Kate McKinnon says playing Ruth Bader Ginsburg on ‘Saturday Night Live’ was a ‘profound joy’
“Saturday Night Live” star Kate McKinnon said portraying Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the NBC sketch comedy series was a “profound joy” as she paid homage to the Supreme Court Justice.
Ginsburg died Friday at age 87.
“For so many of us, Justice Ginsburg was a real-life superhero: a beacon of hope, a warrior for justice, a robed crusader who saved the day time and again,” McKinnon said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.
Ginsburg was among McKinnon’s most prominent impersonations on “SNL.” A highlight of the portrayal involved McKinnon, in character as R.B.G., using “Ginsburns” to comically diss her adversaries.
The comedian and the real Ginsburg met last year and posed for a photo at an Off-Broadway production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“Playing her on SNL was a profound joy because I could always feel the overwhelming love and gratitude that the audience had for her,” the statement by McKinnon, 36, continued. “It was one of the great honors of my life to meet Justice Ginsburg, to shake her hand, and to thank her for her lifetime of service to this country.”
In 2018, Ginsburg complimented McKinnon’s impersonation during a conversation with NPR at the Sundance Film Festival.
“I liked the actress who portrayed me and I would like to say ‘Ginsburned’ sometimes to my colleagues,” Ginsburg said at the time.
———
©2020 New York Daily News
Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
