Heidi Gardner has become one of the Saturday Night Live seniors after having joined the venerable NBC show in season 43.
After a slew of cast members including Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon and Pete Davidson left last summer, Gardner, along with the likes of Ego Nwodim and Bowen Yang, have stepped up to fill the gap left. And she’s enjoying being “passed the ball more”.
In fact, Gardner had the joint second most cast appearances by segment, tied with Chloe Fineman and behind veteran Kenan Thompson, according to stats compiled by the Saturday Night Network.
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Gardner is known for characters such as teen film critic Bailey Gismert and Deidre, one half of a couple who describe their vacation to their friends, as well as every boxer’s girlfriend from every movie about boxing ever, Angel, who she brought back this year.
Promoted to repertory status in season 45 in 2019, Gardner has also appeared in series such as Apple’s Shrinking, alongside Jason Segel, and in Adam Sandler film Hustle.
In addition to repping SNL, which is competing against Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for the first time in the newly titled Scripted Variety Series category at the Emmys, Gardner has been submitted for supporting actress in a comedy for SNL.
She spoke to Deadline, from her hometown of Kansas City, about her elevated role on the show, preparing for season 49 and some of her other projects, including writing a period comedy with her friend Melissa Hunter.
DEADLINE: It’s been two months since season 48 of SNL ended. Are you able to relax or are you looking to do a million things over the summer?
HEIDI GARDNER: It’s weird. It’s hard to do a million things right now just because of the writers strikes, you don’t know what you can or can’t do. I feel like I still have that SNL adrenaline pulsing through my body. I’m staying with some friends right now and I’ll have done like 15 things in one day and they’re like you do a lot. Then I realize, I’m not working at SNL right now, I don’t need to write something, do a rewrite, do a table read, go to a fitting so it’s really weird how I see that manifest in other parts of my life. I need to get myself to an island and stop doing that.
DEADLINE: SNL adrenaline sounds like something that should be bottled and sold. How did you feel about the last three shows being canceled?
GARDNER: I was definitely bummed when it had happened. I think I had a little Covid PTSD because even though we had those at home shows, we lost about six shows. I remember when I found out the last three shows weren’t happening. I was like, ‘Oh, well I wonder if we’ll do at home shows’ and then I was suddenly like no Heidi this isn’t a pandemic, this isn’t affecting the rest of the world. I was sad, but then the end of the season is always filled with the anxiety of dunking one more time and it was kind of nice not to go through that, just to kind of have this like, non-closure season where that’s all I get.
DEADLINE: Lorne Michaels has called season 48 a “transition” year with so many people leaving last summer. How were you feeling going into it?
GARDNER: I’ve been a fan of SNL my whole life. I know of those rebuilding years. I remember in the mid 90s when everyone was gone and Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri came in, those years where everything feels different. People are going to call it a rebuilding year and we’ll probably be judged harshly because of it. I don’t read anything [about the show] but people would come up to me on the street and say, ‘Hey, you’re on SNL, this year feels really good, it feels really fresh and the energy is great’. I heard that enough that I thought no one is saying it’s kind of a weird year so I was happy about that. I was also happy with my role on the show, I felt a lot more useful. I felt like I got to do more. I felt more creatively fulfilled, and as I love sports, I just felt like I got passed the ball a lot more.
DEADLINE: It definitely felt like you, Ego and Bowen stepped up this year and became the seniors. I imagine it was a bit easier to do that when people left.
GARDNER: I get why that was and I feel grateful. This year felt different and I like feeling useful feels good.
DEADLINE: You mentioned loving SNL growing up, which was your first cast that you loved?
GARDNER: The first sketch I remember ever seeing – I think my mom and dad had a VHS of it – was the Eddie Murphy everyone gonna get in the hot tub James Brown sketch and I watched it a lot and thought that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Then, the first time I remember making my parents laugh was when I would do an impression of Dana Carvey doing an impression of Robin Leach. He was definitely one of my favorites. Then it was the whole Wayne’s World thing, then Adam Sandler, David Spade, Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Jane Curtin, that was probably the first cast where I was like, every Saturday night I was definitely making sure to watch it with my mom. I would usually fall asleep before Weekend Update and I remember waking up in the morning so bummed.
