Summary

Collider’s Emily Bernard talks with Ego Nwodim about her seven-season run (and counting) on Saturday Night Live.

Nwodim discusses drawing inspiration from SNL legends like Maya Rudolph & Amy Poehler for her “strong and wrong” characters.

She also talks about the evolution of her breakout characters like Lisa from Temecula and Miss Eggy.

Saturday Night Live has been the cornerstone of comedy since its inception, with this year marking 50 years of the iconic NBC sketch show’s run. There’s been extra attention paid to the series’ history this year for the big anniversary, and one current cast member who’s managed to shine brightly this season is unquestionably Ego Nwodim. Nwodim, who joined the cast in 2018 and has been on for seven seasons, has consistently popped by Weekend Update and starred in funny sketches, with the last three seasons in particular finally feeling like she’s getting her due. Her breakout character, Lisa from Temecula, a says-it-like-it-is lawyer who loves her steak extra extra well done, lets Nwodim play around in the SNL sandbox — and gets the sand absolutely everywhere in the process. Nwodim’s always been a reliable utility player, but Lisa is one of the key times we are reminded of how over-the-top funny she can be when given the chance to go wild. Another character who completely shattered expectations and allowed the comedian to shine? Miss Eggy, an old-school comedian who tossed her “talent” and attitude into the ring to host the White House Correspondents’ dinner after it was announced they didn’t want a comedian involved. Not only did Nwodim’s Miss Eggy click with the audience, but she also caused unintended chaos that surprised both Nwodim, Michael Che, and everyone lucky enough to be at the taping that night. Suck-a! During this 1-on-1 with Collider, Nwodim connects her decade of ballet experience to SNL, unpacks her relationship with Lorne Michaels, talks about Lisa from Temecula’s evolution from idea, table read, and air, and why she loves playing characters who are “strong and wrong.” COLLIDER: I want to take it back a little bit before we get into SNL. I’m curious about how your friends and family would describe you growing up. Did they see you and say, “She’s going to be a comedian,” or was that completely out of the picture? EGO NWODIM: Oh, I don’t think any of them… I can’t say none of them. I would say my family would have called me entertaining as a young person. I loved to mimic my relatives at the holidays and they’d all laugh and laugh and I’d be like, “oh, I got them!” And then I’d keep going. That’s something that sticks out to me. But I don’t know that they would have thought I’d become a comedian. Yet, I think now that I am one, it sort of makes sense because, yeah, I was always talking too damn much. I think all my teachers would agree. My mother would absolutely agree. Could not shut me up. I loved performing. I did ballet for 10 years. My favorite part, I remember growing up, I was like, “I don’t want to rehearse. I just want to perform. Let’s do this in front of the audience.” I don’t think they would have predicted it, but it’s not surprising, if that makes sense.

Image via NBC

Do you think any of those ballet skills translated to comedy or SNL? Even if it’s just the repetition and routine? NWODIM: There’s so much that I think translated. I was part of a ballet company where you can only miss three rehearsals, and, at that point, you’re just getting stronger, because what the rehearsals are, it’s not like you’re doing the thing. You’re not practicing the performance, necessarily. It’s just the technique for the performance. And so it’s a matter of getting reps in. And you can only miss three, and I learned a lot of discipline in that way. I think that also translated to school. I never missed a day of school between second grade and 12th grade — literally does not matter or count for anything in this life. But I just became committed to showing up, and I think ballet played a huge part in that. The discipline you develop and foster in doing ballet, I think, translates to my work, because I was rehearsing multiple times a week. I think about coming up in comedy and doing UCB theater and doing improv there and sketch there. That was every day of my life for several years. Heidi [Gardner] and I were talking a few years ago, and it didn’t even occur to me that I’m like, “Oh, my time is absolutely accounted for doing this thing.” So if you were to invite me to something on a Tuesday evening in L.A., I’d be like, “I can’t go, I have sketch-team rehearsal that night.” And then Wednesday, it’s like, “I can’t go because that’s when our sketch team performs.” And then Thursday, “I can’t go because that’s when my improv team rehearses.” That was just years on end, and I thought nothing of it because there’s nothing else I would rather be doing than the sketch and improv that I came up training with. I’m with you with the not missing school. I would have full-body chills, and I’d be like, “I can’t miss art!” NWODIM: [Laughs] Yeah, I know. As though [perfect attendance] means anything today. Can you imagine all the things and how important some of that felt at the time? Now you reflect back, and you go, “Oh, not important at all.” But also, I think that’s how we humans are. Whatever’s important to us is important to us at the time, and then, in some ways, we find out some of those things don’t matter as much. But it’s okay, because they meant something to us.
Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong Made Sure That Ego Nwodim Felt Welcome at ‘SNL’

