Ana Gasteyer Talks ‘American Auto’ Season 2 [Interview]

From her days on Saturday Night Live to her current role as Katherine Hastings on American Auto, Ana Gasteyer’s humor has been captivating audiences and leaving them in stitches for decades. 

As a new, out-of-her-depth CEO, Gasteyer’s character on American Auto struggles to keep ahead of each new crisis Payne Motors encounters. With Katherine’s team of eccentric, uniquely qualified individuals, she manages to squeak by without much trouble — until now.

American Auto Season 2 focuses on the fallout Payne faces from a mistake they made with one of its cars. I recently spoke with Gasteyer about what to expect from Katherine and the whole team moving forward.

Of course, the freshest thing on all our minds after American Auto Season 2 Episode 2, “Most Hated CEO,” is that very human moment Katherine shares with the world while on Seth Meyers. Speaking to that moment, Gasteyer was happy about the reunion she had with her old SNL co-star.

“I’m a very comfortable guest there, and I could only imagine how utterly terrifying [it would have been] for someone like Katherine. She doesn’t customarily go into the entertainment world, you know?” Gasteyer said.

“The emotional stakes were fairly high. The entire country hates her and she’s like the butt of the joke. She’s completely out of class [sitting] by this amazingly funny guy,” she said. “Seth is so genuinely nice as a human and interviewer that it was funny to have to force him to be mean.”

For Katherine to become a bit more relatable and human while experiencing Meyers’ wrath is a turning point in her story. This season will see her continue that trajectory of growth.

“She’s becoming more dimensional with every episode for sure. I mean, she’s still a hot mess. She’s still cocky and she’s still pretty ignorant of her flaws. But, I think she is human,” Gasteyer said.

“Also, I feel the dynamics are different. [She’s] no longer surrounded by people who are afraid they’re gonna lose their jobs. I think she’s taken one for the team. She’s saved their jobs. And as a result, they’ve all had to come together a little bit to collectively save their jobs, which makes it more of us against them, as opposed to a mean incisive boss who’s gonna fire you.”

American Auto is a true ensemble show, and this season will dive into that according to Gasteyer, who thoroughly enjoys working with every one of them.

“Literally everyone,” she said of how much she loves working with each cast member. “I know that’s an obvious answer, but the number seven is pretty magical. You’re always sort of delighted and surprised. There are different strengths to different storylines and so we get to see a little bit more of those couplings and pairings this season.”

“I personally love when the whole gang is all together. Those sort of symphonic boardroom, conference room scenes where every single person is protecting their own self-interest. It just makes me laugh.”

During Season 1, the gang traveled to Iowa to open a new factory for their cars. This took all of the characters out of their element and made for some great character development moments. 

This season is going to have some more of the same — situations where these corporate characters are put into outside dynamics.

“There’s this one [episode] that takes place in Silicon Valley with a bunch of us traveling together. There’s a lot of variety to it,” Gasteyer hinted.

As any fan of Ana Gasteyer will know, her humor has been a defining part of her career. American Auto highlights that in order to make Katherine more likable despite her terrible traits.

“This season, I have many more opportunities at physical stuff. I don’t want to say physical comedy, but I have larger comedic moves, such as the meltdowns. The kind of sweaty, under-pressure stuff I really love playing. And I think they responded to that pretty quickly in the writing last year with the press conferences and so forth,” Gasteyer explained.

“It’s hard to know what your own skillset is, but I will say I’m pretty good at a fast talk move. This show is paced really fast, especially for a network comedy. It really moves at lightning speed. We have this kind of almost forties chitter chat that happens. And I do think, as a performer, I’m sort of a self-aware chatterbox,” Gasteyer said, noting that the writers may write to those characteristics. 

The dynamic between Katherine and Sadie has certainly evolved since Season 1. Gasteyer spoke about that a bit as well.

“Seasons evolve and characters evolve with each season. I am an ensemble player. I am a connector as a human. So it felt more organic to be working as a team than to be working at odds against one another.”

She added that in the beginning, the attitude toward Katherine wasn’t exactly pleasant. “Katherine doesn’t like BS and wanted to be talked to straight. It wasn’t necessarily that she was a mean boss as much as she was just like, ‘tell me the truth.'”

“I rely on my team for information and I need it. I don’t know anything about cars. They all do. And if we’re gonna do this, Remotely in a non-humiliating way, then I’m gonna need God’s honest truth. And so, it’s probably evolved as a result of Sadie being less sweaty and concerned that she’s losing her job and Katherine being more genuinely trusting of her,” Gasteyer continued.

“I mean, we’re not besties by any stretch of the imagination, but there’s definitely more of a collaboration for sure. And I love working with Harriet, so the scenes are awesome.”

To close out our conversation, Gasteyer discussed what it means to her to be part of this female-led comedy role.

“[It feels] awesome! I love that this show hasn’t spent a lot of time handwringing over the fact that there’s a woman in this role. I think that she is the first female executive, but that’s sort of inconsequential to the larger story being told. It’s subtle.”

“I mean, there is definitely probably the board that thinks she’s a bozo or whatever. No one is thinking she’s bad at her job because she’s a woman. People think when she’s bad at her job that she’s bad at her job because she made the wrong move. Justin [Spitzer] has always maintained that she’s intelligent,” Gasteyer said. “It’s also satisfying to play somebody that’s kind of brazen about what they want in the world.

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American Auto airs Tuesdays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

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