Golden-Globe-Nominated Actress Recalls ‘SNL’ Firing Her

A Golden Globe nominee is recalling when Saturday Night Live fired her.

Abby Elliott has found success starring on the hit FX dramedy The Bear, but she previously starred on SNL for four seasons.

She joined the long-running variety sketch series during Season 34 in 2008 but departed at the end of Season 37 in 2012. At the time she joined, she became the youngest female cast member at 21 years old and was still “figuring things out,” she told The Independent.

“Every week was a new week, and your happiness would depend on whether you got something on air or not, and if three weeks went by without a sketch, you’d think, ‘Uh-oh, am I going to be fired?’” She said. “There was always that looming threat of getting fired. That was the worst that could happen. And then, I kind of did.”

Elliot initially asked creator and producer Lorne Michaels if she could leave until she got a cold fee. “I went back to him with my tail between my legs asking to stay, but after that season, Lorne said, ‘No, I’m going to cut you loose,’” Elliott recalled. But it proved to be a blessing in disguise as Elliott admitted she knew “sketch comedy wasn’t going to be it for me. It’s not why I started, and it’s not how I wanted to end. Also, I had learnt the lessons I was going to learn… and so I left and, you know, the water was warm.”

Although sketch comedy was not exactly her cup of tea, Elliott did stick to the comedy realm, landing roles in How I Met Your Mother, Odd Mom Out, and Indebted, among others, and later, The Bear, which she thought was “so unique” and “so different.”

Meanwhile, Elliott is by far not the only SNL cast member to be fired. Damon Wayans previously admitted to purposely getting fired during Season 11, while Shane Gillis, who has hosted twice, was fired in 2019 ahead of Season 45, and there are definitely a few others. It worked out well for Elliott, whose show The Bear was recently renewed for Season 5. Whether she’ll follow in the footsteps of other SNL alumni and host one of these days is unknown, but the show seems to be in her rearview.