How Marcello Hernández became Kam Patterson's 'big bro' after '72 Hours'
How Marcello Hernández became Kam Patterson's 'big bro' after '72 Hours'
Brendan Morrow, USA TODAYThu, July 23, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC
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NEW YORK – Starting a new job is always stressful, but it helps to have a few buddies by your side.
When Kam Patterson joined "Saturday Night Live" in 2025, he had just worked with two of his fellow cast members, Ben Marshall and Marcello Hernández, a few months earlier: They played friends in "72 Hours" (streaming July 24 on Netflix), the new comedy starring Kevin Hart as a man who joins a group of strangers for a bachelor party after they accidentally add him to their group chat.
Patterson got his audition for "SNL" toward the end of shooting the movie, and he credits Hernández and Marshall, who were already working at the show, for playing a "big part" in making that happen.
"I'm Kam's big bro at the show," Hernández says. "I take care of my boy. I gave him a tour when he got there. I told him who's who and what's what. And anytime he's feeling lost, he'll wander into my office, I'll talk to him, and then he gets back out there on the field."
Sitting down for a group conversation alongside Marshall, Hernández asks Patterson if he's returning to "SNL" for Season 52 in the fall, and Patterson confirms he'll be back.
"Nice," Hernández says. "He's back. That's an exclusive!"
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In "72 Hours," Hart plays a 40-year-old advertising executive whose pitches at work are suffering because he's out of touch with youth culture. So when he gets the mistaken text inviting him to a trio of 20-somethings' bachelor party for their friend Mason (Mason Gooding), he jumps on it as an opportunity to conduct some sneaky market research.
Marshall, Hernández and Patterson are all still young, ranging in age from 27 to 31. Even so, they can relate to the idea of feeling out of touch with the generation below them: Patterson says he "realized I'm getting older" when he stopped being able to keep up with slang changes.
"This next generation, a lot of the stuff that they're doing, it makes no sense," Hernández says. "Some of the stuff we said when we were little, we at least tried to make it make some sense. But, like, 6-7 made no sense."
For both Hernández and Patterson, "72 Hours" was their first experience having a lead role in a movie. So working alongside Hart, a veteran of comedy films, was a helpful learning experience. "His work ethic was crazy," Patterson says. "Going back and forth from work calls to getting right into the movie was truly insane."
Hernández, for his part, observed how Hart "was very much in the moment" on the set, which he sought to emulate while feeling at times like a "fish out of water" with his lack of film experience.
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Given that the movie deals heavily with group chats, do the comedians have any rules of the road for interacting with group chats in their own lives?
"You've got to stay active. You can't just let it die," Marshall says, before turning to Hernández and Patterson to roast them for their inactivity in the trio's group chat. "You guys, you don't always chime in." This sets off a disagreement about whether group chat participants should silence notifications.
"You've got to silence," Patterson argues, but Marshall objects: "That's bad because then you're not going to participate!"
The chemistry between the three is palpable as they riff and trade barbs, and Marshall says it was "cool to bring the relationship that we built with each other" on the movie into "SNL" last season.
Patterson, though, does have a bone to (playfully) pick with Marshall.
"We go back [to 'SNL'] from the movie," the comedian recalls. "I'm like, 'Ben! I'm here! Let's do some things!' Ben writes a great sketch, a really good sketch, and nobody's in it yet. I said, 'Maybe you should add Kenan [Thompson] as my dad. We should add me and Kenan into it.' He goes, 'Yeah, that's a great idea.' And then we hit the table read on Wednesday. Guess who's in the sketch? Oh, Kenan's in the sketch, but guess who Kenan's son is? It's a goat! Like, the animal! He replaced me with an animal!"
For the record, Marshall, in the lighthearted exchange, shifts the blame and says the goat was another writer's idea. "And by the way, the whole sketch bombed," he says. "It didn't make a difference."
The trio caught up with USA TODAY the day after Hernández hosted the 2026 ESPY Awards, where Patterson, Marshall, Hart and Gooding presented an award to Alysa Liu. "It was a blessing, an honor," Hernández says.
While he was at the show, Marshall was blown away when Stephen Curry told him he's a fan of his work.
"Changed my life," Marshall says, noting the Golden State Warriors star is "such a comedy fan." Hernández had a similar interaction with Curry, who even quoted specific jokes from his comedy special.
"It was really beautiful," Hernández says, before jokingly undercutting Marshall. "But your moment was cool as well."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Marcello Hernández, Kam Patterson, Ben Marshall talk '72 Hours,' 'SNL'
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
