Ariana Grande had a hard time letting go of her bowl-cut-sporting Saturday Night Live character, Antonio. On November 14, the Thank You Next singer appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote her highly anticipated film Wicked. Speaking about her recent hosting of Saturday Night Live, she admitted to feeling traumatized by her character Antonio, the viral dead-eyed castrato.
“He’s still with me, you know?” she told host Fallon. “I’m still unpacking the emotional weight of Antonio with my therapist,” Grande added. The character was part of the SNL skit Castrati in which Antonio was presented by his parents played by Andy Samberg and Maya Rudolph to perform for Prince Enzo (Andrew Dismukes).
During the sketch, Grande flaunts her high-pitched voice while staying in her character. The skit has since gone viral to the point that fans have come up to her asking for autographs on portraits of that character at Wicked premieres all around the world.
“They’ve been coming to the premieres, which is insane. But I mean, I really — I understand it. I appreciate it,” she added.
The pop star crushed all of her skits on the October 12 episode of the sketch comedy series and among her viral skits was her Bridesmaids Speech sketch which featured a group of bridesmaids — Grande, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, and Sarah Shermanon — a bachelorette vacation. The girls perform a parody of Sabrina Carpenter’s smash hit Espresso while revealing unsolicited details of their vacation.
During the parody, they revealed the bride (Chloe Fineman) hooking up with a guy in front of the groom (Andrew Dismukes). “I think I loved it the most because you singing off-key is very rare,” Fallon noted. Grande immediately chimed in saying it was one of her favorite sketches.
“It was really fun. It was a bit that we found in the moment,” she explained. “I pitched it to the writers… I said, ‘Would it be funnier if it got progressively worse as it went on?'” Grande added.
The singer’s upcoming film Wicked will be released in theaters on November 22.
