‘SNL’ Newcomer Chloe Troast Is Already a Master of Impressions—and Gypsy Rose Blanchard Is Top of Her Wishlist

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Saturday Night Live is known for catapulting the careers of budding comedians who then go on to become household names and industry titans. You know the ones…Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey. The list goes on (and on and on). And we never want it to stop, tbh. For the show’s 49th season—which returns for its second half on Saturday, January 20—we’ve been introduced to a fresh-faced featured player who, in just nine episodes, has made quite the splash over at 30 Rockefeller Plaza and shows promise of joining those impressive ranks.

With 11 cast members departing over the past two years, newcomer Chloe Troast joins the hilarious Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, fellow “Chloe” Chloe Fineman, and a slew of other very talented actors in what’s shaking out to be an iconic class of characters. Cosmopolitan sat down with Chloe to discuss what this life-changing experience has been like so far, why she pledges allegiance to Bowen Yang, and which of the show’s hosts have left her the most starstruck.

Congrats on being one of the latest featured players to join SNL! Has being on the show always been a goal of yours?

Yeah! Growing up I had always watched the show thinking, That would be cool. But it never felt in the realm of possibility. In my mind, it was always like, “Wow, I’d love to touch greatness there in some capacity.” I always had this this dream of being able to work at NBC. I’d watched 30 Rock and SNL and was like, “That place looks like the coolest place to work.”

And now you’re there!

I know. It’s surreal.

What was the audition process like?

It was really interesting. I auditioned twice, actually. When I auditioned the first time, I didn’t really know if they knew who I was. I was just a face in a pool of, like, thousands of people trying to get on this show. I missed my sound check but ended up doing the showcase, and it was, like, one of the most surreal experiences of my life. That was a big turnover year for the cast, so Lorne [Michaels] watched everything. Then I got all the way to the meetings with Lorne, and it was nothing but amazing for me. Each step of the way I was like, There's no way I’m gonna get past this round. And then the next, and the next....It ended up not being my year. But that didn’t destroy me. Because I was like, “How the hell did I get there in the first place?” And then when it happened again, the producers were like, “You should sing more in your audition.” And I was like, “Okay!”

Ooh! So you were asked back?

It’s a mixture. I went back, but you’re always in contact with the people there when there’s interest. They ended up reaching out to make sure they’d see me again.

It’s hard starting a new job and meeting new people, but you had worked with the Please Don’t Destroy boys playing one of Bowen Yang’s cult members in their film Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain. Did that make it easier to settle in, and do you still pledge your allegiance to Bowen?

Yeah! I mean, they’re some of my best friends, those guys. And they were such huge advocates for me from the inside. Everyone who is a comedian at SNL has comedian friends they love and talk about and want on the show. And it was so meaningful that I was one of those people for them. We’ve been friends since college, so being part of that movie was like summer camp. You get really close to people. So yeah, working with them again feels like a round two of sorts. And yes, I’ll always pledge my allegiance to Bowen.

It's so important to have friends who will bring you up in rooms without you there. They’re real ones for that. And it’s such a hard gift to repay.

And I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to!

Well, you never know! You might become the next big SNL star turned Hollywood producer à la Tina Fey and be like, “Hey boys, now I need you on my project.”

Ooh, yeah!!

I think it will happen! I was lucky enough to be in the live audience for your debut in the sketch Little Orphan Cassidy opposite Timothée Chalamet, and I got to witness Lorne grab your shoulders and give you his well-wishes—like he was anointing you—right before the cameras started rolling. What were you feeling? And what did he say??

What I was feeling was Thank god this skit made it on. In that moment, I was just grateful that the timing worked out. Because between the dress rehearsal and air, you just never know what’s gonna make it, even up to the minute of having your costume on. So I don’t jazz myself up too hard. But once I got on the stage, and we’re all in costume, and I see Timothée wearing the green screen morph suit that I made him wear to become the moon, I was like, Oh my god, okay, it’s actually happening.

AND WHAT DID LORNE SAY?

Lorne was there to support this being my first big moment. But I blacked out as I was getting onstage. So I don’t know. But I do remember shaking his hand on the way back onto stage at the end of the show. And he said, “Really great job.” To hear a compliment like that from someone like him was totally surreal. Because it’s live TV, and it could go any which way. Even if the skit went amazingly at the table and in the dress rehearsal, come the actual show, anything can happen. For it to have worked out every little step along the way was like a little check mark. And that last word from him was like the biggest sigh of relief. It was my final check mark of the night from the man himself.

