Summary

The Film Independent Spirit Awards stand out as a grassroots initiative celebrating independent art and honoring the underdogs of the industry.

In this interview with Collider’s Emily Bernard, Aidy Bryant reflects on her decade at SNL, sharing highlights and lessons learned over the years.

She also discusses why hosting the Spirit Awards is so meaningful and what her plans are for her return as host.

Ah, awards season! Undoubtedly, when you hear those two words that always pop up around this time of year, you think of the Oscars and Golden Globes. However, there’s an awards show sandwiched right in the middle that’s arguably the best of the three: the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
As Hollywood continues to shift in ways no one could possibly predict, it’s refreshing to have an organization like Film Independent to rely on in times of uncertainty. The Spirit Awards — now in its 40th year — continue to feel like a grassroots initiative, remaining true to their word of propping up the little guy and honoring film and TV that is, well, independent. The 2025 nominations are recognizing some of the most impressive artists, projects, and performances across the two mediums (Julio Torres, Annie Baker, and Chloe Guidry being among this author’s favorites), and returning to host for the second time is Saturday Night Live alum and Shrill star, Aidy Bryant.
During this 1-on-1 with Collider, Bryant reflected on her 10 years at Saturday Night Live, explored the origin of sketches and what it’s like to collaborate with Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong, how Lorne Michaels gives the best notes, why hosting an awards show was never on her radar, and why she loves hosting the Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Seth Meyers Was “Instrumental” to Aidy Bryant’s First Week at ‘SNL’

“Tons of people went out of their way to be nice to me.”

COLLIDER: I grew up watching you on SNL. I was in seventh grade when you joined the cast.
AIDY BRYANT: Oh my gosh.
So this is just breaking my middle school brain.
BRYANT: That’s so cool! I feel like that’s the prime time for watching. End of middle school, beginning of high school. That’s like your cast, you know?
Exactly. Thank you for taking the time to talk. I have a ton of questions spanning your career, so I’m just going to dive right in. Your first week at SNL. Do you have any specific memories? Who maybe went out of their way to be nice to you? Who intimidated you that maybe you realized you shouldn’t have been afraid of?
BRYANT: Oh man. I mean, my first week at SNL was so scary. I think that’s probably the most scared I’ve ever been in my life. It’s just because there’s no way for someone to explain the experience of it. You’re learning everything so new, like cue cards and all that stuff. Tons of people went out of their way to be nice to me. Seth Meyers, especially. He was the head writer then, and so he was very instrumental and encouraging. Colin Jost was a writer then, not the big top guy he is now, but he wrote with me my very first week, and I’ll never forget that. I was so grateful.
I just remember really sticking with Cecily [Strong] and Kate [McKinnon] and Tim Robinson, who was in the cast too. The four of us were the new guys. We went down on the floor of the studio to watch when they first played the credits with our names. It was Don Pardo who announced our names, which was just really cool. I had one line in my very first show, and that was it. It was like, “Oh my God, I did it.” I was like, “Holy hell, this is it.”
I was gonna say, did you practice that line for like the whole week? Like nonstop?
BRYANT: I was completely like, “I gotta nail this line!” Yeah, for sure.
Over the 10 years, maybe looking back at your last week, what’s something you learned about yourself as a performer?
BRYANT: So much. I think probably one of my favorite things that I felt like by the end of my time at SNL is I just had such a bigger understanding of the technical elements, the three camera shooting, how they work, the cue cards, and the control room. Just kind of all the pieces that go into actually making the show. I think in the beginning, I was like, “I’m just trying to get my words out,” and by the end, I had a real understanding of the mechanics of it and how you can use those things to make your performance better. By that time, you’re working on a different level, which was really fun and a huge point of pride. Also, once you know what you’re doing, you actually get to loosen up and perform, as opposed to just being in complete “fear mode.”

Related

11 Best Aidy Bryant ‘SNL’ Sketches, From The Sexual Woman to Henrietta & The Fugitive

Movie posters as decor, get effed!

Obviously, SNL is a team sport. You could come up with a character or a sketch idea on your own, and then it could just be someone’s quick note that is completely the missing puzzle piece or something that transforms the idea. Do you have any memories, either like you gave someone a note or they gave you a key note that just unlocked everything you needed?
BRYANT: I feel like Lorne [Michaels] was always dropping gems that I use to this day when I think about approaching anything. He often would say, “Give yourself somewhere to go,” meaning, don’t start at 100%. Start at 20% so you can build your way up to 100. Stuff like that that can apply in a lot of places. It’s always really good advice. I think of a lot of stuff he said like that.
Aidy Bryant Revisits Some of Her Most Iconic Sketches

From Emmy nomination for “(Do It on My) Twin Bed” to “Girlfriends Talk Show,” Bryant shares the behind-the-scenes.

