Two of Saturday Night Live's most beloved stars have broken their silence over their shock exits amid the long-running show's firing bloodbath and mass cast exodus. Prior to SNL's landmark 51st season airing earlier this month, the program announced several high-profile cast departures, including Heidi Gardner, who left after eight years, Ego Nwodim, Devon Walker and Michael Longfellow.
While appearing on Nwodim's 'Thanks Dad' podcast, Gardner, 42, tearfully opened up about her time on the show as she admitted SNL was a difficult environment. 'I am so honoured that we worked so hard there, and then we also worked on our friendship so hard, which wasn't hard, by the way,' Gardner said. 'I just mean… we're humans, so we have egos, we want things for ourselves, we want to succeed, and there weren't a lot of times when we were able to succeed in the way we wanted at the exact same time.'
Gardner, who has not confirmed whether it was her choice to leave SNL, confessed to feeling slightly jealous when Nwodim 'had the moment of the year' during Jack Black's hosting gig. 'There's a part of me, like if I think about it, I'm like, wait, but I should want that for me. But you had it and it was f***ing awesome,' she said. Nwodim replied: 'It's so easy to be caught up with your own stuff at SNL, and what you're getting on and what you're not getting on, and how you're succeeding and how you wish you were doing better.'
Although Nwodim was asked to return, it is unknown whether Gardner quit or was axed during SNL creator Lorne Michaels' shakeup. Nwodim told Gardner: 'You were just such a light in what can be such a challenging place.' Like Nwodim, who said the series was 'not the easiest place' to work, Walker shared a similar sentiment after his firing. 'To be frank, I guess the best way I put it is like me and the show kind of looked at each other and we decided together that it was time to go our separate ways,' he told Rolling Stone in August.
Previously, Walker wrote on Instagram that the show was sometimes 'toxic as h**l' but they 'made the most of what it was, even amidst all of the dysfunction.' The Daily Mail has reached out to Gardner's reps for comment. A spokesperson for NBC declined to comment.
