Ahead of hosting the Independent Spirit Awards, SNL cast member Melissa Villaseñor virtually dropped by Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss her array of impressions. (Here she is doing Lady Gaga and John Mulaney.) “Are there any impressions you’ve done this year that you particularly enjoy doing?” host Seth Meyers asked her. Villaseñor singled out her Dolly Parton, an impression that was “growing in my soul because I found her audio book, Dream More, when I was quarantining alone and listened to her music a lot. It took a while to get it,” but by last December, “I was ready to talk as Dolly.”
Later in the interview, Meyers asked to hear Villaseñor’s impressions of Natalie Portman (“Thank you so much. No one’s ever impersonated me before. I always thought that I had nothing special. I thought I was kind of boring,” she said in her best Natalie voice) and Kristen Wiig. Her Wiig is so good that Meyers responded with a “woah! woah!” and had trouble composing himself. She even nailed the awkward little laugh that Wiig does. Villaseñor actually auditioned for SNL “with a silly bit about Kristen Wiig about to go sky diving and she’s just in the plane like…” You know what? You should just watch the clip above (beginning 6:30 in). You have to hear the voice to get the full effect.
The 36th Independent Spirit Awards air tonight at 10 p.m. ET on IFC and AMC+.