Kenan Thompson reveals why he wanted to quit acting as a teen during Mighty Ducks film

Kenan Thompson might be a huge SNL and film star now, but it could have been a totally different story had he done want he wanted to do as a teen and quit acting.

The child actor has been on many film and TV projects, such as Good Burger, Fat Albert, Heavyweights, Scary Movie, The Mighty Ducks, and more.

But it’s the latter that had Thompson, 48, reconsidering his life’s path.

The actor revealed all when he appeared on an episode of Amy Poehler’s the Good Hang podcast.

The 54-year-old recalled a moment when the Saturday Night Live cast would go down to the ice rink at 30 Rock during their Christmas shows in December, and that she saw Thompson’s ability to skate.

“I go down there and I see Kenan and ... you are skating forward, skating backwards, skating sideways, doing a thing. Doing 45 million tricks,” she said.

Kenan Thompson caught up with Amy Poehler (YouTube/ Good Hang with Amy Poehler)

Obviously, this was surprising to Poehler, but Thompson learned how to skate in the 1994 sequel to the first The Mighty Ducks - D2: The Mighty Ducks.

There, he was cast as Russ Tyler, and again in its third instalment, D3: The Mighty Ducks.

Poehler went on to query the skill it took to master the ice as a kid, and apparently, it was enough for the actor to want to quit the whole industry.

“Very,” he said, as he revealed that in Atlanta where he grew up, he had been ‘busting my ass constantly’ at the roller rink.

“You don’t feel anything as a kid. I just feel the knots later,” he said.

However, he said he lied on his resume that he could skate, adding: “I put it on my resume under special skills that I could roller skate . . . but I never in a million years considered hockey.”

He was then cast as a hockey prodigy, to which he said: “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. I was like, ‘I don’t want to be an actor, if this is what it’s about.’”

D2: The Mighty Ducks' actor learned to skate, but wanted to quit because of it (Avnet/Kerner Productions)

Thankfully, he said his mom talked some sense into him, as he told Poehler: “She was like, ‘No, go back tomorrow.’ Kept going back and back, in like 8 weeks, on both movies, you learn how to skate.”

He went on to share that he was given opportunities as a young actor thanks to production teams knowing each other.

“To have that so young, it just pointed me confidently in the direction of like ‘This is what I feel like I should be doing.’”

In 2003, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, becoming the youngest member, and considering he’s still in the show, he’s the longest running cast member.