{"id":2425509,"date":"2026-05-20T22:04:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2425509"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:04:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:04:55","slug":"paula-pell-thinks-she-wasnt-an-snl-actor-because-of-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/paula-pell-thinks-she-wasnt-an-snl-actor-because-of-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Paula Pell Thinks She Wasn’t an SNL Actor Because of Weight"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Paula Pell<\/strong> worked as a writer on Saturday Night Live<\/em><\/a> for nearly two decades but was never one of the show\u2019s official on-screen players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to assume, but I\u2019ve heard, here and there, little things and who knows because we\u2019ve all been there when they\u2019re picking people and it\u2019s so random,\u201d the actress, 63, said during the Tuesday, May 19, episode of Amy Poehler<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cGood Hang\u201d<\/a> podcast. \u201cI mean, not random, but there\u2019s reasons that you don\u2019t think are the reasons and all this, but I do suspect that \u2026 I was a big lady. I was a big plus-size person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pell explained that when she joined SNL<\/em> in 1995 there wasn\u2019t plus-size representation on \u201cany\u201d TV show.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were starting to be people like Roseanne Barr<\/strong>, like people that had more real looking bodies, but I was just not of the aesthetic of that place whatsoever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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\n Related: <\/span>SNL’s Spartan Cheerleaders: Revisit the Iconic Sketch With New BTS Details<\/span><\/a>
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\n\t\t\tThirty years after they first chanted their way into pop culture history, Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri\u2019s Spartan Cheerleaders remain one of Saturday Night Live\u2019s most iconic \u2013 and delightfully unhinged \u2014 sketches. Ferrell, 58, and Oteri, 63, were five weeks into their SNL careers when they burst onto a November 11, 1995, episode dressed [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Pell shared that she did not audition for SNL<\/em> but instead got a call to meet with Lorne Michaels<\/strong>. The comedian, who was working at Disney World at the time, flew to New York City for the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got there and [I] was terrified and I went in. He was, like, two hours late and I sat down with him,\u201d she recalled. \u201cHe started talking like we had been talking already, like, he started in the middle of a sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pell joked that she did not get a formal job offer from Michaels but somehow ended up on the writing staff. Ahead of joining SNL<\/em> behind-the-scenes, she shared that she was \u201cnot a writer\u201d and only had previous comedy experience doing live performances at theme parks and theaters. However, she never voiced her desire to pursue acting on the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I\u2019d written short stories, I don\u2019t know how to do any of this,\u201d she said of comedy writing. \u201cI was so afraid to ever show any desire to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

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