I have a couple sketches and characters, some obvious ones, some maybe hidden ones you don’t talk about as much, but I just want to run through if you could tell me one memory or something like that.
BRYANT: Yeah!
You’re very good at playing a character that gets ganged up on, and I feel like that’s a skill because you take it in so many different ways, and it’s always going to be funny. But the sketch “I Can’t” where both of your arms are broken… If it wasn’t you playing that part, I feel like it could have just been a very one-note sketch, but you absolutely crushed it. Is there anything you remember? Who came up with it?
BRYANT: So that was Michael Che’s sketch. He wrote that. I didn’t help write it at all. Every now and then, he would do that, kind of just write you an amazing sketch top to bottom, and then you’d show up on Wednesday and read it at the table read, and be like, “Oh my God, thank you!” It was like a gift from a friend. Then we just had so much fun all week. I loved having those big fake casts on my arms. I actually feel like I played multiple women with double broken arms. [Laughs] It’s maybe my signature thing.
I know there is more than one, which I feel is rare for somebody. [Laughs]
BRYANT: Very bizarre.
The trend forecasters with Bowen [Yang]. Just the hair and makeup alone is pretty fantastic. That felt like maybe a bit you guys had that became a Weekend Update sketch. Is that true?
BRYANT: I think we just wanted to do something together, honestly, and we were like, “Let’s try this.” Then we wrote it with our friend Celeste Yim, and it was just a blast. That’s still, to this day, one of my favorite things. The costume department really rocked that one down. And really, I mean, the wigs too.

Image via NBC

The lighting.
BRYANT: They’re, like, so stupid. Yeah, the lighting. Everything. It’s really fun. I love that one. The costume designers were referencing Klaus Nomi, which is very “art,” very cool, and I was like, “Oh, we’re working on high levels here.”
Okay, “A Girl’s Halloween.” I love studying live versus pre-tape because there’s just so much more you can do with a pre-tape.
BRYANT: Oh my God, that was really fun. I feel like now, especially post-COVID, they mostly shoot all those pre-tapes in a studio that they go to, and that was kind of back in the day where we used to shoot them on the street. What’s kind of crazy is we shot that in Soho in Manhattan during the actual weekend of Halloween. It was this weird, meta thing that we were doing that was a little too real all around us where there were girls in costumes getting wasted out of their minds.

Image via NBC

“Twin Bed.” You were nominated for an Emmy for that. Did you all have an idea, like, you wanted to do an all-female video-type thing and that’s how it started?
BRYANT: Our brilliant director who directed both “Girl’s Halloween” and “Twin Bed” and “Back Home Ballers” — Oz Rodriguez — came to me and was like, “I think you guys should do kind of like what Lonely Island did, but do an all-girl music video.” So then Kate, Chris Kelly, and Sarah Schneider, and I sat down, and we were like, “What if we did, like, a Pussycat Dolls-type music video, but about something much stupider and trying to be fake sexy about sleeping in a twin bed.” So that was kind of where it started. Then I remember after we shot that that Christmas, I went home with my husband to his family, and we both did sleep in twin beds, side by side. So, it was a little too real.
That’s a big hit with my parents. They love that song. My dad has it on his phone.
BRYANT: [Laughs] I love that.
He loves it, so he’s very excited. I wish you did this character more. I think you did it twice — “Study Buddy” with Kate McKinnon, Jason.
BRYANT:[Laughs] Oh, yes. I love that one, too.
How did you develop that character?
BRYANT: That was another one that I think was just written and I just kind of slotted in and helped out. Kate was a little too real. That was like, that might be who she is in her spirit.
When you come up on the screen, the audience just loses it, and rightfully so.

Image via NBC

Then last but not least, “Girlfriends Talk Show.” That was one of the sketches, I would say, that I would start to imitate around the house. Obviously, you’re close to Cecily. How did that collaboration happen?

BRYANT: That was exactly it. Cecily and I knew each other from Chicago, and we both got hired at the same time, and so it just made sense for us to do stuff together. She’s so funny in those sketches. I love performing with Cecily. It’s like performing with a bomb. She’s just so powerful and those were just really fun. Those were some of the first things that I got on the show that I was kind of feeling like, “Oh, I’m actually performing and having fun and not just terrified.”
It was really early on, too. That’s a huge deal for someone starting out.
BRYANT: Totally. It was maybe my fifth show or something.
Julio Torres Wrote Some of Aidy Bryant’s Favorite Sketches at ‘SNL’

Both ‘Problemista’ and ‘Fantasmas’ are now nominated for a Spirit Award.

