Rose Byrne and Kristen Wiig Toast to Bridesmaids, Friendship, and Launching Themselves Into Space

For If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Palm Royale, you both have created such singular characters. How different are they each from you in real life?

Wiig: She’s a little more delusional than I am. She’s much more ambitious than I am, also. I feel like we’re pretty different. I will say a similarity: I do have a belief that everything works out, and it is supposed to work out the way it’s supposed to work out. She doesn’t take no for an answer—and I do! Obviously, she’s just a little more scheming in a way, but she’s well intentioned, which I guess I am.

Byrne: I am pretty different. She’s very, very different from me. The character is incredibly hostile, Linda, and she comes from a place of hostility throughout the film, because she’s under such stress and trauma. Whereas my default is not hostility if I’m under stress or trauma. It is a different thing. I go overboard in another way, but not like that. So that was hard, because it’s not my natural default. It was challenging to constantly capture that hostility that she has, fighting everybody and cutting everybody off. But fun too.

Wiig: Knowing you and seeing her, I was like, “Who is this person?” Because it’s so heartbreaking. And you’re waiting the whole movie for her to just, like, run over somebody in a car. It was truly one of the most amazing performances that I’ve seen.

Byrne: I feel like it is just an opportunity. It’s a gift to see a woman act like that and lose it like that.

Wiig: Did you have moments—because this has happened to me—before you shot this where you were like, I don’t know if I can do this?

Byrne: Every day! I didn’t want to mess it up. I would be calling [writer-director] Mary Bronstein, “Did we get this?” The character’s very paranoid, and I’m not a Method person. But you do become a little bit consumed with your subject, whether you like it or not. You try to have faith, but I’m constantly wondering if this is going to come together. And particularly before you start. Once you’re in, it’s better because you’re just in it. But the anticipation before—I have that every time. It’s kind of boring. Bobby [Cannavale, Byrne’s partner] is like, “Can we be done?”

Wiig: But I think it’s good too, because then when you’re done, you’re like, Oh my gosh, I did it.

Byrne: I think if you’re not a little bit scared, then maybe reexamine what you’re doing.

Kristen, you’re always a great presenter at awards shows, like at the Globes with Will Ferrell and another year with Steve Carell. What’s your approach to doing that?

Wiig: With both of those in particular, we just met before and we’re like, “What do we want to do?” And both times it was a little like, “Well, they may either not like this or think it’s too long, but let’s just push for it.” And then they just kind of let us do it. But you never know. I remember specifically with the last one that I did with Will, it was later in the show. We were at the same table, and we would just look at each other like, “What are we doing?” I think we did a rehearsal and people were just like, “What is this?” So I think the long answer is, doing something that you think is funny while still acknowledging how great it is for the nominees and everything—not taking anything away from them, and talking about the category, and just having fun with it.