Nigerian-American actress and comedian Ego Nwodim shared some interesting details, from the strangest fan comments to the most transformative moment from her breakthrough role on Saturday Night Live (SNL), during The Hollywood Reporter's Comedy Actress Roundtable, on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.
During the talk with Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Buteau, Quinta Brunson, and Renée Elise Goldsberry, Nwodim spoke about her humble beginning receiving hate comments on social media. “I started doing podcasts before I was on SNL like comedy podcasts and so people would come and find me on Instagram and I remember one comment being like 'I'm pissed off you look like this,' and I'm like 'Okay,'" she said.
However, the conversation shifted to a positive one, when Nwodim talked about her breakthrough.
Despite not writing the sketch herself, she described playing Lisa from the TV show, Tula, as the most natural thing people had seen her do on the show.
“The thing that felt so transformative for me, is an SNL sketch, ironically, getting to do Lisa from Tula the first time, was so fun, it was so much fun and people who know me in my personal life or people who have listened to me be insane on podcasts are like that's the most her thing I've seen her do on the show and I go 'Five years,' and you know some people go, 'You should write more things like that,' and I go, 'Baby if you knew how the process work,' I don't work that way,” Nwodim said.
She said the experience helped her understand the important of letting go and trusting the process.
“That week was sort of like 'I'm at my wits end,' I got seven hours of sleep on a writing night which I don't think I had ever done. I felt like 'Oh this is bad,' but I was like, 'I've done everything,' I work really hard, I'm really diligent, Lauren is always telling me “audience doesn't care who works the hardest,' and I go 'That’s pissing me off,'” she said.
Surrendering to the moment and embracing improvisation during the live show led to an unexpectedly transformative experience for her.
“I kind of surrendered to the process. I did not write on that sketch and that's like one of the first things that was a real moment for me at the show that I didn't even write on and then the night of we didn't think the sketch was going to go."