SNL alum Kristen Wiig recently opened up about her struggles on the show during the 33rd season. Working on SNL is famously stressful for most, but Wiig had a full-fledged breakdown when she felt that she had run out of ideas for characters. It all ended well for Wiig, who ultimately created one of her most memorable characters after this breakdown.
Kristen Wiig talks about having a ‘breakdown’ during her tenure on Saturday Night Live
During her recent appearance on Las Culturistas on January 21, 2026, Kristen Wiig discussed her struggles on SNL with fellow alum Bowen Yang and comedian Matt Rogers. Wiig revealed that her third year on the show, which was the 33rd season, was the most difficult one for her. Wiig added that at the time, it felt like she already “literally did every character I have.”
“Three seasons in, [I was] having a breakdown being like, ‘I’ve done every voice. I have nothing,” the 52-year-old comedian recalled. Yang could relate to this and added that the same thing happened to him during the second season of the show.
“That’s how you feel,” Wiig explained, “And then that’s that hump you get over with, also, the help of other people being like, ‘Can you play blah blah blah?’ And you’re like, ‘Well, we’ll see.’ And then you end up trying or doing it. It doesn’t always work. And then you just like find new things.”
Kristen Wiig eventually had to depart from the method she was using before to come up with characters. “It became like physical,” she said about figuring out characters, “Let’s just do something that someone stands like this,’ because I was like, ‘I’m out of things to do.'”
This ultimately led to Wiig creating one of her most iconic characters, a woman at a 1920s party who repeatedly says, “Don’t make me sing.” However, despite the difficulties, Wiig called SNL “career-wise, like best years of my life.”
