How “A Lot of Struggle” Allowed Molly Shannon To Reach Career Highs

Molly Shannon knows about adversity.

The Saturday Night Live alum, who stars in Showtime’s new comedy I Love That For You, learned about hardship early on. When Molly was four, her mother, younger sister and cousin were all killed in a car crash. Molly was in the car at the time.

In her memoir Hello, Molly!, the actress writes about how learning to handle grief at such a young age inspired her work ethic and outlook on life—and how fleeting it can be.

So, perhaps it’s no surprise that over the course of more than three decades, Molly has built a more diverse, impressive and well-respected comedic career than almost anybody in the industry. With her hilarious performance as an overbearing mother in 2021’s The White Lotus, her scene-stealing turn in The Other Two and now, as a home shopping network legend on I Love That For You, Molly is getting her flowers.

And she knows it.

“I started to feel it heating up during The White Lotus and then it just kind of continued,” Molly told E! News. “It’s blowing my mind. But I have to say, I worked really hard to get to this point. I kept putting the pieces in place. I struggled for a long time. I did not have an easy time.”