“I’m forever grateful to Cecily”

Image via NBC

Exactly. You mentioned UCB. Is that where you were scouted for your SNL audition? NWODIM: Not quite. I took all my improv classes at UCB, and that’s where I became a mainstage performer. But in 2016, I did what was formerly known as the CBS Diversity Showcase. I don’t think it exists anymore, but it certainly doesn’t exist in the form that it was in when I was part of it. So they would scout for CBS diverse talent in, I believe, New York, L.A., and Chicago. We would be part of this ensemble that would do an industry showcase in January, and for one of our rehearsals for that showcase, to my understanding, that’s when SNL became aware of me. So, at some point in January, some producers from the talent department attended one of the rehearsals, and they were into me then. I actually tested then for SNL a few months later in April of that year. So April of 2016 is the first time I tested for SNL. What did you end up doing in your audition? NWODIM: Oh, my goodness. That one back then? I did a YouTuber, I think. I’m trying to remember. People don’t ask me about that one. That [first audition], I don’t quite remember. Maybe Kerry Washington ordering lunch at Subway, possibly. Maya Angelou telling you a mama joke. She was part of my 2016 audition and my 2018 audition that ultimately got me the job. So thankful for that piece. Thankful for her artistry that I could then make something silly out of. But, yeah, I can’t quite remember. People don’t ask me about it. But that’s a great question. I should try to remember. During your first week at SNL, I’m sure you were nervous. Who came out of their way to welcome you and make sure you felt at home? NWODIM: I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think Kenan, who is such a staple at the show, did such a good job of, so subtly, trying to make you feel at home, just by being curious about you. I remember one day him asking me “where are you from?” while we were at rehearsal. I realize now that’s what Kenan does. He knows that we all kind of look to him as this, not just a master of the craft, but someone who has mastered the job of being on the cast of Saturday Night Live, and he, as a leader in that way, goes, “Oh, I want to try to make this person feel comfortable. We’re all friends here.” Alex Moffat had me over to his apartment on the Upper West Side for a Moffthattan, which is his take on a Manhattan. I got to spend time with him and his wife so that was really nice. I went on vacation with Cecily Strong my first year as well. We went to Cabo. I believe it was February of that year on one of our hiatuses. I feel it doesn’t sound particularly profound, or certainly didn’t to me at the time, but now it does. She kind of showed me the importance of taking the rest that they give us on our hiatuses to sort of fill up your own cup and be inspired again to go back to the job in a few weeks and give it your all again. Those three stuck out to me as going, “Hey, I want to welcome you, and I want to make you feel comfortable and maybe even offer you some tools that might be helpful for your time here.” I love hearing stories like that. It just makes me so happy. I love Cecily. NWODIM: I love Cecily so, so much. She really is the best. And thanks to her, that vacation, the person she roomed me with, Rashida, is now like my sister. We connected on that trip just rooming together in Cabo for a few nights. I’m forever grateful to Cecily for that trip and also her artistry because she’s incredible. She’s just so versatile.

