SNL impression virtuoso Chloe Fineman got her start doing bird calls for David Letterman
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The never-ending comedy cruise ship that is Saturday Night Live can’t run without celebrity impressionists stoking the engines. Seriously, think about the times when nobody in the cast could do a decent must-have famous person each week and watch the whole thing churn in place for five painful minutes. (Looking at you, Fred Armisen, and your indifferent, blackface-wearing, post-Jay Pharoah President Obama.) Luckily, SNL’s got several more-than-capable impressionists on staff at the moment, and although the show seems to have forgotten that Melissa Villaseñor’s mimicry gifts exist, second-year featured player Chloe Fineman is getting some airtime to show her stuff this season. Plus, as one of her go-to impressions is of a bashful, mumbly Timothée Chalamet, the Call Me By Your Name/Little Women/coming-to-your-house Dune star’s hosting gig this Saturday should provide her with a guaranteed spotlight or two.
Appearing on The Tonight Show Tuesday alongside former SNL voice guy Jimmy Fallon, Fineman explained that Chalamet had given his (stammering, effusive, adorable) blessing to the idea of Fineman playing him this weekend. The actor, sitting incognito (easier during the COVID times) in the audience for last week’s Jason Bateman-hosted episode, approached Fineman to assure her that they should definitely both be him come Saturday. As to the other people Fineman traditionally is, who knows, although a Fallon-esque bit asking her to read out “The Night Before Christmas” in a series of her top tier famous voices showed just how good Fineman is at changing everything about her affect on the fly. Sure, Fineman does a stellar Drew Barrymore, but the expressively singular Drew’s got more handles on her than a subway car. How about Fineman doing both Meryl Streep and out-dueling Meryl Streep by playing Margaret Thatcher in the same bit? Those aren’t featured player guts—those are cast member guts.
But it was when Fallon’s staff really dug into Fineman’s sordid impressionist past that the interview hit pay dirt, as a high school-age Fineman’s appearance on Late Show With David Letterman showed that, yes, she’s always been like this. Alongside an equally committed school chum (who sadly did not ride the silly voice train to SNL stardom) the grainy young Fineman showed admirable—not to say loopy—dedication in replicating the “sounds like a dying cat” screech of the noble peafowl. Dave was impressed, although Fineman did lay claim to a little embarrassment at Fallon having unearthed the pre-YouTube treasure. Not at her already SNL-worthy peafowl face, but at her at-the-time super-cool white jeans. Peafowl and white pants—everybody starts somewhere.
28 Comments
Man I didn’t realize she was only a second-year. She’s definitely ready for prime time, as it were.
I, for one, am ready for Chloe & Heidi to become the new Kate & Aidy.(You leave Cecily out of this. She should stay as long as she damn pleases)
The problem with a lot of impressionists is that they often aren’t funny. It becomes a parlor trick without any material. Dana Carvey’s HW Bush and Ferrell’s W weren’t accurate, but they were funny. Rich Little and Frank Caliendo are skilled mimics but not funny. Bill Hader often managed both (his Alan Alda is a treasure).
Villaseñor has had a few moments (as an Adventure Time fan I root for her), but too often her and Fineman’s impressions are forced into a sketch as if to say “look what I can do”.
Dark horse for best Alan Alda impersonation actually goes to Peter Serafinowic:
Never seen this before and I am blown away by Peter’s impressions usually but goddamn. That’s spot on.
Goll damn, that voice is spot on.And hey, was that Susan from Coupling? (checks) yup!
Holy shit that’s spot on!
I found Ferrell’s W. to be fairly accurate.
Am I alone in not really understanding AVClub’s excitement for her? Her impressions are good, but I don’t find them used in a way that’s funny. I respect the talent, but her spotlight sketches leave me shrugging.(Also, is Timothée Chalamet a great impression target? Is he really a big enough personality that there’s a joke there in mimicking him?)
Last week Fineman was “Nicole Kidman in the The Undoing” in the middle of the cold open, and she had to announce that.
I’m the best impressionist in the world, but I can only do impressions of people that I’m 100% certain you’ve never heard or will hear.
Agreed. I find her extremely unfunny and a bit grating. Also, she might be a $cientologist
Fineman is both very good at impressions and a solid cast member in her own right, but she (and the writers) need to find a way to integrate the impressions naturally–which is easier said than done considering how inherently showy impressions are. Her skit as Drew Barrymore was the one real example I can think of where she hit that sweet spot.
She’s not great, only fine…man.
What?
The only one that was good (and it was v good) was Drew Barrymore. The rest was just bizarre.
I’m with you. Her Streep, Chalamet, and Waller-Bridge all sound pretty much the same. Which is… not right.
I would say she has a flexible voice, they each sounded different at least, but I didn’t think any of them were that accurate. She could get better with practice though.
It’s sad how fucking awful the writing on this site is.
Show of hands if you guessed who wrote this without reading the byline.Joking aside, this article served it’s purpose. I find Chloe to be more miss than hit, but the article gets me to see her work outside of SNL. So good on you, Dennis.
“the show seems to have forgotten that Melissa Villaseñor’s mimicry gifts exist”I usually try to forget she exists but the world wont let me.
the grainy young Fineman
????
It’s an old SD clip, so the video is grainy.
What? I thought Armisen’s Obama was WAY better than Jay Pharoah’s. He had the voice and cadence DOWN. Are we angry at Armisen now for playing like 10 different ethnicities and being at least sort of convincing with all of them?
right, what fred armison did was “blackface”, just like those minstrel shows. exact same thing.
Fred Armisen’s blackface Obama was PRE-Jay Pharaoh, not post. Complaints about it was one of the reasons Pharaoh was hired.
Armisen kept doing the Obama impression for a season or so after Pharaoh was hired.
“Post” still implies that Armisen took over the role after Pharaoh had been doing it. I remember people going “when is he taking it over now that he’s here?” they just (needlessly, sure) held off because he was “just” at featured level.
Armisen was pre-Pharaoh, right? He left in 2013, and Pharaoh was fired in 2016.