This past summer, she shot a film, The Catch, with Emma Stone and Chris Pine. The great critic Jason Zinoman, of the New York Times, recently called her “a hilarious new comic voice, someone likely to define the sensibility of the show for years to come.” Her signature is a kind of long, intensely awkward pause—awkwardness, in general, really. In real life, Padilla—who grew up in the Bay Area and then moved to Los Angeles, where she spent time at the Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade—is warm and composed.
She seems almost immune to the moment she is currently having. In this conversation, we talk about her years in Los Angeles, working for Diane Keaton; about the current state of SNL; and about the relentless positivity she practically radiates. I want to shake people sometimes.
Get over it.” The following conversation is lightly edited and condensed from the latest episode of One More Question with Zach Baron. Watch above or on YouTube. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
GQ: I had this plan of how to start this interview, and then we met 10 minutes ago and I was like, “This plan sucks.” Ashley Padilla: You’re like, “She’s a fool.” No, I was like, “Zach, you have a bad plan.” We’re just going to do it anyway, even though I now know that this is a terrible question. On SNL, you play a lot of loud, awkward people. And I found myself wondering about the person I was going to meet today.
You thought I was going to come in crazy? I mean, I’m not that loud. I’m pretty quiet, to a fault.
I think people are like, “Oh, she’s strange,” because I’m not talking a whole lot. I’m very quiet, very introverted. But then when I’m on the show, I’m having so much fun, so I get loud.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
