While Molly Shannon is enjoying a career resurgence with roles on HBO’s The White Lotus and The Other Two, the comedienne is opening up about a family tragedy.
The 56-year-old Shaker Heights, Ohio native lost her mother, younger sister and cousin in a car accident when she was just four years old, with her father, who was driving under the influence, surviving but suffering horrific injuries.
Shannon has rarely spoken about the family tragedy throughout her 30-year career, though she opened up to The Los Angeles Times about how it helped shape her life.
Opening up: While Molly Shannon is enjoying a career resurgence with roles on HBO’s The White Lotus and The Other Two, the comedienne is opening up about a family tragedy
Tragedy: The 56-year-old Shaker Heights, Ohio native lost her mother, younger sister and cousin in a car accident when she was just four years old, with her father, who was driving under the influence, surviving but suffering horrific injuries
‘I was very heartbroken and very sad and just trying to hold it all together as a kid,’ the actress began.
‘There’s no way that you could feel that type of deep pain about your mother and your sister being dead, so you just hold it all in, and it comes up later in life,’ she added.
After small roles on In Living Color and Twin Peaks, Shannon broke out as a comedy star when she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1995.
Breakout: After small roles on In Living Color and Twin Peaks, Shannon broke out as a comedy star when she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1995
She created the beloved character Mary Katherine Gallagher that year, which she portrayed in the 1999 movie Superstar.
The character was an unpopular Catholic school girl who was ultra-competitive and who would sniff her armpits when she got nervous.
Shannon would often literally throw herself into objects like metal chairs, without any padding, because she didn’t care if she hurt herself after the tragedy.
Sniff: The character was an unpopular Catholic school girl who was ultra-competitive and who would sniff her armpits when she got nervous
‘I didn’t care if I cut myself or I made myself bleed. I did not give a s**t. I looked at it like punk rock. I was reckless, and because of what I went through, I just didn’t care about anything,’ she said.
She will also be addressing the family tragedy in her memoir Hello Molly!, due out in April, which she admits has her feeling vulnerable opening up about this for the first time.
‘You feel like you put your heart right there on the table, but I hope that my story can help other people,’ Shannon added.
Didn’t care: ‘I didn’t care if I cut myself or I made myself bleed. I did not give a s**t. I looked at it like punk rock. I was reckless, and because of what I went through, I just didn’t care about anything,’ she said
While her father recuperated from the crash, Molly and her sister Mary lived with their aunt, and she knew the life she had before wouldn’t be the same.
‘The life that we left was not the same life we were coming back into. It just felt like everything was different,’ Shannon said.
Shannon added that she wanted her aunt to do everything just like her mother did, like, ‘No, my mom cuts the crust like that,’ adding, ‘Everything made me mad.’
Character: Shannon said that she created the Mary Katherine Gallagher character while at NYU, which she said was, ‘really based on me, how I felt after the accident — really nervous, accident-prone, wanting to please, f***ed up but full of hope.’
Even fun experiences like learning to tie your shoes in school made her sad because she knew her late little sister Katie would have loved it.
‘We would learn to do fun stuff, like tie our shoes, and I felt like, “Katie, my little sister, should be here learning. She would have loved this. Katie would have loved doing the rabbits and tying her shoe.”‘
Shannon said that she created the Mary Katherine Gallagher character while at NYU, which she said was, ‘really based on me, how I felt after the accident — really nervous, accident-prone, wanting to please, f***ed up but full of hope.’
‘I just exaggerated everything I felt as a little girl and turned it into a character,’ she added.
Created: Shannon said that she created the Mary Katherine Gallagher character while at NYU, which she said was, ‘really based on me, how I felt after the accident — really nervous, accident-prone, wanting to please, f***ed up but full of hope’
Exaggerated: ‘I just exaggerated everything I felt as a little girl and turned it into a character,’ she added