Image via HBO

You were in one of my favorite things of last year, Fantasmas.
BRYANT: [Laughs] Oh, yes. Nominated for a Spirit Award, by the way.
I’m so happy for Julio [Torres]. Problemista, too. He’s great. That character is probably my favorite of the whole show. Is Julio someone that just says, “You’re gonna do this,” and you just say, “Okay,” and go with his brain, or does he really try to sell the idea to you?
BRYANT: No, you just trust. He’s a genius, and I feel really lucky that we worked together at SNL. That was something that he had written at SNL, I think, that we tried. Of course, SNL was like, “No….” but it’s a perfect fit for his show. Also, he and I did some — this was in deep, early COVID — a Zoom fundraiser, and he and I did an extended bit about toilet dressing, basically. So I was very honored and very touched that he turned it into something for a show. He wrote some things at SNL that are some of my favorite things I was ever a part of. So, he’s special, and I’m very happy he’s nominated for two Spirit Awards for both — or I think he might be nominated for more stuff — but he is for both Problemista and Fantasmas, which is really incredible.
Why do you think the cowgirl is shy? The cowgirl toilet?
BRYANT: [Laughs] Julio has a deep sense from objects, and I think he’s the one who really feels that, you know?
Aidy Bryant Never Thought She’d Host an Awards Show

“There’s something so meaningful about rooting for the little guy.”

So when you got the call for the first hosting gig, how nervous were you?
BRYANT: I have to say, hosting an award show is not something that ever once interested me in any way. But then when I got the call, I was like, “Well, I love the Indie Spirits.” I love independent films. I’m just a fan. So, it was something where I was like, “You know what? This could be fun.” I really believe in what Film Independent is doing, so I was like, “Let’s do it.” I wasn’t so much nervous as much as I was like, oh, this is not something I ever thought I’d do, but it sounds kind of fun. So let’s go for it.
Did you talk to any of your friends who have hosted other things to get their input?
BRYANT: Yeah, I texted Kate because she had hosted it with Kumail [Nanjiani] once, and I was sort of like, “Do you remember? What’d you think?” She was like, “Go for it. It was fun.” I ended up talking to Fred [Armisen] and a couple of other people who did it, too, like Nick Kroll. They all said it was fun. So, here I am a second time around!
It seems kind of like the best award show to host.
BRYANT: I think so!
Because it’s very cool and fun, but also really cares about the art.
BRYANT: Yeah.
Even just watching your monologue, it just felt like everyone in the room was relaxed but also really proud of what they did.
BRYANT: I think that’s part of why I really can’t really see myself doing it for another award show, because I really feel like there’s something so meaningful about rooting for the little guy here, and this is a room full of little guys who put all their passion into something to make something that’s so difficult. I think it’s a really special chance to honor these artists and what they’ve done.
People don’t realize how many things have to get approved to get something made. It’s insane. It’s just incredible to make something.
BRYANT: Yeah!
Aidy Bryant Has Done Her Homework for the ‘Spirit Awards’

“I’ve been doing a deep dive.”

Have you seen a lot of the projects? Are there any that you’re particularly excited about?
BRYANT: Yeah, I’ve been doing a deep dive. I’ve watched almost everything now. I think I have a couple left. But I mean, that’s kind of also part of what I love about doing this, is it really makes me do my homework. I loved Janet Planet. I loved Good One. I loved Problemista. I loved Anora. I love The Substance. I loved Nickel Boys. I’m a die-hard. I’m a fan. They’re all good!
I love one of the first things you said last year. I wrote it down. I wanted to get it right. “Hey, Natalie, you stupid bitch,” to Natalie Portman. Did you give any of the people that you were “roasting” a heads-up?
BRYANT: I didn’t give any of them a heads-up, but each of the people that I name checked I had either met before and kind of knew or knew. I mean, Greta Lee, I’ve known for, truly, almost, probably 15 or 20 years. They were all people who I was like, — same with Sterling K. Brown, he hosted SNL — “All these people will know we’re good.” I knew they could all take it.
Is there something that you felt really worked last year that you want to replicate or something you want to try differently that you maybe didn’t want to risk in the first year?
BRYANT: No. Generally speaking, I don’t want to make anyone feel bad. I’m really here to celebrate what these people have done, and I really am a fan. So I just want to make it a fun and special night. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, either. I just want to have a good time. So that’s kind of my only goal, and I think we’re gonna achieve it.
Yeah, if it ain’t broke, you know.
BRYANT: Right?
If you could have a co-writer on any project, like you had to have a writer on your future projects, who would you want to be in the writing bunker with?
BRYANT: Oh, man. Oh, there’s lots of people. But you know what? I’ll say my co-writers who I wrote the Spirit Awards with last year, Sudi Green and Fran Gillespie, I’m writing with them again this year, and I would do anything for those girls.
That’s awesome. They’re great. Congratulations. Good luck. Thank you for talking to me.
BRYANT: Thank you! Thank you for all the kind questions and all the thoughts!
The Film Independent Spirit Awards will stream live on the IMDb and Film Independent YouTube channels on Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 2:00 pm PT.