“SNL” star Heidi Gardner can’t believe how hard she was during the sketch

Back in April, Heidi Gardner collapsed for the first time during an accident Saturday Night Live Sketch – and made its way into the heart of America.

And yet, all these months later, the Not Ready for Prime Time player still can’t believe it happened, even though she’s come to appreciate it.

“It’s a great source of pride for me that I never break him – even though he’s so lovable and personable… I don’t want to use him as a crutch,” Gardner told Amanda Hirsch in a recent episode Not skinny, but not fat Podcast.

In the skit, Gardner played NewsNation anchor Bobbi Moore, who moderates a town hall meeting on the topic of the AI ​​revolution. She greets an experienced professor (Kenan Thompson), who is immediately distracted by an audience member: SNL Presenter Ryan Gosling, who looks strikingly similar to the cartoon character Beavis, from Beavis and Butt Head. Gardner manages to hold it together, but when she sees co-star Mikey Day dressed like Butt-Head, gums exposed and all, she giggles.

“In this case, I was the straight man, and you really want to get all the information out about all the fun things that are going to happen.” Gardener continued, although at the time she wondered why she broke down “so hard.”

“Part of it is, you know, Mikey and I sit next to each other at the table. He’s like a brother to me, he makes me laugh all the time,” Gardner explained, noting that she had never laughed at him on TV before that moment. She then brought up the Debbie Downer skits from the early hours, where everyone famously broke down when Rachel Dratch hilariously dampened the mood.

In these sketches, Gardner said, everyone sat at a table and could see the other on the verge of collapse: “You can all feel it happening.”

That night in April, Gardner said she thought the studio audience “could see it coming to a head because they saw Ryan and Mikey. And I just don’t think anyone has ever had to look back blindly at something so shocking. “You know?”

She continued: “I had to do something that I was surprised by – and I had seen him in rehearsals before, but they liked to increase the make-up – so I just went in blind, and looking back, I see I mean very good friend.” looking like that and Ryan Gosling, and it just killed me.

However, the breakthrough became a breakthrough moment for Gardner, even though she thought she would be fired if she ever broke down.

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“The audience was so nice to me,” Gardner recalled. “I remember the moment because I was trying to calm myself down, but when I turned around and couldn’t stop, the audience applauded, which was sweet. And I thought, ‘That’s okay, but pull yourself together.’ But right after that I felt like I just didn’t realize how long I had to take a break… I was worried and then a lot of writers came up to me and said, ‘That was great!'”

“The people were very nice,” she added, “and Lorne (Michaels) was very nice too.”

Listen to Gardner’s full interview Not skinny, but not fat above.