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Julia Sweeney had left showbiz for more than a decade.
But with her daughter recently off to college, Sweeney is ready to swing back into comedy.
I hadnt even moved back to L.A. and I had a series, which was so incredible.
In a way, though, hes still right.
Getting the parts on TV has been the easiest part of moving back.
That goal got achieved very quickly.
Now Im trying to get back into the comedy scene in LA.
Im doing my show at Largo.
Im trying to remind my comedian friends that Im a good person to have onstage.
Its just a slower part of it.
I think it will take two years for me to feel like Im really back.
How didShrillcome to you?My agents called me about it and I loved the script so much.
Thats a really common thing now.
And they were like, We really want you, but you have to do a real audition.
When I look back on it, they were really kind.
Most people would have told me to fuck off.
Its in character, though, for a mom to not know how to self-tape.Thats what I thought!
I would start doing the scene, then stop and say how much I loved the script.
But then I really did the audition and I got the part.
Was there a sense ofSNLcamaraderie on set?
Youve heard stories about her your whole life, but now here she is!
You kind of felt like you knew them.
Were you a part of that excursion?No, I was not!
Are you mad now?Yes!
No, Im not really livid.
Speaking of, you also played moms occasionally onSNL.
Whats the difference between playing a sketch mom and playing a more grounded mom in a series?
Then when I had one, I was on the parents side.
So before I had a kid, when I played a mom it was broader and more cartoonish.
Inside me, it was like, Isnt she ridiculous?
But then when I became a mom, I went to the other side.
Of course Im acting appropriately, and arent children narcissistic and ridiculous?
This show captures both sides of that mom-daughter divide really well.My character is sympathetic.
Shes doing the mom thing, but thats a service.
I mean, I wouldnt order food for a kid.
Isnt it great to exercise?
Isnt it so much fun to be outside exercising?
Yes, theres a little edge to it.
But I guess Im still on her side about it.
What are you supposed to say?
I have positive responses when people do things I like!
What am I supposed to do, hide that?
I dont know.I guess you have to be more artful about it.
My husband and daughter would bothsay the exact same thing you just said.
So they think it was their idea.Right!
Can we talk a little bit about the issues with weight?
I understand it, sort of.
Of course, I have my gripes.
I feel likeshewas unartful in her goading me to be thinner.
Maybe thats a universal thing.
My mom used a lot of moral language around food.
I was good today, or, Lets be bad and have dessert.I hate that so much.
I really give a shot to not do that.
My mom and my aunt whom I love so much!
if I could take away something from their lives, it would be all the self-hate and self-reprimanding.
The now Im good, now Im bad about food.
Because its my belief that it didnt make one pound of difference in their weight.
It just took up a huge part of their thinking about themselves.
In the time youve been in Illinois, this sort of issue comedy has come back into vogue.
How are you finding this new shape of comedy?In some ways, I think its great.
I was kind of doing that for 20 years.
Would it be a script?
Would it be another one-person show?
I spent a summer with my daughter watching one Netflix comedy special a day.
I hadnt really watched anything for ten years.
You could talk about really personal things, you could talk about painful things.
It was more storytelling, and it didnt have to be joke, joke, joke.
I realized it had really changed a lot, and it was more like what I was comfortable doing.
And I was inspired by it.
My beef with stand-up was that it felt like fast food.
It didnt feel like a satisfying meal.
And its changing now to be more like a meal.
Thats what I like to think I was doing.
Its what Im more capable of doing.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
