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Gilda Radner wasn’t just one of the greatest SNL castmembers of all time, she was one of the funniest people of all time too! The new documentary Love, Gilda shows us her comic genius as well as some very rare footage before she succumbed to cancer in 1989. The documentary’s director Lisa D’Apolito had done so much work with Gilda’s Club [the organization for people living with cancer which was named after Radner], in the past and that lead her to wanting to document Ms. Radner. I recently got the chance to speak with Ms. D’Apolito via phone about her fantastic new documentary!

Love, Gilda movie poster

Gilda’s widow Gene Wilder passed away in 2016. Had he been involved with this documentary prior to his death?

Yes. A year before he died, I spent the day with him and his wife in the house he was in with Gilda. We talked about the film. He was very ill at the time, but he told me these amazing Gilda stories. [Pause] I think meeting him was probably the highlight of everything, because Gilda loved him. Like desperately loved him. I had these audio tapes of her and she talked about him so much. And meeting him in person you understand why she would love him. Just really gentle. [Pause] So yeah, it was really great to get to spend time with him.

There are several featured interviewees connected to SNL (Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Cecily Strong, and more). Were there any interviewees on your wish list you couldn’t get for one reason or another?

Yes, I wanted everyone from the original SNL cast, but I especially wanted Bill Murray. It is challenging to get anyone to be interviewed for a documentary and I completely respect anyone who did not wish to be interviewed. Because even Gilda’s friends who did end up being interviewed, it was very emotional to bring up Gilda again. In terms of Bill, I tried to get to him and I got to some people very close to him and they said “Look, you’ll never get Bill”. I saw this doc about him at Hot Docs [ The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man which is set for an October 25 release from Gravitas] about how he just kinda shows up at parties and it kinda gave me an insight to him and I could see how he would never want to be interviewed.

And then Jane Curtin also had passed on the film. But my friend had talked to her afterwards and she said she is a very private person, she is excited to see this film is documenting Gilda, but she’s a very personal person who loved Gilda very much and she was very private. But you know, I respect anyone who didn’t want to do this.

director Lisa D’Apolito

Mike Myers has talked proudly about how he played Gilda’s son in a Canadian TV commercial when he was 11 years-old. Was that something that came up in your research at all?

Yeah, he was definitely on the list of people I wanted to interview, but at a certain point I wanted the film to be Gilda telling her story, so I sort of wanted to limit the number of people we interviewed for the film. Everyone I interviewed (except for the modern day people) are people that Gilda talked about extensively in her journals. They were all very very close to her. So sometimes you just have to make a choice. [Pause] I could interview people for the rest of my life who were associated with Gilda at some point and it would probably be interesting, but I think you just make choices at some point.

Gilda Radner circa late 70s

Gilda Radner is not just one of the greatest SNL castmembers of all time, she was one of the great comedic geniuses of all time. While there is a great deal of seriousness in this doc, was it fun for you to sift through all her SNL and early comedy work?

Oh yeah. I saved that for last. I saved it for when we started post-production, cause I really wanted to get to know Gilda as a person first. Then I sat down and watched the first five years of SNL. Then I edited out every sketch that Gilda was in. Then I categorized it by subjects and character, and she was just amazing. Her physical comedy is just unparalleled. Her love of performing and her love of other actors and talking to an audience, you just see the joy and how much joy she had in performing. So yes, it was a lot of fun!

Every cast of SNL often gets compared to other casts, but that original Not Ready For Prime Time Players is often considered to be the greatest SNL cast of all. What do you think it is about that cast and that time period that made it so special, more so than other casts in SNL’s 40-plus years?

Well it was ground-breaking in its time in 1975. Also many of the cast members had worked together before and had known each other over the years. Gilda knew Dan Aykroyd from Canada, she knew Bill [Murray] from Second City, she knew John [Belushi] from Second City and National Lampoon, and she knew Lorne [Michaels] from Canada. They weren’t just hired because they had been in the clubs together, they really had camaraderie. Also, in the early years, they didn’t know what it [SNL] was going to become. If you watch those early episodes, they are different than what it became, like those strange Muppets that were always on there. I don’t even know that the cast was meant to be the focal point of the show, but they really started breaking out, especially Chevy Chase. But all of them were just really super talented. From what I knew it really appealed to kids that were in college at the time. They didn’t know how popular it was, but they would do market testing, and in college dorm rooms, kids were watching SNL together.

Also - they all came in together. Whereas, every other cast people come in and come out. Many of the writers knew each other too. It was something that was building over the years.

One of the central messages in this documentary is that comedy can be something that can help heal one’s pain and more importantly, help one survive. That was just such a beautiful message you had.

Thank you Eric. I think the message was just who Gilda was. Even in the darkest times, she could find the humor in it and she could find hope. That’s what was attractive to me. Even in the darkest of times, she never hit rock bottom, she could pull herself out with a laugh.

Gilda as Roseanne Roseannadanna on SNL

You, yourself, actually have a personal connection to Gilda’s Club. Tell me about your connection and how that led to this project.

I was head of production for an advertising agency and we started doing fundraising videos for Gilda’s Club. I just fell in love with Gilda’s Club right away. You walk into Gilda’s Club in New York City and it’s just murals of Roseanne Roseannadanna and Gilda all over the place. I started interviewing members for different fundraising videos and they would talk about Gilda in such an intimate and personal way. I had read her book It’s Always Something. Many really reached for her in the time of what they were going through, which was the same thing that Gilda went through. Her legacy is so powerful. She continues to help people in such an important way. I think there are sixteen or seventeen Gilda’s Clubs throughout the country, which reaches hundreds of people, and they’ve been going on for twenty-something years, so there’s thousands and thousands of people who are helped by, not just the program, but the idea of Gilda. That is what kinda got me involved with the project and wanting to do it so desperately.

Gilda’s Club 

The documentary has been getting a tremendous response as film festivals since it premiered at Tribeca and now it’s being released theatrically on September 21. What is next for you?

I’m doing a couple things. I’m working with some producers on a narrative version of the film, which is exciting. I’ve been so lucky because Gilda is an amazing subject and the archival footage that I’ve had has been so amazing. So I am looking for another project that is similar. 

Kristen Stewart

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayNxIHoA9lg)