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I heard in another interview that you said Lorne Michaels says that you overthink sometimes. NWODIM: Oh, yeah. Has that been in your DNA before SNL or do you think that really kicked in once you got to the show? NWODIM: I think it’s been part of my DNA before SNL, but I think SNL has a way of — whether by design or just a sort of unintentional by-product of the way the show is run — bringing your little quirks closer to the surface. So my overthinking has come front and center in so many ways where I go, “Oh my gosh, have I been overthinking everything in this way?” And it turns out I have, but I hadn’t noticed because I hadn’t been in an environment that then would exacerbate it the way that SNL has. So, yeah, it’s part of my DNA. It’s just kind of been highlighted, I would say, even for myself. It didn’t take Lorne saying that to me for me to become aware of that part of myself, but it’s certainly affirming when he does say it, because I’m like, “Okay, I’m not just thinking I’m overthinking. I really am because Daddy Lorne said, and he’s seeing that in me.”
Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph’s “Bronx Beat” Characters Are Big Inspirations for Ego Nwodim

“They’re incredibly confident.”

You said before that you love playing characters that are “strong and wrong.” I feel like that’s where you thrive. You’re always reliable no matter the part, but we’ve really seen you just take over, and it’s been really fun. Who are some of the “strong and wrong” characters that you liked on SNL that you were like, “Oh, I want to play a character like that?” NWODIM: Oh, my goodness. That’s a great question. Watching Maya Rudolph and Amy Poehler in “Bronx Beat,” there’s a “strong and wrong” to them where I’m like, “This is not how you host a talk show.” But they’re incredibly confident in doing that. There’s that little bit of that strong and wrong element, where it’s like — and I guess this is the basis of any fun character, really — but it’s sort of like, “I’m not weird. You’re weird. This is how this is supposed to go.” I would say those two immediately stick out to me. “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party.” I think she’s also strong and wrong. Drunk out of her mind, does not understand how she is coming across, and also not interested in how she might be coming across. I think that’s very fun.
Lisa From Temecula Exceeded Everyone’s Expectations at ‘SNL’

“It was just such a joy.”

I know you’ve talked a lot about Lisa from Temecula and Miss Eggy, but I want to dive into those and how they came to be. I know a lot changed with Lisa from beginning to air, and writers Alex English and Gary Richardson bring out a different side of you when you work with them. NWODIM: Lisa from Temecula is straight from the mind of Alex English and written with Alex, Gary Richardson, and Michael Che. Alex’s cousin, apparently over the holidays, ordered a well-done steak and was kind of shaking the table at dinner, and he made note of it and gifted me this character who was originally just named Lisa and the sketch was originally just named “Birthday Dinner.” After we did it at table read, we continue to work on it for blocking rehearsal. First of all, let me speak about the table read. They had a real steak delivered to me at our table read. Mikey Day — who sits across from me at table, who knows I’m obsessed with food and is such a foodie — he says, “Every time I look down at your phone, you’re just looking at menus.” It’s true, constantly planning what I’m going to eat next. He sees the steak delivered in the middle of table read because they deliver it before the sketch starts. Our prop master Amos comes and hands it to me, and Mikey was like, “What the hell? Ego has taken this obsession with food to an absolute new level.” But it was for the character, and I could not make it through the sketch at table read. People asked me how I held it together, and it’s because I got all my giggles out at table read. I was so unable to hold it together. On Friday, Lorne is like, “Hey, I want you guys to rename the sketch something more memorable or give her a name that’s more memorable.” Gary and Alex came up with Lisa from Temecula. People have asked if I got to improvise on that one. I would say some of the physicality was improvised. I didn’t expect for the steak to fall off my plate. I didn’t expect to really not be able to cut the steak. It was rock hard, it hit the ground and sounded like a hockey puck. I couldn’t cut through it, but I was supposed to taste it and say “this is bomb” or whatever. I actually just ended up putting the steak in my mouth with my hand and sucking on it. I was like, “I can’t cut through this, cannot cut through this. If this knife and fork do not cut through the steak, neither will my teeth, and I’m not chipping a tooth today. I’m not doing that.” I just sucked on the steak because it was hard as a puck, Emily. Then my seat fell. It was fun to sort of figure out the math in real time of how to get to this next line. I know, at some point, I’m going to say, “This tastes so good,” so I have to try to taste it. It fell on the ground. I still put it in my mouth. It was just such a joy. I’m so collaborative, and what they bring out in me, Gary and Alex, they are very, very chill, and I am not. I’m so type A. I just sort of surrendered to the process in many ways. When the sketch got chosen after table read, I did put some of my touches on the script. “What if she says this? And right here, I feel like this would be kind of silly if she says this.” So it was a really special process and absolutely exceeded my expectations and was pure fun for me to do. I think one of the first times on the show that I really got to play in a way that looked familiar to some of my Comedy Bang Bang fans, and my friends, especially a lot of my friends, were like, “There’s the Eggy we know.” That felt really good and rewarding. It was so much fun, all of it, the physicality, the lines, the character, it was just perfect. The way it was like the brainchild of someone else, and we got to just be so collaborative was quite a gift. You can definitely see the fun you’ve had in the sketch. Comedy really soars when everyone is having fun. NWODIM: Yeah, yeah, agreed.
The Audience Shocked Ego Nwodim and Michael Che During Miss Eggy’s Weekend Update

