Working at Saturday Night time Dwell has its main execs. Nonetheless, it is no secret that it is also actually laborious, and the strain to carry out is actual. So, whereas I used to be chatting with SNL alum Abby Elliott, she received actual about her time on the sketch comedy present and the challenges she confronted.
Forward of Season 4 of The Bear premiering on the 2025 TV schedule, I had the prospect to interview Abby Elliott, who performs Sugar. Whereas most folk doubtless know her for this function now, she’s additionally very well-known for her four-season run on Saturday Night time Dwell. So, after I requested her a few private expertise that in comparison with the strain the characters face this season on the FX hit, she threw it again to her time on the NBC present and received actual about why it was so laborious, saying:
For me, being at Saturday Night time Dwell was a strain cooker. And, you already know, each week, it was like a race to get one thing on the air, and to just be sure you had one thing this week, as a result of if you did not have one thing final week, that is going to look dangerous. That appears such as you’re sort of failing.
This all makes a ton of sense, too. SNL is notoriously laborious to work on. There’s no scarcity of tales about it. In actual fact, Chloe Fineman’s recommendation for brand new SNL forged members included her saying you’re feeling such as you’re “thrown into the hearth.”
Each week, forged members and writers have to write down sketches that may get on the air, however not all the things makes it. So, the strain is on to ensure their work will get onto the present, to allow them to get their names on the market and preserve producing content material for SNL. It is a relentless and quick cycle, and I can see why she talked about this time after I requested her a few life expertise that compares to The Bear characters dealing with a tough deadline to save lots of their restaurant in Season 4.
To that time, Elliott, who is without doubt one of the youngest SNL forged members, as she joined the present at 21, instructed me that the strain on prime of the relationships she needed to construct in a aggressive surroundings was troublesome:
I believe additionally with SNL, you must work rather well with one another to be able to succeed on that present. And that was laborious for me on the time, after I was 21 and did not know what I used to be doing and was studying to write down for myself for the primary time, but in addition constructing relationships. So, yeah. I believe SNL is an effective instance of that.
Saturday Night time Dwell takes a toll, that’s no secret, and Abby Elliott’s level proves that.
Nonetheless, it’s additionally an surroundings comedians thrive in, and it serves as a precious basis for them to construct their careers. That was definitely the case with Elliott. She was on the present for 4 seasons between 2008 and 2012, and after 81 episodes, she left and has had a improbable profession.
Now, she’s one of many stars on The Bear, and he or she’s killing it as Sugar in that high-pressure surroundings as effectively. To see her in that present, you’ll be able to watch The Bear with a Hulu subscription. If you wish to return and see her on Saturday Night time Dwell, you’ll be able to stream previous seasons with a Peacock subscription.