Fred Armisen ‘Absolutely’ Excited for Justin Bieber on ‘SNL’: ‘He’s Brilliant’

Justin Bieber doesn’t head to Saturday Night Live until Feb. 9, but Fred Armisen already has the Fever.

The veteran funnyman stopped by a special screening of Roman Coppola‘s new film, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, and told The Hollywood Reporter that he is “absolutely” looking forward to the teen dynamo’s upcoming guest spot as host and musical guest on SNL.

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Bieber has performed on the show before, as a musical guest in 2010, but this will mark his first big acting job. Armisen, though, has confidence in his skills. “Don’t forget, he acts in videos, so that’s acting,” he said. “Even singing and performing, that’s all acting.”

Armisen, in fact, seemed to know a whole lot about the 18-year-old’s career.

“He’s brilliant,” he enthused. “I love it because that’s such a good tradition, someone who is living young and making music. And he’s a musician as well. He’s a drummer. I will always give it up for drummers.”

As SNL returns, there will be plenty of political fodder to tackle (whether Bieber will be involved with that remains to be seen), but Armisen says he won’t miss playing President Obama, which he did throughout the 2008 campaign and up until this fall.

“I don’t miss anything in life,” he explained, zen-like. “All I ever think is future tense, future tense, future tense. Nothing in my life I miss. I love doing Portlandia, I love being on SNL, I love the things I get to do. It’s all present tense. I never think past tense.”

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