Beverly Hills, three days after the Oscars. Hollywood's glitziest motorcade has rolled into town and the dust is still settling. Oppenheimer it exploded, Emma Stone's dress ripped, Ryan Gosling sang I'm just Ken in a bright pink dress.
Kristen Wiig was nowhere near anything. Instead, she was at her home down the street with her husband, Avi Rothman, also a comedian, writer and actor, and her four-year-old twins, Shiloh and Luna. “I love watching the Oscars from my couch,” she says. “It's a pleasure to go there, from time to time. But it's nice to be in sweatpants and socks.”
Wiig, who at 50 may be America's preeminent comedic actress, seems to have achieved something akin to movie star nirvana: not only the freedom to take on the roles that suit her, but also the prospect of know what he does I don't want to do
She made her reputation as an improviser and later as a sketch performer Saturday night livethrough some small but memorable film roles, before calling it quits The bridesmaidsthe 2011 comedy he co-wrote and starred in as part of a comedic phalanx that includes Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph and Rebel Wilson.
Wiig played Annie, who suffers a series of setbacks after being asked to be her best friend's maid of honor. Her performance was a masterpiece of comedic mishmash and timing, and made her a bona fide international star. Others could use this platform to win an Oscar or become a production mogul. Wiig has used it to slow down and maintain a healthy distance from the frenzy.
“I can't pack up and go across the world for months on end,” she says. “Things change in terms of what you want to do and how much you want to work, to be honest.”
It's surprising to hear someone in such high demand openly prioritize parenting, given Hollywood's usual treadmill of keeping busy at all costs. “Oh my God, I just don't want to be out,” she says. “People say, '[Your children] they are so young they won't remember. But I want to be there.”
Wiig's new project, Palm Royale, a 10-part series for Apple TV+ set in late 1960s Florida, fits their bill perfectly. Based on Mr. and Mrs. American Piea 2018 novel by Juliet McDaniel, Palm Royale is a comedy-drama set in an exclusive members' club in Palm Beach. Wiig plays Maxine Simmons, an outsider from Tennessee desperate to be accepted by this whore but well-dressed society.
“Being in character is much easier.”Credit: Tiffany Nicholson/Telegraph Media Group Limited 2024
While Palm Royale looks and sounds exuberant, throughout its 10 episodes the gloss gives way to something darker and more explicitly political. President Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War lurking in the background remind audiences that there's a world beyond the manicured lawn, while a show about Florida high society can't help but recall the resort tourist of Donald Trump there, Mar-a-Lac.
“Oh God, don't ask Trump questions,” Wiig quips. “I think there's a nod to Mar-a-Lago in there. We didn't want to hit anybody over the head politically, but at the same time we touch on a lot of important things. I don't think you can do a show about 1969 without mentioning the Reproductive Rights and the Vietnam War”.
Maxine, who steals, lies and blackmails in her quest for acceptance, is not an easy character to admire, but Wiig gives her an unexpected warmth. His gift for physical expression means we're on his side even as he's pillaging a helpless old woman's jewelry. We may not think that the ends justify the means, but Wiig convinces us that they do for Maxine.
In person, Wiig is warm and thoughtful, quieter and more measured than on screen. Unlike many other comedians, especially those who came up through stand-up, she's not boisterous or commanding one-on-ones.
She says she has always preferred to be a collaborative rather than a competitive performer. “If I ever have to speak in front of more than four people, I get nervous or self-conscious. If I'm on stage in a wig and I'm someone else, those nerves go away. Being in character is much easier.”
Given her talent for mime and improvisation, typically symptoms of a childhood spent as the class clown, it's notable that Wiig didn't consider comedy until she was an adult. His father, Jon, ran a marina, his mother, Laurie, was an artist; the two divorced when she was nine.
Following his mother's example, his first love was art. He drew detailed and perfectionist studies of people and things. She also had a teenage phase: drinking, smoking, being suspended from school and ill-advised tattoos.
In Palm Royale, Maxine steals to fund her new lifestyle. Did Wiig have any steals of her own to pull from? “Don't all kids do something like this once in a while?” she says. “But I mean, nothing expensive. Maybe some eyeliner.”
“I have a high school yearbook and a lot of people wrote that it was funny, but I don't remember being funny or thinking it was funny.”
KRISTEN WIIG
He went to college and majored in art at the University of Arizona. After trying an acting class as a way to fulfill a course requirement, a professor suggested she pursue more. He decided to drop out of college, move to Los Angeles and give show business a whirl.
