Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig credits her former co-star Will Forte, for helping her gain the confidence to trust her own sense of humor as a writer on the variety sketch series.
During an appearance on the latest episode of the Good Hang podcast, Wiig and host Amy Poehler reminisced about their early days at SNL and the years they overlapped as cast members. When Poehler brought up a question from fellow SNL alum Bill Hader on Wiig’s confidence in her ideas, especially when it came to pitching skits on the series, Wiig admitted that she doesn’t “see it as confidence,” quipping that she’s “just talking.”
“I do remember Forte telling me once in his office [after] me saying something like, ‘I don’t know if Lorne would like this’ and he was like, ‘Don’t do that,'” Wiig recalled. “He’s like, ‘Never write for if you think someone else is going to think this is funny… Write if you think it’s funny.’ And I always carried that with me.”
That advice has helped shape how the actress, who served as an SNL cast member from 2005 to 2012 and often pops in for cameo appearances, has made her mark as a creative in various projects throughout the years.
“I think I kind of wanted to know where I was in the world as far as like my point of view,” Wiig added. “The more I would put up that I thought was funny, the more I could kind of hone what kind of works and what doesn’t.”
Poehler, who was on SNL from 2001 to 2008, recalled the audition that landed Wiig her spot on the show. “I think every single character in your audition ends up being a fully realized character on the show, which is amazing,” Poehler told the Bridesmaids star and co-writer.
“That can’t be true,” Wiig protested.
But Mike Shoemaker, a former SNL writer and producer/current Late Night with Seth Meyers showrunner, previously confirmed that tidbit is actually true during the “Five Minutes” episode of the docuseries Beyond Saturday Night.
“Every character that Kristen Wiig auditioned with has been on television,” Shoemaker revealed in the doc, which features footage from Wiig’s Aug. 3, 2005, tryout to prove it. She performed Aunt Linda, the cranky movie-reviewing woman from “Weekend Update,” and smelled candles as Target Lady.
“I don’t even know what was in that second audition. And then I didn’t hear anything and the season started and that’s when I was like, ‘I didn’t get it,'” Wiig told Poehler. “But then they called me and they were like, we have a spot for you. Can you come in two weeks?”
Wiig was a natural, Poehler recalled, adding, “You arrive at that show, in my opinion, ready and confident to try — what is the job — to try your dumb ideas.”
While Wiig gave SNL fans a lot of recurring characters to choose a favorite from, Poehler admitted that her personal fave was Sue, the lady who is really bad at surprise parties.
“I love her. I love her for a million reasons,” Poehler shared. “The way you play her is so funny. I love her wig, always in a turtleneck.”
Wiig shared her own love for Sue, gushing, “When I say that was one of my favorites, that comes from doing it. I like being in a sketch where there’s a lot of people and there are moments where everyone is looking around, like, ‘What is going on?’ I love that moment. I love a cut to Kenan. It’s my favorite thing…Most of my sketches, if you go back and look, I’m like, ‘You gotta cut to people being weirded out by me, to remind the audience that I’m weird.'”
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“Why I love the Surprise Lady so much is ’cause there’s a lot of Wiig in it, I think,” Poehler said. “Because she is nervous, but excited, and she loves a party and she cannot wait to deliver that good news. She can’t wait, and the physicality of her…it’s so funny. I just watch clips of it all the time. It’s so funny and stupid, which is the best.”
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