Saturday Night Live could see a former cast member win an Oscar for the second year in a row.
Kristen Wiig’s original song for the Netflix documentary Will & Harper has officially been shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Of the 88 songs initially eligible for consideration in the category, 14 have advanced to the next round following a vote by the Academy’s music branch, with Wiig’s “Harper And Will Go West” being among them. The branch will now vote to determine the final nominees.
If Wiig winds up being nominated and wins, she would become only the second Saturday Night Live cast member to take home gold at the Academy Awards. No former cast member had earned that distinction until just last year, when actor Robert Downey Jr. won Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer. (Downey was a cast member for SNL’s 1985-86 season—ironically the show’s most critically -panned year.)
Other former SNL players who have been nominated for Oscars include Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Joan Cusack, and Michael McKean.
Throughout Will & Harper, Will Ferrell and former SNL writer Harper Steele pester Wiig to write them a song for their cross-country journey but get no response. The documentary, which follows Ferrell and Steele on a road trip after Steele comes out as trans, ends with a video of Wiig performing the song.
Wiig co-wrote “Harper And Will Go West” with songwriter Sean Douglas.
The potential Oscar nomination would also be Wiig’s second. She was nominated for Best Original Screenplay in 2011 as co-writer of Bridesmaids.
In September, Wiig performed the song live alongside former SNL writer Paula Pell at a special screening of Will & Harper in New York.
The final Academy Award nominees will be announced on Friday, January 17. The 97th Oscars ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 2, airing live on ABC and Hulu.
It’s great
Oh!!! I hope she wins! I instantly fell in love with that song!