Kristen Wiig
2 min read
Kristen Wiig (born August 22, 1973, Canandaigua, New York) is an actress, comedian, and writer best known in the Ghostbusters community for portraying Erin Gilbert in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016).
2 min read
Kristen Wiig (born August 22, 1973, Canandaigua, New York) is an actress, comedian, and writer best known in the Ghostbusters community for portraying Erin Gilbert in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016).
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Wiig came to widespread attention as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, where she appeared from 2005 to 2012. She built her reputation as a physical performer with a broad range of recurring characters. Her film career expanded substantially after Bridesmaids (2011), which she co-wrote and co-produced in addition to starring in. That film was directed by Paul Feig and also starred Melissa McCarthy, both of whom later joined Wiig on Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. Additional credits include the voice role in How to Train Your Dragon (2010), the short Carnata (2011), and The Martian (2015).
Wiig plays Erin Gilbert, a physicist seeking tenure at Columbia University who co-authored a paranormal research book with Abby Yates years before the events of the film and spent the intervening time trying to distance herself from that work. Her arc moves from reluctant re-engagement with the paranormal to full commitment to the new Ghostbusters team. Erin anchors the group alongside Abby as a scientist-believer, in contrast to the more eccentric Jillian Holtzmann and the streetwise Patty Tolan.
Wiig came to the project through her personal connection to the director. She is close friends with Paul Feig's wife, Laurie, and reached out to Feig through her about a role on the film. Her prior collaboration with Feig on Bridesmaids made her a natural fit. Reports of her involvement were confirmed by late January 2015. She appeared in the first set photographs released publicly, taken in mid-June 2015 outside the Everett High School location in Boston that the production used as the fictional science institute.
Wiig's stunt double on the production was Jessi Fisher. During filming, Wiig accidentally punched actor Chris Gethard in one take. She is thanked by name on page 215 of the acknowledgment section of Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal (Three Rivers Press), the in-universe tie-in book published alongside the film.
The IDW Publishing series Ghostbusters 101 includes two visual nods to Wiig in issue 2, page 16, panel 2. A sign on the left of the panel advertises Cholodecki's Jewelry Store, a reference to the jewelry store where Wiig's character worked in Bridesmaids. A sign on the right reads "Wiig's Hair Design," with the listed phone number 555-WIIG.