PARTING SHOT
Illustration by BRITT SPENCER
“I THINK WOMEN ARE HUNGRY TO SEE THEMSELVES REPRESENTED ON screen,” Molly Shannon told Newsweek about the third and final season of the HBO dramedy Divorce, which just had its series finale. “It’s a show I would be watching if I wasn’t on it.” Shannon has represented a wide spectrum of women, from her iconic Saturday Night Live characters to her lovingly authentic portrayal of a dying mother in the 2016 film Other People. In Divorce, her character Diane has evolved from being a woman who relied solely on her husband to a woman forced to take care of herself after her husband is sent to prison for embezzlement. Shannon says about her, “Diane is really tough. She’s funny. She doesn’t suffer fools.” Shannon, who guest-starred on a couple of episodes of Sex and the City, said getting to work with Sarah Jessica Parker again “was just such a lucky break for me.” We spoke with Shannon about the final season of Divorce, the impact Saturday Night Live had on her career and where her SNL character Mary Katherine Gallagher would be today.