Aidy Bryant would have left SNL sooner if it wasn’t for the pandemic
The actress is currently working on Cheeky, a new animated series for Peacock
Aux News Aidy Bryant
After a full decade as a cast member, Aidy Bryant recently departed Saturday Night Live, along with Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney, and Pete Davidson. In a new interview with Variety, she shared that her exit was intended to happen a lot sooner.
“If it weren’t for COVID, I probably would have left a few years earlier,” Bryant says. “But it was such a huge change. When COVID hit, it was so jarring that we were all like, ‘I’m definitely going to come back next year.’ And then I had to shoot Shrill for half of last season, and so I missed a lot. And then it was like, ‘Well, now I should go back one more.’ I kept trying to seek one last normal year. This year wasn’t the normal year that I hoped for, but it was closer to that. It was like, ‘OK, it’s really time now.’ And 10 felt like a nice, solid round number.”
Starting in 2019, the actress co-created and starred in three seasons of Shrill, a comedy based on the book by Lindy West. While Bryant found the story inspiring and had yet to consider leaving SNL, balancing both jobs with the sketch show’s notoriously intense schedule was a challenge.
“Those years, it wasn’t uncommon for me to work a 12-hour day on Shrill and then continue to work all day at SNL—and all night!” she recalls. “So it would be a 22-hour day. I can’t do that anymore. Maybe I could in my 20s. But now I’m in my 30s, and I’m like, ‘That’s a wrap on those days.’”
Shrill was canceled by Hulu after its third season, but Bryant already has a new project lined up. She’s now developing an animated series for Peacock called Cheeky, which will feature humorous first-person stories about different aspects of the human body.
17 Comments
Somebody should review the Ellie & Natasia sketch series.
Why don’t you?
I wanted her and Keenan to be the only cast members to stick it out until the heat death of the universe.
Our hopes and prayers now transfer seamlessly to Cecily Strong.
I really enjoyed Shrill. Oh well.
Literally my only complaint is pedantic as hell: the character isn’t “shrill” in any sense, it’s a sexist term for a woman who’s deemed too loud in society but her character is anything but loud.If that’s the single issue I’ve got then yeah that’s not bad at all, Aidy Bryant is a treasure.
Wow. Do you really need to dig as deep as possible to find anything, ANYTHING to complain about? Pedantic or not, you bothered to write it down.
So your only complaint is that you don’t understand the main character.
She was so great on SNL. The dog song, the salad song, the meats ladies and apple pickers with Kate McKinnon, her sexy dream with Oscar Isaac, the list goes on and on… And an under-the-radar Aidy Bryant highlight, in the sketch where the two brothers get sprayed with a hose when they misbehave, as she struggles not to break: “WHY are you telling him this?!” Cannot get enough of that.
My favorite is Lil’ Baby Aidy and the Twin Bed sketch, where the women in the cast bring their boyfriends back to their childhood bedroom.
I like how all the 7th grade pictures look just like you’d expect them to.
Given that she just finished a show on Hulu, I find it a bit sad she’s now working for a streamer with even worse viewership numbers: Peacock.
There’s probably a 30 Rock joke in here somewhere about NBC refusing to let people leave the building even when they no longer work there.
Probably. But who? Who has the skill to make such a joke?
Aidy Bryant, of course!
Cheeky, eh? Figured it was only a matter of time before Hollywood turned to remaking Tinto Brass films.
This has to be the most refillable headline macro ever. “_____ would have _____ earlier if not for the pandemic.”