President Trump maintains that any deal
he signs must include a border wall and
he's been consistent that it must be a
solid physical wall with some parks see
through some parts fence and some parts
empty spaces that just operate on the
honor system that is 80 Brian's playing
former White House press secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders on Saturday Night Live
ad grew up in Arizona watching women
like Molly Shannon Cheri Oteri and Ana
Gasteyer on SNL today she is a member of
that exclusive comedy club herself for
the last eight seasons Bryant and fellow
cast members like Kate McKinnon and
Cecily strong have been the hilarious
hearts of Saturday Night Live
Bryan has been nominated for a pair of
Emmy Awards while playing a catalogue of
memorable characters she describes as
confident and stupid
now the 32 year old is working on
something even closer to her heart as
executive producer writer and star of
the acclaimed Hulu series shrill which
returns later this week for a second
season ad and I got together here in New
York for a Sunday sit-down
[Applause]
stop further ado please enjoy our show
[Music]
I don't think people realize at home if
you've ever been to see SNL live the
minute you guys go to commercial break
it's an all-out sprint it's the only
time I ever feel like an athlete ripping
my shirt off and running I'm like I
think this is what people do for eight
hilarious seasons now
Aidy Bryant has spent her Saturday
nights racing around studio 8h nothing
is more relaxing than the sound of
unexplained adult laughter but as a
wide-eyed 25 year old new-hire Bryant
could not imagine her Saturday Night
Live run would last this long people in
my town don't have their teeth so I'm
their queen they're in my whole first
season I was just convinced I was gonna
be fired the whole year and was crying
all the time thing like this is it it's
over now so it's so so nice to be there
and to feel really comfortable there
Bryan made her name with the kind of
quirky outrageous and sometimes raunchy
characters more likely to come out near
the end of the night or in
emmy-nominated music videos featuring
the show's all-star female lineup
anchored by 80s alter-ego little baby
[Music]
it's really stuck and now when I'm on
airplanes and people are like excuse me
little baby ad I'm like well I'm a 32
year old woman but yes hello do you have
that sense of sort of empowerment with
your group of women on the show for me
it was just like a survival tactic in
the beginning where I was like oh I feel
like I'd rather do something with my
friends and then alone we kind of
started writing from that place of like
well I love doing bits with Kate and we
share an office
Kate is Emmy winning cast member Kate
McKinnon Bryant's longtime partner in
comedy crime what's it like in that
office when the two of your bouncing
ideas off each other
I think people probably imagine our
office to be very fun but it's actually
a lot of us like quietly talking about
how much we like care about our mothers
well sister you have a little lipstick
on your teeth here I mean this has gotta
be dream job stuff to save your friends
make jokes and go tell them on TV yeah
and we get to like stay up all night
like it's a sleepover riot grew up in
Phoenix a fan of SNL now one of the
show's stars
she has embraced her adopted home of New
York City and favorite spots like
Madison Square Park you could not have
imagined when you were a kid growing up
in Arizona
I wouldn't think hey I was sunburned to
eat and chicken tenders didn't know what
to do to make anything happen
[Music]
we started as like a kid doing plays and
stuff but then when I found improv I was
like I like this so much better than
just like I don't know wearing a skirt
and walking around to me and like mom or
whatever in some place so was that high
school then you were teenager improv
camp and all that oh yeah I was doing
like teen improv in Arizona which ooh
what I wouldn't give to watch the tail
College took Bryant to Chicago where she
met fellow comedian and future husband
Connor O'Malley she soon began
performing at the famed second City
Improv Theater a breeding ground for
some of Saturday Night Live's biggest
alum between the laughs though Bryant
was fighting a private battle with a
lifelong insecurity rooted in society's
harsh standards for beauty I was sort of
taking everyone's word but there's one
way to be beautiful there's one way to
be valuable there's one way to be an
actress and pretty quickly I was like oh
this is all made up by someone who I'm
very likely don't respect you know how
do you stop caring about this so because
it is in your face constantly on TV and
everywhere else I mean it's not like I
flipped a switch and I did it and I'm a
perfect right you know like it is it's
something that is ongoing forever but I
think for me what I often can do is just
think about like why do I find myself
valuable and it's not the width of my
thigh that epiphany inspired Bryant to
take on the Hulu series shrill on the
show that is based on Lindy West
best-selling memoir Bryant plays a
version of the woman she says she used
to be Wow your wrists are tiny oh you
actually have a really small frame there
is a small person inside of you dying
oh well I hope that small persons okay
in there and that's something that
actually happened to me which was really
someone grabbed my wrist and was like
you're small under there and I was like
thank you but it's I also think people
feel like they're helping you and it's
well intentioned and and so it's a
complicated thing that I think a lot of
women of all kinds of sizes experience
for 80 Brian's success has brought with
it an unexpected opportunity I got in to
doing this because I love comedy and I
love writing and I love performing and
pretty quickly I realized that people
were seeing me for more than that which
was like what my body represented to
them I just always have sort of felt
like rather than pushing against that I
should just let that be part of me yeah
and it did take some work on myself to
be like yeah I do deserve to be here
and in keeping with that theme ad
launched a clothing line last year
called Pauline with designs and sizes
from 12 to 28 the second season of
shrill premieres on Hulu this coming
Friday January 24th and then Saturday
Night Live returns from its winter break
on Saturday our thanks to Big Daddy's
diner here in New York for hosting that
conversation to hear 80 talk about that
famously nerve-racking SNL audition
check out our web extras at today.com
slash Sunday and don't forget to
subscribe to the sunday sit-down podcast
to hear the entire unedited interview
with eighty Bryant you can find it on
Apple podcasts or wherever you get yours
you