Ana Gasteyer is recalling some of the best moments she had on “Saturday Night Live” ahead of the show’s 50th anniversary special.
While speaking with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie on Feb. 11, Gasteyer recalled what it was like to be on “SNL,” which she was a regular cast member for from 1996 to 2002, and how she rarely broke character.
“I’m pretty good at not breaking,” she said, adding that she tries to “dig deeper” and “play through” any breaks that are on the brink.
“I’m sort of the old school, like I want it to be funnier by playing it honest,” she added.
The “SNL” alum explained that the only time she broke character was during a dress rehearsal for a “crazy donkey sketch” that she did with Will Ferrell.
Gasteyer said the skit was about them riding donkeys and talking about the news, but when “the donkeys went insane and went to all the wrong cameras,” things got interesting.
“Will is amazing because when he breaks, it’s the funniest thing in the world because he’ll keep going, but he just has tears streaming down his face,” she laughed.
Gasteyer said that during a practice run of the skit, it became hard for her to keep it together.
“The whole impression was just like a smile, and I kept losing it and having to go back and forth,” she said while showing how much her face changed from smiling to being serious in the moment.
“Anyway, that was the only time,” she explained of the time she broke character. “But then I held it together for air.”
Savannah then revisited Gasteyer’s popular “SNL” sketch titled “NPR’s Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls,” which she did alongside Molly Shannon and Alec Baldwin. In the skit, Gasteyer and Shannon play NPR hosts interviewing a baker named Pete Schweddy (Baldwin) about the tasty treats he makes during the holiday season.
While recalling the sketch on TODAY, Gasteyer said she and her co-stars nearly broke character because of the audience’s immense reaction.
“The audience went so unexpectedly insane because we had done those characters a few times,” Gasteyer said. “But, the genius of putting them in that situation where they were speaking in such a deep double entendre, like, the audience went crazy.”
