Kate McKinnon Is a Once-in-a-Generation Comedic Force | Elle 

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In six seasons on Saturday Night Live, Kate McKinnon has established herself as a comedic force: an Emmy-winning, character-creating powerhouse who instills every Hillary, RBG, Ellen, Justin—and even Kellyanne—with both hilarity and heart. A year after her wonderfully wacky performance in Ghostbusters, the Long Island native and Columbia grad is solidifying her movie-star stripes opposite Scarlett Johansson (and Zoë Kravitz! And Ilana Glazer! And Jillian Bell!) in this summer\'s insanely funny bachelorette-party comedy, Rough Night. On the occasion of her second ELLE cover, McKinnon, 33, spoke with SNL superalum Tina Fey about career idols, Leslie Jones, and the j-word (okay, fine, we\'ll tell you: It\'s joy).

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Tina Fey: Let\'s talk about political characters, Kate! How extensively do you follow politics in real life?

Kate McKinnon: I wasn\'t a newspaper person until I got hired here. You have to get ideas from somewhere, and when the election began, I began reading [the

]. Now it\'s an everyday thing. When we\'re off, I try not to do it as much because you want to have a moment of joy.

Tina Fey: It\'s kind of stressful and all-consuming. When you play a person like Kellyanne Conway, what are the advantages of building a character off that person, as opposed to a common character?

Kate McKinnon: It\'s much easier for me to do an impression of someone real, because you and the audience begin with a baseline understanding of this person\'s life. And then if you subvert that in any way, it\'s a little comedy surprise. That does the bulk of the work for you.

For the full interview, pick up a copy of ELLE on newsstands Tuesday, June 20.

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Photographed by Paola Kudacki. Styled by Samira Nasr.

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