“I was stunned.”

Image via NBC

I want to end with Miss Eggy. How did that come about? And what was your reaction when the crowd responded to you? NWODIM: Miss Eggy came about on the Saturday before we did it. I’m sitting in my makeup chair. I can’t remember if it was dress rehearsal or actually during the air show. I see the news that the White House Correspondents Center is no longer going to feature a comedian. They’ve canceled their current booking, and they’re not going to have a comedian. I was like, “There feels like there’s something here.” I stopped my friend Carl Tart, who’s on the writing staff, in the hallway on a Saturday, which is not par for the course to be like, “Next week, let’s do this. We are in the middle of this show, and we’re all exhausted, but let’s think about next week.” But I did, I stopped him, and I was like, “Hey, I want to do something with this next week. Will you work with me on it? I think something like my audition for it would be funny. I don’t know what that looks like, but I think that could be a funny angle, and we can figure it out next week.” So he, Josh Patten, Asha Ward, and Will Stephen, and I sat together. Carl ultimately was like, “What if we made fun of the food?” And I was like, “How does that work?” I am a foodie in real life — big time foodie, lots of hot takes about food — I love the notion of talking about food, but I’m like, what does that even look like? And we just started pitching food-related jokes. I looked up the White House Correspondents Dinner menu. I don’t know if it was this year’s menu, but I just started saying the names of dishes. I feel like one of the first lines we pitched was “call me peas because I’m about to snap!” Then I started adding “sucker” to everything and “the hell?” and it just came together so beautifully. We had so much fun pitching on it. Sometimes you have an idea and you’re not sure that it’s going to work out and you really are just taking a swing. That’s so much of what comedy is. Sometimes you take a swing, and you miss really hard. I wasn’t sure it was going to work, to be honest. And this is during the pitch session, so this is before our table read. But it started to be so fun pitching jokes and we were making each other laugh. And again, that’s the thing with comedy, like the joy is so telling. That’s the thing that really resonates with people. Even in this pitch session, I was like, well, at least tonight I’m laughing with my friends in this room while we pitch these stupid jokes and if nothing else, this is the gift enough. But, it made it to dress rehearsal. When the audience cursed, that did not happen at dress rehearsal. I have seen people say that we set them up — why did we think they weren’t going to say anything? Why we didn’t think they’d say anything is because part of the joke is that she is acting like she’s some known comedian who’s been around for a while, but the first time we did Miss Eggy, no one had ever heard of Miss Eggy. We made up that name on Tuesday when we were writing.

