You can currently catch Rachel Dratch on the small screen in American Home Shield commercials, so ComicBook.com recently caught up with the Saturday Night Live alum in honor of the ads. During the chat, we asked Dratch about her most iconic SNL character, Debbie Downer, and wondered if she had any other characters from her time on the show that she’s especially proud of.
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“Well, I don’t know if I’d say ‘proud of,’ but there’s a character that I like that probably no one even knows about it. He was on like three times, and it was this character named Abe Scheinwald, who was this old Hollywood movie producer,” Dratch explained. “He was like 90 years old, bald, giant – those glasses, Hollywood showbiz glasses – and he was very out of touch with how to be PC in today’s world.”
“He was old school and Seth Meyers was my son, and I kept tanking every deal because I was too antiquated,” she continued. “But that was really fun because I had this bald – I mean, I looked just like my grandfather – I had this bald cap, and I got to shovel – I was always eating coleslaw – So anyway, that was super fun … Probably that, but ‘proud?’ I don’t know if I’d use the word proud, but a deep cut of my characters.”
You can watch our interview with Dratch at the top of the page.
Why Didn’t Rachel Dratch Make a Debbie Downer Movie?
Dratch has returned to SNL to reprise the role of Debbie Downer over the years, but she’s never gotten the opportunity to play the character on the big screen. Many SNL characters have gotten movies, but Dratch has a good reason why Debbie didn’t go the way of Wayne’s World and Superstar.
“No,” Dratch replied when asked if she ever wrote a Debbie Downer script. “I used to get asked that a lot about the Debbie Downer movie, but the thing about Debbie Downer is she’s best in small doses, I think. I think with a whole movie – even a sketch, like the first couple were great and then people are on to you after, you know, they know what to expect – So I think a whole movie might not work. I think some things are best in teeny tiny little snippets.”
“We never did because she barely could make it the seven minutes sometimes,” she added. “So 90 minutes would probably be a snooze fest. But anyway, thank you for bringing it up though.”
ComicBook.com‘s interview with Rachel Dratch was done in support of her American Home Shield commercials. Learn more here or watch the ads here.
