Variety’s Power of Women in Comedy issues all look good this year, but the Michaela Coel cover is my favorite of them, and I’m glad to see her getting magazine recognition even if she inexplicably isn’t winning all of the things for I May Destroy You. Although she’s still feeling the love, per her profile, in which she also discusses Jane Fonda loving the show:
“I think that this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of using fiction to really bring audiences to quite personal, challenging and dark places and asking audiences to question the world around them. The way people received the show, as we would say in London, gave me vim.”
Here are some excerpts from the other cover stars, like Kate McKinnon:
“People are often confused when they meet me because I’m soft-spoken and pensive. I am extraordinarily introverted,” says McKinnon. The comedian actually began speaking in character voices at age 10 to relieve her social anxiety. “I found I was more easily able to communicate with people doing a funny voice,” she says, conceding, “I found it was a way to share joy and to bring a sense of fun and community in a way that I had trouble doing just in my own voice. I do have a personality, but I find it easier still in some ways to communicate in character.”
I’ve also thought that Kristen Wiig seems a bit more introverted when she’s off the clock, and I wonder if that’s very common among actresses who are so gifted at impressions and at creating big, weird, funny characters. It also must be exhausting to feel like you have to answer for it somehow, as if people have constant expectations that you’re BROAD and HILARIOUS and ON all the time when you really just want to… chill.
Sofia Vergara’s quote about demanding your worth has gone around the Internet already this week, so I’ll spotlight a different one about her reaction to people finding Gloria on Modern Family to be a stereotype:
“I always laughed about it because if Gloria was stereotypical, then that’s just what I am. I created Gloria as a mixture of my mom and my aunt and the women that I grew up with in Colombia — they were loud, they were super intense, they were super colorful, super crazy, minding everybody’s business, super passionate and loving.” “
If Gloria was a stereotypical woman, then what a magnificent stereotype. What was wrong with being Gloria? She was fantastic.”
Maya Rudolph and I are in sync about pandemic style:
“Heels and I were already on the outs, but now we’ve gone our separate ways, which is fine by me,” Rudolph laughs. “And I no longer have a waist, so there’s that. My thighs haven’t seen pant legs in a year. I’m just going to become Elaine Stritch and wear a shirt.”
“One of my big responsibilities is speaking to other people who have questions about how to get here, particularly young women and women of color. I think I’ve learned in the past six or seven years that this job is only as enjoyable as I’m able to impart wisdom on younger people. I don’t want to be that person that is keeping this knowledge to myself. And I’ve learned so much, I think, the hard way.”