DEADLINE: I spoke to Ego Nwodim recently and she says you reminded her that you and her have the same job as Eddie Murphy, which is pretty wild to think about.
GARDNER: Like anyone, when you have a hard day at work, it sucks, we were just talking once and it just hit me that we have the same job. That’s insane. If I had told my childhood self, she would have been like ‘You’re a liar’.
DEADLINE: Does that bring any additional pressure when you think about that?
GARDNER: It’s interesting. It does. You think of all of the greats that I’ve named and the ones I haven’t, even people I’ve been in the cast with like Leslie, Aidy, Beck and Kyle and there is this pressure because these are the funniest people. There’s Cecily and Beck, there’s nothing they can’t do and Kyle is the funniest person in the world, you think if I could have just an ounce of what he has. It is weird because I do think about that sometimes because I think how can there be so many of us with all of these different talents.
DEADLINE: That’s what makes SNL, right, the fact that everyone has their own skills. To keep with the sports analogy, everyone has their own position.
GARDNER: Exactly. I’ll feel like I’m not as good as a player because I can’t do that thing they do and then you [realize] that’s what’s cool about this show, Lorne has rounded out this motley crew of Bad News Bears, there’s another sports reference, where somehow we win the game some weeks.
DEADLINE: Coming off a season like you’ve just had, does that change how you approach next season?
GARDNER: I think so. I think feeling a sense of momentum every week felt great this year, I rarely felt a super off week. That’s going to happen every once in a while and used to happen more where you’re blanked from a show or maybe you’re just in one thing, but this year, I feel like the pressure was just off because I got to do so much more even in supporting roles. So even if I had a sketch that was my baby and it didn’t make it, it wasn’t like the weight of the world was on that one because I get to do all these other things and so I don’t even have time to worry. That’s the thing I think I want to remember, there’s no way to control any of this. Letting go was super great for me this year. I write a lot too and when you work on a piece with another writer, you’re trying to make it perfect but it’s just like I work with the funniest people in the world, just trust.
DEADLINE: Have you got particular writers that you like working with?
GARDNER: It is kind of week to week, you’ll think of an idea and you’ll be like this specific writer would be great for that or a specific cast member. One of my friends Jimmy Fowlie started writing for the show this year, and we got to share an office together and it felt like being in the dorms again at college. I felt like I was thriving at work, we were getting sketches on and I’m having fun. We also had a new writer Ceara O’Sullivan, who worked on a lot of pieces with me this year and gifted me with a lot of great characters.
DEADLINE: You mentioned Weekend Update before, you played Michael Che’s manic assistant this year and you ate your salad like Lisa from Temecula ate her steak. There’s some weird eating habits going on at SNL.
GARDNER: Yeah, there we are just attacking food.
DEADLINE: Do you approach Weekend Update any differently to other sketches?
GARDNER: It’s so weird because I love doing Weekend Update so much and also it’s so incredibly terrifying because I don’t want to say you’re totally alone out there, we have the wonderful anchors Colin and Che and they’re so supportive, but you got to make your character work up there. Sometimes the camera is on just you and so it’s terrifying but like when it works and you can feel the crowd on your side that’s what I felt with that Michael Che assistant character. It took me a while to go back and watch the characters but I’m just thinking about the little kid in myself and I can’t believe I did that.
DEADLINE: You also brought back Angel, every boxer’s girlfriend with Michael B. Jordan. That made a lot of sense, does it just depend on who the host is that week?
