Former "Saturday Night Live" castmates Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner have recounted their time working on the NBC comedy sketch series, saying that it was "not the easiest place to work."
The two reunited on Nwodim's "Thanks Dad" podcast on Tuesday, where they reflected on their time at SNL, their friendship, and the competitive atmosphere that comes with trying to make it on the high-pressure show.
"The sketches, they come, they go, they're really fun. They can be hard, they can be things you're not into, whatever," Nwodim, who left the show in September after seven seasons, said. "But I'm like, if you can leave — in a place where it can get so competitive and you can become so self-involved, if you can leave and be still remarkably lovely and such a light and still pouring into other people like you, I think you succeeded."
She said she and Gardner connected right away, calling her "such a light in what can be such a challenging place."
Gardner, who left the show in August after eight seasons, echoed the sentiment.
"I am so honored that we worked so hard there, and then we also worked on our friendship so hard, which wasn't hard, by the way," she said. "I just mean ... we're humans, so we have egos, we want things for ourselves, we want to succeed, and there weren't a lot of times when we were able to succeed in the way we wanted at the exact same time."
Gardner also reflected on watching Nwodim's "Miss Eggy" moment on "Weekend Update" go viral.
"It was beautiful to watch you succeed so much, and that's why I think back, it's so recent, but that Jack Black week, it was everything to me because it was my hero," she said. "I could've never imagined a week like that, and I got to do so much in the show."
When she announced her exit in September, Nwodim called her decision to leave bittersweet.
"The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight. But after seven unforgettable seasons, I have decided to leave ‘SNL,'" she wrote on Instagram at the time. "I am immensely grateful to Lorne for the opportunity, to my castmates, the writers and the crew for their brilliance, support and friendship."
Both Nwodim and Gardner said they were proud of the work they did on "SNL" and grateful for what the experience taught them.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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