In front of a crowd of hundreds at an Atlanta Women’s Foundation fundraising luncheon on Oct. 30, Molly Shannon stood up, and kicked and stretched her way across the stage.
If you’re familiar with Shannon’s stint on “Saturday Night Live” (she was in the cast from 1995 to 2001), you should recognize this bit. It comes from one of Shannon’s more popular characters Sally O’Malley, a proud, 50-year-old woman wearing a red tracksuit. But while Sally is well-known, the inspiration for that famous character might come as a surprise.
At the luncheon, Shannon spoke about her life and career, paying special attention to a tragic event that changed her life when she was very young. When Shannon was 4 years old, her father got into an accident with the whole family in the car. She, her father, and her six-year-old sister Mary survived. But her mother, 25-year-old cousin, and little sister died.
Shannon talks at length about the accident and her ensuing relationship with her father in her 2022 memoir “Hello, Molly!” During the luncheon, she talked about how hard the loss was to deal with at such a young age.
“It really felt like life, as we knew it, was changed in a split second,” she said. “It felt like the rug got pulled from under us.”
She and her sister stayed with her aunt while her father recovered from his injuries. She described her father as someone with a “zest for life” who always encouraged her acting career. When she was younger, he would make everything a game, suggesting the family pretend to be blind in a store, or moving around mannequins to make them funnier.
Shannon clearly inherited some of that silly spirit (throughout the talk, she was goofy and easy with a laugh) but that’s not the only thing she received from her father. While talking about her famous Sally O’Malley character, she said part of Sally’s physicality came from her father. After the accident, her dad’s legs were badly injured. After his recovery, his gait was never quite the same.
“Sally O’Malley’s limp was my dad,” Shannon said. “But it’s like me wishing that my dad could kick the braces off his legs and walk faster. So Sally O’Malley the character is me imitating my dad.”
Sally wasn’t the only character that grew out of Shannon’s childhood experiences. Perhaps Shannon’s most famous “Saturday Night Live” character – Mary Katherine Gallagher, the Catholic schoolgirl – is loosely based on a childhood friend and Shannon herself.
“That’s from my mom dying, because [Mary Katherine] is kind of nervous, accident-prone, shy with women a little bit, wants to please. A survivor,” Shannon said. “It’s a very exaggerated version of how I felt when I was a little girl.”
Shannon’s own experience creating these characters is an interesting example of how art and comedy can help one to heal. Mary Katherine was a break-out character for Shannon, so much so that she spawned the 1999 film “Superstar.” Shannon said the popularity of the character showed her how important it is to create from the heart.
“If you really write from within – I couldn’t believe how many people related to it,” she said. “That was from me!”
The Atlanta Women’s Foundation chose Shannon to participate in this year’s event because of her resilience and the way her story fit into the event’s theme, “Catalyst for Change.” When asked if she felt like she was a catalyst for change, Shannon responded in a charming, slightly deprecating manner.
“Uhhh, let’s see … I hope so!” she said, laughing. “Yes, yes! I think so!”