GARDNER: Definitely. I hadn’t done that character in a few years and, and sometimes reoccurring characters are tough, and it’s tough to find a new way in if you need to, but this one was all based off of those movies and I have Creed so I have to do it, I have to try and [I loved] the fact he was down to do it with me. Who knows if I’ll ever bring her back again, but even for right now, when I watched that one back and at the end of it, she ends up with Creed and then me and Michael hug and I’m just like, oh my god, she got to be happy.
DEADLINE: Talking of recurring characters, I feel like Abby, the ex-girlfriend could be one.
GARDNER: That one was so much fun. I love the idea that I wasn’t in control of the tears. I wrote that one with Jimmy Fowlie and Alison Gates, so I was well taken care of and it was one of my favorite weeks ever at the show because the host was Kansas City Chief Travis Kelce.
DEADLINE: I love that Lorne said you could have Travis as a host if the Chiefs won the Super Bowl and they did.
GARDNER: I know, that’s a big ask and then when they did it, the next day I was like okay, so and they were like the offer’s out. He won the Superbowl, pay up.
DEADLINE: You’re evidently a massive Chiefs fan, did Patrick Mahomes give you any shit for having Travis rather than him?
GARDNER: Every time I see Mahomes, I’m like are you going to host. I want him to. I’m going to have this side gig where I just hire Chiefs.
DEADLINE: Outside of SNL, you were in Shrinking this year, is that just a case of finding the time to do it now that Lorne has relaxed the rules a bit?
GARDNER: Totally, yeah. That one came along and it was it felt like a no brainer because it was awesome writers, awesome cast, awesome producer and luckily it filmed last summer so I had the time. It felt cool to do something that I got to just kind of sit in the character for a little bit rather than just a three minute sketch. I just had to live in her a little bit.
DEADLINE: Writers strike aside are you still writing your own feature screenplay?
GARDNER: Right now, I’m collaborating with a friend, Melissa Hunter, who is an amazing writer. We used to be in a sketch group together early on when I started comedy, and we’ve been taking this time to put together a pitch for a TV show, whenever we can pitch that and that’s been really creatively fulfilling. We’re just in the like that blossoming of an idea phase and it feels really good and positive.
DEADLINE: Is this still an 80s period piece?
GARDNER: It is a period piece. It’s taken a little different turn than the one I was working on before but yes, I do like period pieces.
DEADLINE: Do you think about the Emmys? SNL has a new rival in the main category with John Oliver?
GARDNER: I feel like SNL has been celebrated well by the Emmys. We went as a cast a few years ago when Colin and Che hosted. We had really good seats, it might have been my first or second season, and that was just a very cool experience.
DEADLINE: When do you start thinking about next season of SNL?
GARDNER: It’s usually a couple more months. I know that the talent [bookers] and producers start searching for talent around now and going to shows. I remember being in the Groundlings and one night everyone being like, SNL is here, and it’s just like, oh my god, you don’t want to know that. Or I remember one time we heard like SNL was at the show, and I remember thinking fuck, yes, because I knew I’d have a killer show. Then someone was like, I was wrong, they weren’t here. There’s no real timeline on exactly when we find out, sometimes it’s down to the last minute. I’m always taking notes on my phone or when I see something funny. This week, I’ve been helping my mom with a movie and I haven’t been thinking funny in a long time. I was just like, driving. I think I was overtired and in my head, I was like, just try to try to be funny in the car right now. I thought I’d just like lost it because I’ve been in such a different mode.
DEADLINE: I can’t imagine being funny on demand is easy.
GARDNER: I’m definitely not that person. There are those people that are just like that. They seem like Jim Carrey of the 90s that can turn it on.
DEADLINE: Does going home to Kansas City help the funny?
GARDNER: Oh, totally. It felt really gratifying. I had a friend visit Kansas City in early June for this charity event I was helping with and we were at the event and she was looking around the room and she was mingling with different women of Kansas City. She was like, Oh, I get why you play the women you play, I see a lot of your characters in this room right now. She said, ‘This city has rubbed off on you in a very funny way’.