaels assured him he's not banned from SNL

Live from New York, it's Samuel L. Jackson?

Jackson has jokingly blamed Kenan Thompson for his "ban" from Saturday Night Live, claiming that Thompson didn't cut him off quickly enough during a 2012 "What Up With That?" sketch that called for Jackson — playing himself — to drop an F-bomb. Thompson didn't interrupt him, though, so Jackson said the full word and was subsequently blackballed, so it seems, from the late-night comedy series.

But in a recent conversation on EW's The Awardist podcast, the newly-minted honorary Oscar winner says he's been told that's not the case. And he wasn't told that by just anyone, but the man in charge. Jackson explains that when he was recently in New York doing press for The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, he stepped onto an elevator as SNL producer Lorne Michaels was getting off.

Jackson says Michaels didn't recognize him in a mask, so he pulled it down to ask, "Are you ever gonna let me back on the show?"

Michaels' response, according to Jackson? "You're not banned!" Then the pair went back and forth: "Yes, I am!" "No, you're not!"

In the end, Jackson concludes, "So maybe I'm not. I don't know."

EW recently confirmed that there is, in fact, no official ban against Jackson in place at the show. But with just one episode of SNL left this season, chances are slim we'll see him return after a decade away. So here's hoping for season 48.

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