Laughter really is the best medicine.
While Saturday Night Live has a long history of its stars breaking character during sketches, Kate McKinnon recently shared she thinks the instances where she couldn't contain her laughter was her biggest faux pas during her decade on the show. "I felt ashamed, because we're not supposed to, and there's something unprofessional about it," McKinnon told Vulture's Good Ones podcast Aug. 11. "And yet sometimes it was just too fun."
While McKinnon felt some guilt, it wasn't enough to stop her from laughing as she also sees it as proof that she's invested in her work. "There was a hint of wanting the audience to know like, ‘Oh, man, I love this. You have no idea how much I love Aidy Bryant and how much I love this job and how much I love these jokes,'" she explained. "So sometimes I would allow myself to just go there."
And when McKinnon says she loved her time at SNL, she really means it. The Joe vs. Carole star even started crying while recounting the moment she told executive producer Lorne Michaels that she was leaving the show, saying, "It was really hard, and I really am not good at saying good-bye to stuff."
McKinnon knew it was right to bow out when she did, but it didn't make it any easier telling Michaels. "He knew it was coming," she remembered. "He was very sweet. But he has been a father figure to me, and so much more. It was just really hard—simple human emotions, not wanting to say good-bye to something you love."
Now that a few months have passed, the sadness McKinnon feels has dulled ever so slightly and she actually feels healthier now that she's given herself a break. "I'm certainly excited for what the rest of my life will entail, and happy to have the opportunity to find out, and happy to be going to bed at midnight—so happy," she shared. "I feel really healthy and really good. I'm wearing my retainer again. I'm taking vitamins for the first time."
But McKinnon said it hasn't "quite sunk in yet" that she won't be returning to 30 Rock this season.
While McKinnon isn't returning for season 48, there's always the chance she could return as a host.
In the meantime, the actress is filming the upcoming Greta Gerwig Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie as the iconic doll.
Saturday Night Live season 48 premieres this fall on NBC.
(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)