Live From New York - James H. Miller [266]
ANA GASTEYER:
I can’t speak for other women entirely, but I think that for me the distinct disadvantage of being a woman in any situation — particularly one as competitive as this one — is that I have a really hard time turning off the social-political filter. I don’t think that the men in our cast sit around concerning themselves with who likes them and who doesn’t as much as I think women do — and as much as I do as a woman. I think that’s a feminine quality that I have, that I’m intuitive about interpersonal relationships and I worry about interpersonal relationships and interoffice politics, and I spent a lot of energy concerning myself with that as opposed to like my work getting on the air, and I think that men are just more comfortable with the competition.
I speak to college groups and stuff about being a woman. This era has been clearly less scathed — if that’s a word — and if anything, I think we were exalted, for reasons that weren’t always clear to me early on, Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri and I. We got press for it. We got press for being this trifecta of women that turned the show around. I mean, that’s what they talked about. I don’t think there’s such a thing as actual exaltation every day in this place, because there’s just too many creative people that need exaltation at any given time. But, you know, we were written up and we were photographed together. That sort of signifies that you’ve changed a tune, and certainly we heard it anecdotally all the time — that the women are the best thing on the show.
JANEANE GAROFALO:
Life is a boys club. So SNL is a reflection of that. But Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer and Cheri Oteri and Rachel Dratch and Tina Fey kicked ass. They came in and would not be denied. I’ll admit that I was not prepared to deal with the wall of resistance. Molly was. Molly is a much stronger person than me. And she is easily more talented than me.
I’m not being self-deprecating. I think Molly came in and her attitude was right on the money. And it was, “I’ll kill you with kindness.” But she’s fucking very tough. And she is writing and writing and writing and she will not take no for an answer. And she also would not get involved in the bullshit. No gossiping, no nothing. The males were worse gossips than the females. And Molly did not play that game. She didn’t get involved with drugs and alcohol. She was there to work.
MAYA RUDOLPH:
I think there’s nothing sexier than a funny lady. Funny ladies are pretty damn sexy. There’s so much wit and confidence in that, and I love that. I like being a funny lady. I feel I’ve definitely become more of a woman because of my job — that and turning thirty.
AMY POEHLER, Cast Member:
I’m of the school that loves crazy makeup and wigs and teeth. I always want my characters to look uglier than I’m allowed or than I have time for. I think as I’ve learned through meeting many people that come through here, Vanity is the Death of Comedy. The minute you start feeling you’re hot stuff, you’re in trouble. I’d much rather have people laugh than go, “Whoo!” I don’t want any of that. I think it’s pretty hard to be sexy and funny at the same time. Some people can do it, but few can pull it off.
MIKE SHOEMAKER, Coproducer:
Lorne always says that producers are supposed to be invisible. So our jobs are really ill defined. To put it simply, Kenny Aymong is studio, Marci Klein is talent, and I kind of cover the connection between the cast and the writers and the producers. But truthfully we overlap, because if there’s something that you’re good at, you wind up doing it. There’s things that Marci does, the way she deals with certain talent, that’s genius, but if I were to tell you what it was, it would probably diminish its effectiveness. It’s in the way she