Melissa Villaseñor Says Leaving ‘SNL’ Was A “Mental Health” Decision

Previous saturday night live Cast member Melissa Villaseñor spoke out this week about her decision to leave the show, and it doesn’t sound like it was an easy one.

“It was my decision,” Villaseñor told The Daily Beast’s Last Laugh. podcast. He went on to explain the terms in which stepped out in September. “I gave myself a lot of time in the summer to think about it and to think in my head if I go back. At the end of the day it was about my mental health. Last season I had a couple of panic attacks. I think it was just… I was struggling. I always felt like I was on the edge of a cliff every week. And I was like, I don’t want to be doing that to myself anymore. And it’s not like the show was mean to me or anyone. That’s how I handle things.”

Villasenor’s list of SNL impersonations include Jennifer Lopez, AOC, Sarah Silverman and Kristen Wiig. She was one of many high-profile castembers to leave recently, with Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney announcing in May that they were leaving the program at the end of season 47 along with Pete Davidson. On September 1, Alex Moffat, Villaseñor and Aristotle Athari announced that I would not go back, either. Chris Redd joined The exodus in mid-September.

Villaseñor admitted that the decision “was super hard” to leave the show after six seasons “because I love Lorne [Michaels] and I am very grateful to all of them for having me.” Even more, being on the show fulfilled a lifelong dream.

“This is everything I wanted as a child,” she said, “so I will carry it forever in my heart, that I got to experience that in my life.”

With a record number of cast members last season, Makes sense it was time for a big change in SNL.

“We got to a point where we had a lot of people and people didn’t have enough playing time,” Michaels told the New York Times In an interview. “The way the series has survived is because of that level of renewal. The price of success is that people go off and do other things; His main obligation is with his talent and continue promoting it”.

For Villaseñor, there were also more personal reasons.

“I think I’m an introvert,” she said. “When I’m in a big group of a lot of amazing people, and everyone’s talking about each other, I think I tend to be small. I get nervous, like, where do I fit in? What am I supposed to do? That’s how I was in high school too. And so I think that’s what caused it. And I was like, I think I’m fine. I feel like there’s nothing else that makes me feel like, oh I need to share this, I want to do this on the show. I think I’m ready. There was something that told me, I think I could break up.”