![]() She modulates the intensity of certain lines. Sweeney goes through the scene three times, and each go-around is slightly different from the last. Julia Sweeney as Pat alongside Harvey Keitel in a 1993 Saturday Night Live sketch. Could she play it meaner? But she doesn't want to be too mean, either. During her last audition, the producers told her she was a bit too nice. This is Sweeney's second callback for the show. The Hulu series, premiering in March, is inspired by former Stranger writer Lindy West's memoir and will star SNL cast member Aidy Bryant as an alt-weekly journalist living in the Pacific Northwest dealing with her Dan Savage-like editor (to be played by Hedwig and the Angry Inch creator John Cameron Mitchell) and, of course, her eccentric mother. The show Sweeney's trying out for is called Shrill, and one of its producers is Lorne Michaels, who gave Sweeney her big break on SNL back in 1990. She offers dubious dieting tips ("almonds are the cheeseburgers of nuts") as she prepares dinner, while her husband, sick with cancer, vomits in the next room. The character is concerned about her 30-something daughter's weight. Observations tumble out of her mouth that are no doubt meant to salve emotional insecurities, but land instead with all the delicacy of a knife in the gut. ![]() In the scene, Sweeney is playing your standard sitcom mother - well-meaning but overbearing, protective but suffocating. She brought it up in passing but quickly changed the subject, because there was just no way she'd ever land such a great role on a show as high-profile as this, and what if she blabs about it to every journalist in town and then doesn't even get the gig?īut now I'm sitting at her mom Jeri's dining room table on a Friday afternoon in early July, as she runs through a short scene - some of which she's written herself - in front of a camera, and it seems pretty damn effortless. She's nervous, which is surprising when you consider she was once on Saturday Night Live, which has one of the most famously cutthroat audition processes in all of show biz. ![]() Ten years? Maybe longer.Ī day earlier, Sweeney had been hesitant to even mention the audition to me, let alone invite me to watch. It's the first role in a major production that she's tried out for in. They've become props in an audition she's filming in the kitchenette of her mother's Spokane apartment. J ulia Sweeney has cracked nearly a dozen eggs before she's satisfied with the scene. During this period, she also guest-starred on an episode of "Brooklyn 9-9" (Fox/NBC 2013- ) starring later-era SNL vet Andy Samberg.Julia Sweeney at the Fox Theater, where she'll perform her show Older & Wider. In addition to guest roles on many popular sitcoms, Sweeney performed in the Pixar film "Monsters University" (2013) and then took a regular role in the sitcom "Shrill" (Hulu 2019-), which starred fellow "Saturday Night Live" veteran Aidy Bryant. Afterwards, she wrote and performed two more monologues: "In the Family Way," which Sweeney debuted in New York City, NY in 2003, and "Letting Go of God," which she debuted in Los Angeles, CA in 2004. ![]() Much of her work in the years to follow came in the form of voice acting, such as in the adult animated series "Baby Blues" (The WB/Adult Swim 2000-02). After this, she went on to appear in the likes of the comedy "Vegas Vacation" (1997) and the family film "Stuart Little" (1999). Her final "Saturday Night Live"-inspired film was "Stuart Saves His Family" (1995), around which time she also wrote and first performed her first theatrical monologue, "God Said HA!" The performance debuted in San Francisco, CA. That same year, she appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994). In addition to appearing in the "Coneheads" (1993) movie, Sweeney would bring her recurring character Pat to the big screen for the feature film "It's Pat: The Movie" (1994), which was poorly received by critics and audiences. In 1990, Sweeney joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975-), remaining with the show until 1994. ![]() All the while, Sweeney practiced improv with The Groundlings and co-wrote and starred in stage productions like "Mea's Big Apology," which debuted in 1988 she worked on the play with Stephen Hibbert, whom she married one year later. After graduating from University of Washington, Sweeney moved to Los Angeles, CA, where she took an accounting job at the movie studios Columbia Pictures and United Artists. ![]()
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