Kate McKinnon is not only the most gifted performer on Saturday Night Live, carrying the torch left by Kristen Wiig, but will soon become a bona fide movie star, appearing in this summer’s Ghostbusters reboot opposite her fellow SNLer. McKinnon’s earned this reputation thanks to her stellar impressions, nailing everyone from Justin Bieber to Hillary Clinton. On Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles, she turned in one of her best impressions yet: as Carol, the smoldering ‘50s housewife played by Cate Blanchett in Carol. It came as part of a skit at the 2016 Film Independent Spirit Awards, co-hosted by McKinnon and Silicon Valley star Kumail Nanjiani, who in the monologue referred to the parodied film as “the most compelling story about someone leaving gloves behind since The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
In Todd Haynes’s Carol, Blanchett plays Carol Aird, a disillusioned Jersey housewife who’s been living a lie: she is a lesbian. One day, she comes across Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), a bright-eyed shopgirl, and, after conveniently “forgetting” her gloves with the young gal, the two embark on a torrid love affair.
McKinnon and Nanjiani chose to reenact the restaurant scene where Carol and Therese first get to know each other—with McKinnon hilariously vamping it up as the seductress, and Nanjiani portraying the couple’s clueless waiter.
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“I’m so glad you found my lost gloves at the department store where you work, and so I wanted to thank you with a traditional two-woman light lunch with… no other agenda whatsoever,” McKinnon purrs, staring at Therese like a piece of meat.
She really nails Carol’s mannerisms and not-so-veiled charm offensive, at one point telling herself, “Land this plane, Carol, land it…”
Watch the hysterical comedy sketch here:
