A former 'SNL' star says Diddy demanded a closed set when he performed, but Will Ferrell crashed his rehearsal as a bit

• Ana Gasteyer was a cast member on "Saturday Night Live" when Sean "Diddy" Combs performed in 1998.
• She said on the "Las Culturistas" podcast that he "demanded a totally closed set."
• Will Ferrell crashed his rehearsal as a character named Ron, which made Combs "very uncomfortable."

Twenty-five years before Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested and charged with three felonies, including sex trafficking, he was a big enough star to call the shots at 30 Rock — or, at least, he tried, said former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Ana Gasteyer.

During the latest episode of the "Las Culturistas" podcast, hosted by comedian Matt Rogers and current "SNL" star Bowen Yang, Gasteyer described her impression of Combs when he was a musical guest on the late-night sketch comedy show in 1998.

Gasteyer said Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, "demanded a totally closed set" during rehearsals for his performance — something that rarely happened during her time on the show.

"You can tell like the five assholes in the six years that I was there when they would be like, 'So and so is in the building, everybody stays in your dressing rooms,' which is applicable if you're a presidential candidate," Gasteyer said. "But apart from that, really, it's my house."

Then-'SNL' star Will Ferrell crashed Diddy's set

Gasteyer recalled Will Ferrell, a fellow cast member at the time, crashing Combs' rehearsal of "Come with Me" (his 1998 duet with Jimmy Page that samples the 1975 Led Zeppelin song "Kashmir") while dressed as a character he invented called Ron.

Ferrell "marched right in" and played up the bit by "walking around, looking really disoriented," Gasteyer said, adding that Combs appeared not to take it well.

"It is the greatest thing that's ever happened," she continued, saying that Combs "really did not roll with it. He was very uncomfortable, but it was also just like the artifice of all that faux importance."

Indeed, Ferrell told the same story on a 2020 episode of the "SNL" web series "Stories From the Show," explaining that he crashed Combs' performance on a dare.

"We were in this writer's room watching Puff Daddy rehearse, and someone said, 'Ron should go up onstage,' and before everyone turned to see, I had sprinted out the door," Ferrell recalled. "It was supposed to be a closed set."

The episode includes footage of the incident: Combs rapping into a microphone while Ferrell — wearing sunglasses, a fake mustache, and an ascot — wanders around the stage behind him. "I didn't really know what to do once I got up there," Ferrell said. After Combs finished the song, they shook hands.

"I was always kind of awestruck at how serious the place can be at times," Ferrell added of his time on the show. "And I thought, 'Wait, this is a comedy show. We should be fucking shit up.'"

More recently, "SNL" poked fun at Combs' legal troubles, which now include more than a dozen sexual misconduct lawsuits, during their "Weekend Update" segment.

"It was announced that Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking case has been assigned to a new judge," Michael Che joked. "One that Diddy hopes is cool with rapes."

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and has denied all allegations. He is currently awaiting trial in New York's Metropolitan Detention Center.

Representatives for Gasteyer and Ferrell didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Diddy's defense attorney Marc Agnifilo declined to comment.