Wiig told him Royal Palm his co-star Carole Burnett is a legend: “I grew up watching her show. It was really my introduction to sketch comedy.”
Apple TV+
hide caption
toggle caption
Apple TV+
Wiig told him Royal Palm his co-star Carole Burnett is a legend: “I grew up watching her show. It was really my introduction to sketch comedy.”
Apple TV+
Actress and comedian Kristen Wiig has a theory: If she looks directly in the mirror and asks herself a question, the truth will come out.
Wiig tested her theory while living in Arizona in her 20s. She asked her reflection what she should do with her life, and her own answer surprised her.
“I just said I would move to Los Angeles and try to act,” Wiig said. “And I was kind of shocked to know that that’s how I felt. But that’s what came out.”
Wiig followed the mirror test with a visit to a local psychic – who also encouraged her to move out West to pursue her acting and writing career. “And I went home and I packed all my stuff. And I left the next day and drove to Los Angeles,” Wiig says.
In Los Angeles, Wiig joined the improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, where she tried her hand at writing and performing sketch comedy. She then auditioned (twice) for SNLeventually landing an acting role in 2005. Wiig describes his beginnings to SNL as exciting – and terrifying.
“I knew they would be my family and they would be my friends,” she says. “And at the same time, I was like, ‘OK, I’m the new girl. I just want to try to do my best.'”
Wiig was an actor on SNL until 2012. She has also starred in films including Bridesmaidswhich she co-wrote, ghost hunters and the Despicable Me movies. In the new Apple TV+ show Royal Palm, she plays a former pageant queen who wants to break into the upper echelons of Palm Beach, Florida, high society in the late 1960s. For Wiig, one of the highlights of the series is working with the icon from the comedy Carol Burnett.
“She’s a legend, and rightfully so. She’s not only incredibly talented and funny and fearless, she’s so warm and so generous,” Wiig says of Burnett. “For me, I grew up watching his show. It was really my introduction to sketch comedy.”
Interview Highlights
Kristen Wiig plays a former pageant queen in Royal Palm.
Apple TV+
hide caption
toggle caption
Apple TV+
Kristen Wiig plays a former pageant queen in Royal Palm.
Apple TV+
Joining Los Angeles improv comedy troupe The Groundlings
I had never seen improvisation and I love sketches. And I was like, “Oh my God, this is what I want to do.” … It was like, “Oh, they’re improvising. They’re making stuff up. There’s no script. They’re creating characters.” It seemed like I couldn’t really figure out what I wanted to do until I saw a show there. …You learn the rules of improv and it really teaches you how to be a scene partner and what it means to improvise. So as you go through school, you really learn what works and what doesn’t work, because you’re doing this stuff in front of your peers and your teachers and you’re getting feedback and you can either to hear laughter or not to hear. laughing. So you learn that: how to make people laugh, I guess.
While auditioning for SNL twice
I was terrified because I had done sketches and most of my characters were in scenes with other people. I wasn’t a stand-up, so there wasn’t a lot of me alone on stage. So I felt very nervous about it. And I was like, okay, this is my chance. And I just wrote a little thing (with) as many characters as possible, whatever impressions I had. It was mostly about characters and (I) crammed them all in there, did the audition and went home without hearing anything. So I assumed I didn’t understand because no one was calling me. And then I heard, “Oh, they want to see you again.” And my first thought was that I literally did everything in that last audition. I do not have anything. I don’t have any other voices or characters. So I had to invent new things, which I think ended up being good for me as a writer and a performer, just to be like, “Oh, maybe there’s more to this .”
In the urgency of deadlines SNL
The week goes by quite quickly. And there are lots of little deadlines here and there. I do better with deadlines. Like Tuesday night, for example, you arrive around 2:00 p.m. and you stay until 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. and you probably want to write three sketches. So just knowing that it has to happen and planning with another writer or another actor, it’s kind of like this kind of unpredictable puzzle that you have to put together and get it all done before you get home. And then there’s the rewrites and the time between dress rehearsal and broadcast when you have this eight-page sketch and if you want to get it on the air, you have to cut 30 seconds, and cutting 30 seconds is really difficult because each joke depends on the other. And there’s timing and things putting certain things into place. And if you haven’t set this up, will this prank still work? And I loved it. There was something about that frantic panic between the outfit (rehearsal) and the air and knowing that you were going to do the sketch on air that was different from what you had been doing all week. There was something so exciting about trying to figure that out. I miss it.
Why she decided to leave SNL when she felt too comfortable
Comfort is not SNL, that’s not what it is. I mean that in the best way, because I think when you’re constantly trying new things and, honestly, you’re a little nervous, it works. Because you don’t rely on what you’ve done before. And the nature of the show is that you have to come up with new things every week for years – and that’s a really scary concept. And you never really know what the show will be until it’s over. Because you can have a great dress (rehearsal) and not literally be in the show. So it’s a bit like you just have to get used to this unpredictability. I guess I always felt like once I really, really figured it out, that part of the mystery was what made it magical. …Leaving was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. …I was a little out of my body. (The on-air farewell) was so emotional for me and sweet and made my eyes bawl after I got off stage. And it was truly one of the most enjoyable moments ever.
On co-writing Bridesmaids with Annie Mumolo and exploring female friendship and feeling out of sync in your 30s
In those days, in your 20s, 30s, when people are finding their careers and settling down, you compare yourself to your friends and (think) like, “Wait, all these people have this and I don’t.” You don’t think, “Oh, well, my time is coming. It doesn’t matter.” You just say to yourself, “What is wrong with me? I feel a little left out. » People start different stages of their lives (at different times)…and I think also in my age group, there was always this thing like, you have to get married at a certain time and have kids at a certain time, and (if it wasn’t) they would just look at you like, “Well, what’s wrong with you?” Why haven’t you figured this out yet?
On the story around Bridesmaidsthat it was shocking that a raunchy comedy starring women was so successful
It was such a topic of conversation and I didn’t understand it. I guess I understood a little about the financial aspect, like comedies with men made more money. It was sad for me because I could name a million comedic actresses and roles in successful films and films. And it just felt like (the focus) was on the female part of the (film). And it wasn’t just seen as a comedy, it was very much about being a female comedy and like, “Oh, even the guys are going to like this!” Well, yeah, why wouldn’t they?
Phyllis Myers and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.
Entertainment
