Saturday Night’s Ella Hunt on Transforming Into Comedy Legend Gilda Radner

Ella Hunt was at JFK Airport last December, heading home to England, when she got the call that she landed the role of comedy legend Gilda Radner in Jason Reitman’s upcoming film Saturday Night. She immediately burst into tears in a Hudson News bookstore. It was the perfect gift to kick off the holidays. After playing “miserable women” (her words, not ours) for the majority of her career, Hunt was ready to finally break free and show audiences a different side of herself. It’s the side her family knows best. “When I got home [and told my family the news], my brothers were like, ‘Finally, you get to be goofy!'” Hunt tells us from her Harlem apartment. The actress would consider herself an emo on most days, but so much of Radner’s warmth and silliness did feel very familiar to her, and she’s grateful that Reitman noticed it in her.

Saturday Night is a biographical comedy about the chaotic lead-up to the premiere of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. It’s 30 minutes before showtime, and tensions are high as producer Lorne Michaels and a troupe of writers and young comedians—called the Not Ready for Prime Time Players—prepare for their very first show. Among the original cast members portrayed in the film is Radner, who became known for her big personality and wacky characters, like personal advice expert Roseanne Roseannadanna.

If it were not for Hunt’s agent daring her to audition for the role of Radner, she wouldn’t have even considered going out for the project. “I remember thinking, ‘I’m not surprised I’m not getting an audition for this. Because why would I? I’m not a comedian. This is not in my world,'” she says. Comedy had always felt a little daunting to Hunt. She had been in comedies before but was always the straight man. With her team’s encouragement, she started researching Radner and fell in love with her pretty immediately. “I was so surprised by how quickly I felt so kindred with her,” Hunt says. She put herself on tape dressed in an orange knit T-shirt made by her mom with a picture of a cat on it (very Radner), and an hour after submitting her audition, Hunt got a call to meet with Reitman and executive producer JoAnn Perritano.

While 26-year-old Hunt is familiar with recent generations of SNL—she credits Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig as big influences—she admits she knew nothing of Radner and the origins of SNL prior to this project. Reitman’s film changed that. In going down a rabbit hole of the comedian’s career, Hunt discovered a feast of iconic character sketches (“I love Gilda doing Patti Smith. I’m also a sucker for [her character] Judy Miller.”) and was especially struck by what Radner was doing for women in comedy at that time. “I don’t think they were aware of the strides they were making for women’s lib, but every single week, [Radner, Jane Curtin, and Laraine Newman] were upping the stakes of what a woman could be in that environment, and this is fucking awesome,” Hunt says.

The research and prep beforehand was one of Hunt’s favorite parts of making the film. At the time, she was grieving the loss of her sister Emily from brain cancer, and Radner was a surprising light that came into her life when she needed her most. “I think comedy and grief really go very well together, and I don’t know if I would have gotten this role pre that loss,” Hunt shares. “I felt like Emily was with me through the auditioning and prepping and shooting process of making this film.”

Another special part of Hunt’s prep included speaking with Alan Zweibel, who was a key collaborator of Radner and one of her closest friends. “It was such a surprise to me that this was a part of my job, that I got to speak to someone really wonderful about a person that they loved, and that I got to take elements of the conversation I had with Alan into the shoot, and I got to be influenced by Alan’s sensibility,” she says.

Embodying Radner’s essence was only half of it. Hunt had to look and sound the part too. She tells us she spent the bulk of her prep working on the comedian’s voice. It was important to Hunt that she get it just right and that she was comfortable enough with it that she could turn it on at a moment’s notice for improvisational moments during filming. Hunt also became infatuated with Radner’s signature curly hair, which she describes as a character in itself. “I just kept thinking, ‘I’m not going to feel like her until I have the hair on!'” she says. She recalls her emotional response when Janine Thompson, the hair department head, first put the wig on her: “I literally gripped her hands and looked up at her, and then I think I cried. It’s spirited hair.”

There’s no doubt Hunt’s time working on this project has left a lasting impression on her. In speaking with Zweibel, she developed a new hunger for playing more real-life people and wanting to do more biopics. Even embodying Radner’s big personality showed her that she doesn’t have to be so serious all the time. Coming from a place of having played muted, stoic characters, Hunt had to completely free herself to be as big as she wanted to be. “My version of big is still probably quite small,” she laughs. Hunt admits she’s way goofier and chaotic than she often has the courage to give off in a public setting, but in playing Radner, she feels more confident in letting that side of herself come out more.

All in all, the project has taught Hunt to be open to surprises and open to surprising herself. Instead of telling herself what she can and can’t do in the acting space, she’s leaving things up to the universe to see what comes in. “I definitely am feeling a strong lean toward playing more character roles and women who are up for taking up a little space,” she says. While she’s still content to play the “sad girl thing,” she’s excited for a little more range in that world.

For now, though, Hunt is keeping a little bit of that Radner energy with her wherever she goes—whether it’s a nod to the comedian through her recent fashion choices, like the classic Minnie Mouse T-shirt she wears here (Radner wore the same one in a photo that Hunt had on her wall during filming), or giving herself permission to be as silly and loud as she wants to be.

Saturday Night is in theaters now.