Kate McKinnon

The 2016 Saturday Night Live debate sketches give McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton a strongly physical interpretation of rehearsed public composure. The held smile, prepared response and sudden change in energy all become part of the comic character. Begin with the first debate parody opposite Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump and notice the listening as well as the speeches. Her inclusion is about the performance’s construction, not about treating a satirical version of a candidate as a factual account of that candidate’s temperament.