Villaseñor confirmed that the decision to leave “SNL” was her own, and spent the majority of her summer contemplating whether or not she wanted to pull the plug. “At the end of the day, it was about my mental health,” she said. Villaseñor shared that she had experienced multiple panic attacks the previous season, which she saw as a sign that she needed to make some serious changes. “I was struggling, and I always felt like I was on the edge of a cliff every week,” she said. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to do that to myself anymore.” Working on “SNL” is one of the bucket-list goals of most comedians, but the live sketch show is an extremely high-pressure work environment. “I get nervous, like, ‘Where do I fit? What am I supposed to do?'” she said.
As a performer, Villaseñor was a bit of a swiss-army-woman, popping up in a multitude of sketches because her versatile abilities made her one of the most utilized performers on the show. She was working non-stop on the show, and it sounds like she was on the verge of burning out. “There was just something telling me I could part ways,” she said. “It was super hard, because I love Lorne [Michaels], and I’m so grateful to all of them for having me.” Villaseñor ended by acknowledging that “SNL” was everything she dreamed of as a kid, and that she will “carry that forever in my heart that I got to experience that in my life.”