I’m obsessed. Being there, I really felt like I was witnessing SNL history in that moment. The audience was in stitches. I love it when a new cast member has their breakout sketch. Where did the inspiration for that skit come from?

A week prior, Mikey Day came up to me and was like, “You know, I really see you, like, looking out a window and singing something. And maybe you’re, like, an orphan or something.” We need new ideas every week, so I was like, I think I’m going to try and write that. So it was born out of that little seedling of an idea mentioned in passing in the hallway.

The moment you opened your mouth, the audience was eating out the palm of your hands. What made you choose that deep baritone voice?

I knew I wanted the song to be achy. As I sat in my office writing it, I did a little bit of a Michael McDonald impression. And that made me laugh.

It made all of us laugh!

Good! Feeling out what the music was going to sound like was the biggest moment in writing that sketch. My favorite types of sketches are ones where you can have a rolling giggle from start to finish. I didn’t just want to tell jokes, I wanted to play the entire thing funny. So I wrote it on a Tuesday and sent it to Mikey and Streeter Seidell, who’s one of the head writers at SNL. They write together all the time, so I was like, “If you two can make a pass at this and change or edit whatever. I don’t know if my format is even right.” And they did. They buttoned up the formatting and added jokes. Then the next day at the table read, they still hadn’t heard the song. They thought it was a sweet little song. And right before we read it, Mikey leaned in toward me and was like, “No matter how this goes, don’t seat it.” But once I started singing, even Mikey, who had worked on the sketch, started laughing! Everyone in the room was like, “What the hell is this?!” That was my biggest feeling of true euphoria, doing that for the first time at table. Feeling like the people I look up to had given me their stamp of approval.

You sing a lot on the show. You’ve done Mama Cass and Judy Garland and even appeared as a singing construction worker in Fully Naked in New York. Should we be expecting a lot more vocal performances from you in the future?

It’s super fun, and singing as part of a comedy show takes the pressure off doing it well. There’s room for error. I love doing it and foresee doing it more. I’m very grateful.

You also appeared as Maggie Smith auditioning to be the narrator for Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me. Who are some other celebrities you’d love to impersonate?

Oh my god. For real, for real? I really want to play Gypsy Rose Blanchard. We’re back soon, and I’m pitching next week. So you might run this ahead of a Gypsy sketch. God help me, I hope I think of something funny. I love her. I’ve been all over her social media presence.

She really took to social media like a fish to water!

Her “get ready with me”!? I’m like, girl, you know the trends. She had a phone in there.

Maybe that’s the sketch! Gypsy Rose hiding her prison phone.

I mean, she’s just so cool! I’ve also been really obsessed with Barry Keoghan’s media presence at large. He’s always slaying the carpet. He’s serving c*nt.

Out of all the hosts and musical guests you’ve worked with thus far during season 49, who have you been most starstruck by?

Billie Eilish was so cool to witness in the room. Her voice is crazy to experience firsthand. It’s beyond amazing working with somebody who I know is just going to be, like, an icon forever.

And in my first week, like, seeing Pete Davidson there was very “oh my god!” And meeting all of the former cast members who I’ve seen on this show, especially the female greats of the show like Maya Rudolph and Kristin Wiig and Kate McKinnon, has been incredible. Kristin was THAT girl. Bridemaids?! I mean. Even the stupid boys in my high school would watch that movie and say it was great. It starred this female ensemble who were doing their own thing and being funnier than the guys. I feel like in recent years, the most iconic people to come out of the show, in my opinion, for the most part, are the women. All of whom I’ve looked up to.

And now you’re one of them!

I got to meet Tina Fey. And her just knowing who I was and knowing some of the things that I’ve done was just a total pinch-me moment. Because yeah, she was also THAT girl. I also recently walked past a table where Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch were sitting and they were like, “Chloe!” Like, fully saying my name first and waving me over, and all I could think was, You guys don’t have to know me, but somehow you do? It’s just wild.

SNL returns Saturday, January 20 with host Jacob Elordi and musical guest Reneé Rapp, live at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

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