SNLs Molly Shannon Reveals Tragic Story Behind Iconic Character

SNL’s Molly Shannon Reveals Tragic Story Behind Iconic Character

Molly Shannon opens up about the tragic story behind her iconic Saturday Night Live and Superstar movie character, Mary Katherine Gallagher.

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SNLs Molly Shannon Reveals Tragic Story Behind Iconic Character

Saturday Night Live legend Molly Shannon has opened up about the heartbreaking story behind one of her most beloved characters. Born and raised into a Catholic-American family in the suburban Shaker Heights, Ohio, Shannon moved to Los Angeles to take the entertainment industry by storm. Ultimately, however, Shannon found her big break on the East coast, when Lorne Michaels cast her as a featured player on his iconic NBC late night sketch comedy show SNL in 1995. Shannon’s wacky yet grounded performances made her stand out as a fan favorite.

Shannon knit herself onto the fabric of SNL history with larger-than-life characters like Mary Katherine Gallagher and Sally O’Malley. She called on her Irish Catholic roots to bring these characters to life, grounding her work in personal experience. Shannon’s Mary Katherine Gallagher was an unpopular and sardonic Catholic school girl with dreams of being a superstar. The accident-prone and hyperactive character never failed to draw big laughs on SNL. It was such a big hit that Michaels produced a standalone film based on Gallagher’s character, Superstar, giving Shannon one of her biggest audiences yet.

In a recent interview with The LA Times, Shannon opened up about how experiencing tragedy in her childhood was the impetus for creating Gallagher. Shannon said the character’s behavior was an expression of how she felt after her mother, younger sister and cousin died in horrible car accident when she was four years old. Her father, who had been driving under the influence, survived the accident with serious injuries. The star told the publication:

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“[Gallagher] was really based on me, how I felt after the accident – really nervous, accident-prone, wanting to please, f-ed up but full of hope. I just exaggerated everything I felt as a little girl and turned it into a character.”

The exaggerated, boundless energy that Shannon brought to every Gallagher sketch is one of her defining character traits. As Gallagher, Shannon would often fall to the ground, throw herself through walls and even leap onto piles of metal chairs in the name of comedy. The star says that after performing as Gallagher on the show at night, she would wake up in the morning covered in bruises and cuts. Looking back, she finds it bizarre that she “didn’t care if I cut myself or made myself bleed” as Gallagher. Shannon says she chalked it all up to being “punk rock,” as well as feeling a disconnection from the world because of the tragedy she had experienced.

Although this may be the most explicit instance in which Shannon has opened up about her profound loss, she has infused vulnerability into every one of her performances for many years. Her time on Saturday Night Live is cherished because she wore her heart on her sleeve. Shannon’s magic was always the ability to make her audience and, on occasion, her co-stars, laugh at every turn – not by trying to be funny, but by living truthfully as her character. That’s what makes her a superstar.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/snl-molly-shannon-mary-katherine-gallagher-backstory-revealed/

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