Image via NBC

Miss Eggy was not a thing, so we didn’t think they were going to say anything because she’s priming an audience for catchphrases that no one knows in theory. “Because Miss Eggy don’t what?” It could be “Miss Eggy don’t miss.” It could be Miss Eggy don’t mess around, Miss Eggy don’t play games. It could be anything. But we were priming them. And then they guessed at air “play,” and you heard some of them. And I was like, “How do y’all know?” That’s improvised. The moment I said “how y’all know that?” I think like you see Che laugh because he can see the cue cards, and them responding in real life was not on there. You see me get thrown for a loop. Then for the second time, at dress rehearsal, they did not curse. I don’t think they yelled anything out at dress rehearsal, to be honest with you. I don’t remember in this moment, but they didn’t yell anything there at dress rehearsal. And they certainly didn’t yell a curse word, because if they had, by the way, we have standards and practices, and they would have told us we have to change that line, or I can’t hold the mic out, or something. They would have told us something, and they would have flagged for us honestly from hearing it at table read, we would have gotten the note like before we even rewrote the sketch on Friday. We would have gotten a note that’s like, “Hey, you can’t do that because the audience is going to say this.” But they didn’t anticipate that happening. We did not anticipate that happening. We ran it at dress rehearsal, it did not happen. If it had, it would have been nixed. Then at air, it happened, and I was stunned. I was stunned. But you see me when they say they guess “play,” I’m stunned, because again, they’re not supposed to say anything. She’s kind of this old-school comedian who is a bit problematic and out of touch, right? And swears she’s a big deal and swears she’s killing. But with very mid jokes, if you ask me, mind you, we pitched them, and, so I, didn’t see that coming. When they said “shit,” I was like, “Oh, my gosh” on air. Right before I’d gone on to perform Miss Eggy, I saw Lorne on the floor [of Weekend Update], which I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him on the floor before I go do Update ever. I don’t recall ever seeing him on the floor for any of my Updates. I remember seeing him and being like, “Oh, that’s weird. Why is he down here?” Then I was like, I can’t bother about why he’s down here and got into character. When they curse, part of why I think my brain went to like, “Lorne’s gonna be mad at y’all” is because I had just seen him before I started. I’m like, “He’s standing down here, guys.” He was on the floor for that moment. So anyway, it did throw me for a loop. We did not think they were going to say anything because, if we did think so, and if we thought what they were going to say was going to be a curse word, it would have been flagged and it would have been taken out of the sketch. Even if I would have loved for it to stay, and I would have no control over it. So the second time we did Miss Eggy, we couldn’t do “because these men ain’t what?” again. We might have even tried to, or we talked about it, and standards and practices was like, “No, you can’t do that, because we know what the audience is going to do.” It is wild that it didn’t occur to any of us. But I was sincerely stunned. And it was really cool. Honestly, it tickled me that they did that. Then I got to do a thing that I love so much, which is improvised in character. That was an amazing experience to get to do that, and so rewarding and so fun and rewarding and possibly costly. I don’t know. I don’t know if we got fined. I don’t think so. But anyway, fun time. It was like a little dance with the audience. We were dancing. We were grooving.

Saturday Night Live

Release Date

October 11, 1975

Network

NBC

Showrunner

Lorne Michaels

Directors

Dave Wilson, Don Roy King, Liz Patrick, Andy Warhol, Linda Lee Cadwell, Matthew Meshekoff, Paul Miller, Robert Altman, Robert Smigel

Writers

Will Forte, Bill Hader, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, Chris Parnell, Asa Taccone, John Lutz, Tom Schiller, Simon Rich, Michael Patrick O’Brien, Nicki Minaj, Herbert Sargent, Matt Piedmont, John Solomon, Chris Kelly, Alan Zweibel, Kent Sublette, Ari Katcher, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schnedier, Scott Jung, Justin Franks, Jerrod Bettis, Rhiannon Bryan