Aidy Bryant attends "Shrill" Premiere during the 2019 SXSW (Getty)
NEW YORK – Aidy Bryant loves creating interesting characters.
Bryant's new Hulu series, "Shrill," based on Lindy West's memoir of the same name, tells the story of Annie, a full-figured woman who's looking to change her life -- not her body.
The comedy is based in truth but dramatized, similar to the skills Bryant has learned working on "Saturday Night Live."
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“This set was a very collaborative environment and everyone was supportive," she told Fox News at the show's New York City premiere. Like her work on "SNL," the job only gets done when people do “a bunch of hard work” and "try new things."
Bryant leaned on her years of experience in high-pressure comedy situations to create this new character.
“I think you might have the innate energy or talent [for comedy] but the skills of knowing how to handle an audience of like 300 people who might not want to listen to you, you have to learn and practice.”
She credited her beginnings at Second City to her success. It was there that Lorne Michaels -- the creator of "SNL" and an executive producer on "Shrill" -- discovered Bryant.
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Still, today when the comedian/actress has new material she wants to work through, she said she likes to bounce ideas off of her writing partners.
Fox News also caught up with West, who served as a fellow executive producer on the series. She called the adaptation of "Shrill" from her book to TV a "surreal moment for me."
And she loved being a part of the creative process -- one of the only details she fought to keep was the character getting an abortion. “Abortion is normal, it’s OK to be fat, you deserve to have a good life in the body that you have," she said.
“I love that we have an abortion in the show. I think that it’s really important that we start to tell a broader scope of abortion stories. Sometimes what you see depicted is so often really highly dramatized or an after-school special moment or you only see remorse and regret and trauma," West explained. "The fact is that this is a very common medical procedure that people need and people deserve to have access to as part of the full spectrum of medical care."
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West added that Annie in the show is a "piece of fiction" inspired by West's book but "she’s not me by any means.”
"Shrill" is available to stream on Hulu on Friday, March 15.
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