“Good on Ryan for being himself, and being real,” she says.

Heidi Gardner defends Ryan Gosling after breaking multiple times on SNL

"Good on Ryan for being himself, and being real," she says.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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April 24, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Heidi Gardner and Ryan Gosling on 'Saturday Night Live'. Credit:

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

- Heidi Gardner shares her opinion on performers laughing during *SNL* sketches: "I love when people break."

- The comedian defends Ryan Gosling for breaking during his recent hosting gig on the show: "Good on Ryan for being himself."

- Gardner also remembers breaking during the infamous "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch in 2024: "It was very real for me."

Heidi Gardner loves when people break on *SNL*.

The comedian, who departed the sketch series in August before its season 51 premiere, tells ** her perspective on performers who crack up during live performances, noting that she held herself to a high standard when she joined the show.

"I think I, for myself, just really had this self-imposed rule where I was like, 'You can't break, you can't break,'" she remembers. "I think I just took it too seriously. I was like, 'You can't break until you *really* break, or you earn it.'"

Heidi Gardner in New York City on Jan. 20, 2026.

Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty

Looking back, Gardner doesn't think she needed to be so strict. "The audience loves when people break," she says. "It's fun. I love when people break. I don't know why I was so hard on myself."

Gardner famously broke down laughing after witnessing Mikey Day's grotesque makeup during the "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch with host Ryan Gosling in 2024.

Ryan Gosling on 'Saturday Night Live'.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Now, after Gosling caught some flak for breaking in several sketches when he returned to the show in March — including "Passing Notes," "Wedding Tradition," and "Cyclops" — Gardner defended the actor for letting loose during the show's goofiest segments.

"Anything that I was scared of [regarding breaking] — there were no punishments for being myself and being real," she says. "So I think: good on Ryan for being himself, and being real, because I think that he just thinks it's really funny, and all the stuff he's doing is funny."

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The actress also fondly remembers breaking during that "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch. "I like that the person that made me break was Mikey Day, who feels like a brother to me," she says. "And it felt like a very personal at-home moment, like when you're a kid and your brother makes you laugh, but you're trying to do something serious, like talk on the phone with someone and your brother's in the background doing something, and you're like, 'Shut up, stop.'"

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Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner on 'Saturday Night Live'.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

In addition to laughing, Gardner says that she inadvertently broke character with an overt physical gesture.  "There was one moment when I put up my hand to Mikey, and I'm so surprised!" she recalls. "I know what I was thinking, which was like, 'Mikey, stop.' In my head, it was just like, 'Mikey, stop it. Stop, stop, stop, stop, we're doing something serious. Stop.'"

Gardner reflects on why she put her hand up to stop Day. "I just like that when I broke, I got to have that feeling of like, 'Oh, that's like my brother annoying me,'" she remembers. "It was very real for me."

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW SNL”