CNN
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One of Molly Shannon’s most popular “SNL” characters, the hyperactive Catholic student Mary Catherine Gallagher, stems from Shannon’s lost childhood.
When he was four, his mother, younger sister and cousin were killed in a car accident. Her father was driving.
Shannon, a survivor of the accident, along with another sister and her father, spoke to Anderson Cooper for his “All There Is” podcast about escaping to a fantasy world after the tragedy.
“I think because I was so young, it’s like there’s no way you can really, like, fully accept it and understand it. [that loss] he told Cooper. “So I got into a fantasy waiting for him to return for a long time. And I thought maybe when we got back to the house we lived in before the accident, I thought maybe it would be around the corner.
Shannon also became somewhat of a confidant to her father, a man who found himself raising two daughters by himself in the 1970s.
When she was 12, her father had her read financial documents, which she told Cooper she thought was “empowering.”
“I mean, some people might say, oh, that’s so inappropriate. They shouldn’t do this to a child, “he said.” But the good part is that it makes you feel a bit like a king or queen, in a way, like you feel, well, I’m really capable. ”
“And he trusts me with those decisions, like adults,” she added. “There is therefore an absence of borders. But then she also made me feel good. Someone once called this an abuse of power.
Cooper can understand.
He was 10 when his father Wyatt died at the age of 50 while undergoing heart surgery, and he found himself becoming a bit of an advisor to his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt.
“My mom was asking for advice and I was like, Mom, he’s married. He won’t go, he won’t marry you. Whatever he says, he’s not telling you the truth,” she told Shannon. “I wanted her to give me some financial documents because I was like, we’re on a sinking ship and I need to know exactly how much time we have because I have to make money. ”
He and Shannon both agreed that losing a parent at a young age led them to focus more on achieving success.
“I was really determined to be successful, to be successful. I had been running for a long time. Run, run, run, try to be an actress in Los Angeles and do shows and auditions, “she said.” And I really wanted to be on TV, and then I really wanted to be on ‘Saturday Night Live’. ”
“And then I finally auditioned for SNL, and I finally got cast and I’m on the show, and then I had Mary Katherine Gallagher and … but I felt really depressed because I was like, oh, I thought it would fix it all. “, he said. “And I felt like no, something was missing. And it was like I really only wanted my mom. I was like, I just wanted her.
“Part of my motivation for getting into work is anger, like the anger of a child who has lost a parent very early and is just angry about it,” Cooper explained.
Shannon reflected on her relationship with her father and was there when he died at the age of 72 after a battle with cancer.
“I guess why my mom died so suddenly, having that moment with my dad while he was dying and in the hospital was so deeply moving,” she said.
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