Photos Martin Rusch | Words Tamara Rappa

Kim Matula plays a deeply intriguing and appealing Jane Curtain in director Jason Reitman's Saturday Night, the film about, well, our national treasure: the storied sketch comedy series that's still going strong, Saturday Night Live. Currently streaming, the film takes place on the evening before the very first show and moves at a pace akin to a high-speed road trip, with music composed by Jon Batiste. Matula honed her skills on another iconic series, CBS's 77 Emmy-winning soap, The Bold And The Beautiful, which she describes as 'the best hands-on college for acting I could have ever asked for', and a place where she learned how to become a professional actor on set. Having built a resume that includes roles in those beloved Hallmark Christmas movies and on series like How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, American Crime Story and more, Kim Matula is one to watch. Her performance pops amidst an epic ensemble cast that includes both newbie and veteran superstars like Rachel Sennott and Willem Dafoe. While watching Saturday Night, the capturing of Curtain looks effortless for Kim; her inflections and expressions and body language feel velvety-smooth. Recently, we connected with the actor to discuss what she discovered from Jane herself, how she dove into her role, and what it was like to be a part of the story behind the series she grew up watching with her family.

What was your relationship to Saturday Night LIve prior to shooting the movie? Did you have a favorite cast or cast member or season? I watched it all the time. Once, we were all watching SNL and it was a Christmas episode where they did Schweddy Balls for the first time. My mom tells this story. She had to go into the hall outside of the living room and watch over everyone's shoulder, she was laughing so hard. Tears were streaming down her face. My sister and I were so little, and we actually had no idea why what we were watching was so funny. I grew up with the cast of the 90's and Molly Shannon. She did so many characters that I loved so much. Mary Katherine Gallagher was a big deal to me. I used to do that character all the time. I would do the Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell cheerleaders, too. Saturday Night Live really informed me. It was a huge influence, and my comedy awakening. It was SNL that showed me how funny and silly people could be, and in a profession.

Your family must have been beyond thrilled when you got this part. It was a big deal. We were all waiting for the call.

Playing Jane Curtain was meant for you. ...And that's how I felt when I got the audition, truly,  I had seen the sketch that I was to audition with. I thought, I've seen this. I know where the inflection goes. I know exactly how she sounds. I sent in my tape and I was pretty confident but obviously thought it was a pipe dream. I wanted it so badly, I couldn't stand it. I thought, I'm not gonna put all my eggs in one basket---but I got the callback, and flew myself to New York for it instead of doing it in LA. I wanted to be associated with New York. I wanted  [Director] Jason [Reitman} to associate me with New York. One of the other parts of my audition involved doing this commercial that Jane did in her real audition for SNL. It was a vitamin commercial, like, for iron pills. [Laughs] I was reading the script thinking, in what world did Jane want do this for her audition?! It's so weird. I didn't know how to make it funny. I was really stressing myself out about it but then I kind of locked in with the premise that Jane is the straight man; don't try to overplay this. Don't try to make it funny. Just be you. So that's what I did. During that audition Jason said, 'Did you actually see this clip on YouTube before it was taken down?!' And I said, 'No, I didn't get to see it. I was really bummed.' And he told me, 'Well, you just did it exactly like her.' My heart grew three sizes that day.

Saturday Night's music was designed by Jon Batiste, and the pace of the film is exciting and frenetic. How did the filmmakers go about injecting that energy onto the set while shooting, to match what the music would provide? We really relied on Jason to direct us. It's fascinating; because of the film's pace you would think that the set would have been this chaotic, frenetic place. Jason had everything so mapped out and so well-planned, and everything was rehearsed. Every single background actor in the movie was cast by Jason. He'd say, 'You're going to be a makeup artist', 'You're going to be a camera operator.' He put all these background actors where he wanted them, and then they went through boot camp training for the types of characters they were to play. The camera operator in the film really knew how to operate those cameras...

The attention to detail is something that jumps off the screen. Isn't it incredible? The whole stage was dressed so beautifully. It was filled with 1975...everything! Every drawer was filled, so we were never at a loss for what to do on set. We had props surrounding us all the time, and everything was ours to play with. If we had an idea, Jason let us run with it. He told us where we needed to be during our scenes, but what we did in the scenes was up to us. I was sad to leave our set once shooting ended. It was such an incredible, incredible shoot.

What did you do to prepare to play actor and SNL cast member Jane Curtain? I was able to talk to Jane on the phone for about an hour. I have a friend who was directing her in a show, and he asked me if I wanted to be put in touch. I thought, I'm not gonna pass up that opportunity! It was so serendipitous. She was open to it. It was really nice; I felt like I wanted her to know me, and know that I respect and admire her, that I look up to her, and that I was really proud to play this part. Mine is not a huge part in the movie. Women were not in the foreground in 1975. I listened to Jane talk about her experience on the show, what it was like, how she felt. She said that the one thing she wanted to make sure I portrayed was that they had fun. Yes it was a whirlwind and chaotic, but it was some of the most fun she'd ever had.

What did you learn about Jane Curtain in the process of playing her? I don't think I realized that there were men in the cast who were openly vocal about how women were not funny and shouldn't be there. That was a new one for me. I also hadn't realized just how hard it must have been to go to work every day feeling like you had to prove why you're there. That's got to feel really defeating. I'm giving you my time, I'm giving you my creativity. I'm giving you my heart. For you to say that I don't deserve to be here is really hard. Obviously a lot of women still feel that way in terms of how they're viewed at work.

Who was Jane at the time in the film and in relation to the rest of the cast? Jane was still figuring it out. She was still figuring out who she was within the cast, because unlike a lot of them, she was not a writer. She didn't feel comfortable being one. It wasn't in her wheelhouse. She did say, if you wanted to be seen you had to come to them with ideas, and that was so foreign to her. She trusted that they cast her so they must've wanted to use her, but she found that that wasn't the case. They ended up using her only for what they knew she could do. She came from commercials and she was such a great straight person. Those were the roles they gave her. Thankfully, you did get to see Jane Curtain a lot on SNL. With The Coneheads, she was able to be silly and playful, but it took a while for her to be trusted to do that.