When people and animals die, they stay with us in our minds.
Television and film are our libraries now. Our history books.
Decisions made in real time are never perfect.
If it's a role like this one, an actual live person, a legend, there's lots of material laid out.
Film is our literature, so we should tell stories that are apropos of our culture, in that we can learn something about ourselves.
In order to crash the party and be a clown with your own skit, you had to be there for quite a while.