“I have a high school yearbook and a lot of people wrote that I was funny, but I don't remember being funny or being considered funny at all, which is weird,” he says.
A show by The Groundlings, a Los Angeles troupe that's been around since 1974 and whose alumni include Will Ferrell and Maya Rudolph, opened her eyes to the possibilities of improv. “It was the first time I saw improv and I said, 'This is what I want to do,'” he says.
Wiig began acting with them, doing odd jobs to support herself. One such odd job was babysitting Bob Odenkirk, the comedian (and most recently star of Better call Saul), and his wife Naomi, manager. Naomi helped her audition Saturday Night Live (SNL).
Wiig joined SNL in 2005 and during her seven years on the show she showed an obvious talent for impressions (Drew Barrymore, Kim Cattrall) and an eye for characters (the over-chatty cashier Target Lady, Midwestern Aunt Linda) that made her stand out. out even in illustrious company.
“It's good for your brain and soul to be social.” Credit: Tiffany Nicholson/Telegraph Media Group Limited 2024
Hollywood came calling, as it always does with the stars of SNL. Director Paul Feig gave Wiig a small role in a Christmas comedy called Unaccompanied minorsand Judd Apatow aired it in 2007 sunk. In a small role as a slutty TV executive, Wiig almost stole the entire film.
Impressed by Wiig's work sunk, Apatow asked him if he had any script ideas. She and Annie Mumolo, a friend of The Groundlings, came up with the idea quickly The bridesmaids. As Annie, Wiig perfectly captured a woman on edge, the only one unable to see that she is falling apart.
Grossing nearly $300 million at the box office and earning two Oscar nominations, including for Wiig and Mumolo's screenplay, The bridesmaids proved that comedies starring women could be both commercial and critical successes. Wiig became a bankable star. “This movie changed my life,” he says. “He gave me many opportunities. I'm very proud of it and I love everyone involved.”
Wiig left SNL in 2012, moving away from the Manhattan fishbowl, and his roles since then have been diverse. He has continued to voice parts in animations (How to train your dragon and its sequels, despicable me and its sequels) and played Ben Stiller's love interest The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. And it hasn't all been comedy. In the skeleton twins, she and bill hader, also before SNL, were estranged siblings. In 2015, she was the head of public relations for NASA the martian.
When Wiig was cast as Cheetah, a villain, a Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), she and her husband spent nine months in the UK. “I loved the social part of being in London, just going to the pub, having a date every Sunday and hanging out with people in person,” she says. “It's good that your brain and soul are social like that. Sometimes in LA you get stuck in your house.”
loading
One of the topics of Palm Royale it's the tightrope women walk to get ahead. They should be well dressed but not too showy, intelligent but not intimidating, ambitious but not captivating. Female performers, especially comedians, have long suffered from these difficulties: having to be funny but not too funny, attractive but not too attractive. When Wiig reunited with Feig for a 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, the film's all-female cast drew backlash from the more macabre and misogynistic parts of the universe.
Thanks in large part to Wiig's work proving that female ensembles can be bankable, producers today are far more likely to rely on them than they were 15 years ago. Yen Palm Royale, it is women over 50 who are firmly in the lead. American comedy legend Carol Burnett, who plays wealthy heiress Norma, is 90 years old.
Wiig is too modest to claim she's blazed a trail, but admits she's had to learn to tune out the noise. “Criticism can be [about] anything from looks to performance to options to clothing,” he says. “I don't read it. I tell people not to send me stuff. I don't really want to know, because if you listen to the good, you will listen to the bad”.
If having a family has brought perspective to his career, that may be partly because it was hard-earned. She and Rothman went through years of unsuccessful IVF before having their twins through a surrogate, just before the pandemic took hold. “It was a challenge, but it was worth it,” he says.
It seems as if the twins, at four years old, are already making a living in the Wiig-Rothman company. “We have a little basket of wigs in our playroom,” she says, “and it's comedy gold, just sitting there and not expecting a kid to walk into the room with a wig. It's the greatest thing ever ever existed”.
Are wigs a condition to enter the home? “Yes,” she says, laughing. “'You must wear a wig if you're going to live in this house'.”
Palm Royale now playing on Apple TV+.
The Telegraph magazine
Discover the upcoming TV series, streaming and movies to add to your must-sees. Get the Watchlist every Thursday.
