Ella Hunt On Becoming Gilda Radner In ‘Saturday Night’: “I Had Prepared For People Being Critical Because She’s So Beloved, But They’ve Been So Nice”

deadline.com:

In taking on the role of Gilda Radner in Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, British actress Ella Hunt was stepping into the shoes of a beloved U.S.

treasure and a Saturday Night Live-verse she herself had not grown up with. In Saturday Night, Reitman details the hours approaching the very first broadcast of SNL—resulting in a fast-paced, comedic romp in which chaos reigns.

For Hunt, it was not only a case of working through the character development with no long-held cultural connection to Radner, but also of honoring her in a way that resonated with all the SNL viewers who’ve loved her for so long. DEADLINE: As a Brit, what was your feeling going into the role of Gilda Radner? ELLA HUNT: Honestly, for me, approaching this movie or when I got sent the audition, part of my initial hesitancy was, I can’t do American humor and thinking I’m never going to get cast as an American comedic icon because it’s just a different lexicon.

It’s totally different. But honestly, Gilda has been the greatest guide and teacher into understanding American comedy. I still think I’m approaching it from a strange foreign perspective, but I do think that she’s taught me a lot about how I can play American and be funny because previously, that was really just something that I didn’t imagine that I could do. DEADLINE: So, you didn’t feel like you were a comedic actor, that you didn’t have the comedic mentality, or it was just the Americanness? HUNT: Yeah, I guess it’s funny because when I was a kid, how I got started was I did a school production of The Mikado, and I was playing Katisha, who is the comedy baddie of the piece.