Heidi Gardner interview: ‘Saturday Night Live’
Heidi Gardner recently went viral on “Saturday Night Live” when she broke down laughing during a “Beavis and Butt-Head” sketch featuring host Ryan Gosling and co-star Mikey Day as real-life versions of the classic cartoon characters. Gardner now describes the hilarious moment as “magic in the air” and tells us, “I could never have expected it and I think that’s the reason why I will love to talk about it forever.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
The laugh-fest began when Gardner, playing a serious talk show host, turned around in her seat and came face-to-face with Day’s Butt-Head, complete with exposed gums and a pointed nose. “I was just thinking, that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” she recalls while starting to crack up again. “I know I had seen a version of the make-up before, but it did feel like a total shock and surprise.” She was totally “caught off-guard” because she saw her friend “as something never seen [him] as before.” Gardner agrees with the comparisons to the iconic “Debbie Downer” sketch, noting that it’s such a “delight to watch people having fun with each other and laughing.”
Gardner has been a cast member on NBC’s sketch comedy series since the start of Season 43 in 2017, so this marks her seventh year overall. Some of her memorable characters during the current 49th season of “SNL” include CNN anchor Dana Bash, energetic secretary Trudy, and Weekend Update visitors “A Woman Who Insists She’s Not Mad” and “A Woman Who Is Aging Gracefully.” The funnylady has also guest-starred on such TV shows as “Shrinking,” “Girls5eva,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “The Other Two.”
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The Season 49 finale is scheduled for May 18 with host Jake Gyllenhaal and musical guest Sabrina Carpenter. For Gardner, the end of an “SNL” year feels a bit like the end of a school year. She explains, “There’s sadness to be saying goodbye to your classmates and friends and teachers, and then there’s excitement ’cause it’s the summer and you get to rest a little bit.” Unlike prior seasons, she can “really feel it in [her] bones” this year that she’s ready for “a little break.”
With “Saturday Night Live” Season 50 on the horizon, Gardner readily admits, “It doesn’t make sense or sound real … Every year I’m there I try to get more present and more aware of how amazing this time in my life is. And I think I just really want to be in the moment next season. There’s nothing I can plan for. It’s just gonna be spectacular.” Some of the “SNL” legends she hopes to meet for the first time at the February 2025 primetime special include Andy Samberg and Mike Myers, and she’d love to spend even more time with Eddie Murphy.
Also in our exclusive video interview, Gardner talks about when she first remembers wanting to join the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” how much work she puts into impressions of real-life celebrities, and how there’s an energy of “greatness” and “genius” when former cast members like Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph come back to host.