Inside Kristen Wiig And Bill Hader's Friendship
In 2014, Saturday Night Live alums Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig co-starred as twin siblings in the morbid dramedy The Skeleton Twins. Though the movie was a leap into unfamiliar dramatic territory for the comedians, Hader told The Miami Herald that their history as SNL co-stars helped. "Having worked together really helped me personally, because I was able to be vulnerable around Kristen," he said. "It was a new kind of part for me, and it was nice being there with someone you knew had your back and who you could fail in front of."
Wiig echoed Hader's sentiments in an interview for Yahoo! News that same year. "When you spend a lot of time with someone, and when you're emotionally open with someone, and you did something that you're really scared to do with someone, and then say 'Oh my gosh, I did it,' you just get closer," she said. "You peel off the layers of the other person and yourself. It's kind of hard to put into words, because it's a feeling. But when we were done shooting I felt like I had never really been through an experience like that with someone."
The casting of two sketch comedians in a movie that begins with suicide attempts raised a few eyebrows, but the relationship between the pair allowed for a believable on-screen bond.
Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig have a 'telepathic' twin connection
It wasn't a major reach for Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig to play twins in The Skeleton Twins due to their comedic connection. "We kind of already have that relationship," Hader said in an interview with Yahoo! News in 2014. "When we get around each other, we're just super goofy."
The exception, Wiig said, is that the pair don't bicker like siblings. "I feel like a lot of brothers and sisters fight, but we don't fight," she told ABC News. "It's comfortable." When asked what they related to in their characters for the Yahoo! News piece, Hader and Wiig cited "the way [they] mess around" and "the way [they] talk."
A Miami Herald reporter asked the pair whether they agreed with the movie's director, Craig Johnson, when he said they had a "telepathic connection." "Oh, gosh, I don't know," Hader replied, to which Wiig added, "I knew you were going to say that. See? I was reading his mind."