Michaela Watkins on You Hurt My Feelings, SNL and more

Episode notes

Michaela Watkins (right) alongside Arian Moayed (left) in You Hurt My Feelings. Photo by Jeong Park / A24.

Michaela Watkins is a talented comic and actor. But when she first started acting, she thought she was going to be an actor actor. 

A serious actor. The Shakespeare and Ibsen-performing type. 

Watkins got an acting degree at Boston University. She did regional theater. But it wasn’t A Doll’s House or King Lear that made her career. 

It was the Groundlings. 

She was almost thirty when she joined the comedy theater that changed the course of her life. Watkins was cast on Saturday Night Live during her time with the group. She thought she’d finally made it after nearly 20 years in the game. Nine months later, Watkins was fired after one season on the show. 

But, she’s only kept growing. 

She started writing, sold a pilot. Got parts. Then bigger parts. Prestige TV. Movie roles. Now, twenty-five years into her career, she’s still finding new highs. This year, she’s starring in three movies. 

The latest is an A24 film called You Hurt My Feelings. It’s written and directed by the great Nicole Holofcener. It’s a movie about honesty. Its upsides and its downsides. 

Watkins works alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus. They play sisters. Watkins’ character Sarah is dependable and kind. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so she tells a few white lies to keep things mellow. But when her husband Mark runs into trouble at his job, she’s forced to reckon with what she’s said in the past. 

On Bullseye this week, Michaela Watkins joins us to talk about You Hurt My Feelings. She reminisces on her time in the Groundlings and chats about an awkward encounter with Seth Myers after being fired from SNL. Plus, she answers the question we’ve all been asking: what does Michaela Watkins ask her pet psychic?