Kenan Thompson Says He Was ‘Always’ Auditioning Against Anthony Anderson in the ‘90s

Kenan Thompson remembers constantly auditioning against another comedian for the same roles in the 1990s. But in the end, both performers went on to become household names.

“Anthony Anderson, I would always see his name on the list,” the Saturday Night Live star recalled during an episode of the PEOPLE in the ‘90s podcast in 2021. “Whether I would see him at the actual audition or not, he was always in the running.”

He added: “We’ve been in the same conversations for characters, probably in a lot of things throughout the ‘90s for sure.”

Since then, the actors have admired each other’s careers. The All That alumnus, 46, even shared his favorite Anderson project: The Departed.

“I know what that movie did for his career,” Thompson said. “Before that, he was the go-to guy for Barbershop and comic relief roles. But The Departed was like, ‘Oh s—, this guy’s in a [Martin] Scorsese movie. Then, very soon after that, Law & Order.”

“I love him to death, he’s my brother,” Thompson added.

Like Anderson, Thompson started booking roles in the ‘90s and early 2000s. His earliest acting credits included appearances in the Mighty Ducks franchise, Nickelodeon’s sitcom Kenan & Kel and the movie Good Burger. After finishing his Nickelodeon career, Thompson moved to Los Angeles to start college.

“Nickelodeon just took a while because it was cable, it was a smaller show,” Thompson recalled of his “slow-going” fame. “I was going to college and it was blowing up, nobody in college was watching Nickelodeon.”

Younger kids recognized him, but not people his age. “I was famous early-ish if I would go to Chuck E. Cheese. It was little kids at the time and the show was out and it was fresh,” he said.

In 2003, Thompson joined SNL and remains the longest-tenured running cast member. Scoring a spot in the cast is when the “real fame” began, he said.

In June, PEOPLE caught up with Thompson at Nintendo New York, where the star reflected on some of his most iconic roles and opened up about the items he took from the set.

For All That, “Our original T-shirts of the logo were very special,” Thompson said. “I think we got backpacks too, or something else that had the logo on it.”

“I got a couple of Good Burger hats, for sure, but it was mostly hats that they would put on all the restaurant workers. So it wasn’t my specific hat that I wore. But it’s good to have that kind of stuff.”