Kristen Wiig is one of my favorite actors on “Saturday Night Live,” but man oh man do I LOATHE her character Gilly. I feel like “SNL” should give advance notice when it’s going to air a Gilly sketch so that I can put up chicken wire in front of my TV. In an interview with MovieLine, Wiig acknowledged her divisive character:
Do you feel that Gilly is polarizing? I feel it’s a character that people either love or they don’t particularly like.
Uh… yeah, probably. I mean, the first time that I did it, my mom, the next day was like, “Oh, I did not like that. That new character you did, I did not like her!” [Laughs]
I’m glad Kristen can laugh about that, because I certainly never have.
Wiig also pulled back the curtain on the Garth and Kat songs she does with Fred Armisen — one of “SNL’s” few moments of true improv:
I think I know how [Garth and Kat] works, but, yes, how does it work? Does Armisen lead?
Yes. He definitely starts and I just try to follow. We don’t rehearse. The first time we do it that week is literally at the dress rehearsal.
Does he change the words between dress and the live show?
Oh yeah, nothing is the same. That’s why we don’t ever think of anything beforehand. If anything, we will be like, “All right, well this is a Halloween theme, so, here’s ‘pumpkins, witches, ghosts.’” We’ll think of things people can sing about, but, actually even when we do it, that all goes out the window. It’s the most fun I have because so much of the show is writing, working, deadlines, trying to figure things out, punching up your sketch, knowing you’re going to perform live. And that two and a half minutes of airtime is so freeing and fun.
There’s also a lot of talk about Wiig’s roles in Paul and Bridesmaids (it is, after all, MovieLine), and when she plans to leave “SNL” (not yet, she says). It will definitely be too bad when she exits the show, but at least the death of Gilly will be a nice silver lining.
