Cecily Strong just wrapped her seventh season with “Saturday Night Live,” having joined the show in 2012. One of Strong’s most notable impressions this season was Judge Jeanine Pirro, appearing multiple times at the Weekend Update desk. She is also known for her Melania Trump impression.

Strong recently chatted with Gold Derby managing editor Chris Beachum, discussing the character work she did this season on “Saturday Night Live,” the real-life people who have reached out to her and what she wants to do next. Watch the exclusive webchat above and read the complete interview transcript below.

Gold Derby: Cecily Strong, great to have you with us today. You just finished another season of “Saturday Night Live.” What’s it like wrapping a season? What’s that moment like and that week like when you know, “We’re finally gonna get a little bit of a break here”?

Cecily Strong: Me personally, I always immediately get sick. It’s like clockwork. My body knows I can get sick. I have that luxury. I can shut down. It feels like the end of a marathon, I suppose, if I’d ever done a marathon.

GD: My mother was a teacher and she always used to get sick the whole two weeks of Christmas every year.

CS: Oh yeah, any vacation I’m always sick the first week, at least.

GD: Let’s talk about that finale because I’ve heard through your reps at NBC that should you get nominated in July, the finale with Paul Rudd would be your episode submission. What was it about that episode that you liked so much?

CS: I always ask my reps to help with that. I never know which one to submit but I love Paul Rudd, obviously. He’s a friend of the show. It was fun to do Pirro again. I always enjoy a musical number. So I think it had all of those elements that helped make it a fun show for me.

GD: I love it when you play Judge Jeanine on the show. Do you remember the first time somebody approached you about maybe tackling that?

CS: Yes. It was Bryan Tucker and he was showing me these clips. She does a man on the street segment. We tried it a couple years ago. We tried it in a sketch format and it didn’t go. It wound up getting cut for time. There was something about this wild energy to her that was very fun. It was great that we got to bring her back.

GD: When she does something in the news, makes news on a given week or any character that you play, is that just the joy of a week when you’re live knowing that, “Oh, okay this person has really stepped in it this week. We get to make fun”?

CS: Sort of. For instance, last week she didn’t necessarily do anything new. It was just, “We have one week left, why not bring her back? We had so much fun the first time. What can we do this time?”

GD: What’s the trick to playing her?

CS: She has that very serious voice. I actually use the tape again. I pull my face very tight and then I think we get to do any slapstick-y physical comedy, which is always fun. Colin [Jost]’s always game for everything.

GD: That was a particularly good segment for you. You also had the cold opening that I thought was really good with everybody, Alec Baldwin returning. What’s it like playing Melania?

CS: This was the first one where she really got to sing and dance so much. Usually, I play her much more subdued. Usually, it’s just a stare and it’s more of a cold… She’s a model at heart.

GD: All the people you played over the years that are famous that are well known, have you heard from anybody?

CS: I’ve heard from Sarah Koenig. The first time I met her at the Peabodys, I had to spend 10 minutes convincing her that we were not making fun of her, the host of “Serial,” that we were big fans. It took her a while to know that it came from a place of love.

GD: Nobody else has reached out?

CS: Abby Huntsman, I think all “The View” ladies liked “The View.” That’s all I can remember at the moment. Oh, obviously Rachel Brosnahan hosted so we talked about that for a second. I think those are the only people that I can remember right this second that have reached out.

GD: I know these weeks go by in a blur and at the end of a season you can barely even remember who was on. I wanted to ask about a couple sketches in particular that I loved. The Jingle Bells Christmas sketch with Matt Damon.

CS: Oh man, that was so much fun. That was another Bryan Tucker. Watched a video of Barbra Streisand singing “Jingle Bells” in a cab and sent me a text message like 3 a.m. that week and said, “Can we do something with this?” And I laughed and said, “Of course.” So we met the next day and it took about 10 minutes to write. I think that’s always a good sign when you know what they’re supposed to be saying. It’s in me.

GD: Was that a scary one because of the sheer volume of quantity of words that you had to get out in a short period of time?

CS: Yeah, especially because I can do something well maybe on Wednesday when I haven’t been up all week and then by Saturday night at midnight after being awake for however long, my brain’s not as sharp, my voice isn’t as sharp. So it is a little scary but I think I practiced as much as I could. It just runs in your head over and over and over and that was just one that was easier for me to do. It was all exciting and Matt Damon was so wonderful and so great and like, “What do you need from me?” He was so fabulous. He was excited about his role and gave it a whole character and a whole world which I think really helped it.

GD: People think he’s hosted a bunch of times but it was only his second time hosting.

CS: He’s fabulous. When he did the [Brett] Kavanaugh hearing, he came on a Friday night late night and just did that on Saturday. You can tell how much he put into that performance. When people give so much, ‘cause our show happens so fast, you can tell when someone works that much on a characterization. That’s like, “He’s gonna be good. He really cares.”

GD: Yeah, he might win the guest acting Emmy this year. I think between that opening segment of your whole season and then the one he hosted, he was phenomenal.

CS: He’s fabulous. He was really, really great. I was like, “Please thank him” ‘cause I really enjoyed the whole Christmas show, too. I think he lifted us, too. It’s nice to have a host who makes you better, too.

GD: And the week before you had a lot of fun with Jason Momoa and I was particularly wanting to ask you about the Gemma sleigh ride.

CS: Yeah, he came in and that was another one where you just never know and then you walk in the room on Monday and you get a bear hug from Jason Momoa. He was so excited to be there. You get to have that energy all week, which was really nice. It lifts you when you’re tired, too.

GD: You get that bear hug and live to tell the tale.

CS: Exactly, yeah (laughs). Survived it.

GD: I was interviewing Seth Meyers a couple weeks ago and I asked him, he was on the show forever and ever before he had his own show, not who his favorite host was ever ‘cause I think that’s hard for all of us to say, but who was the host that came in and surprised you at how well they did? I’ll let you think while I tell you what he said. He said that none of you expected, I don’t know if you were there then, but Jon Hamm. When Jon Hamm came in it was just more of a “Here’s a guy in the moment playing a character everybody loves. We weren’t expecting necessarily him to be so funny.” Who’s somebody that surprised you when they came in?

CS: I think a lot of people. The first time that happened I think Chris Hemsworth was a big surprise for me and really fun because I really did not know the world of action movies. That may shock you. I didn’t know him well and then he was just so open. I got to sing fake Broadway with him and have a chicken spaceship with him. He was so much fun. This year I think Liev Schreiber came in and who knew he did all that? Halsey. In some ways, I feel like everybody’s a bit of a surprise. Every year there’s gonna be somebody who’s got the show where you’re like, “Wow, they can really do it all.“

GD: I think the ones for me are the singers or musicians that you’re not sure if they can do sketch comedy and also Liev is not really known for his comedy. The ones that are dramatic actors I don’t always necessarily expect those weeks to go as well as the others.

CS: Right, and they don’t either. You can see the dramatic actors. They really think a lot about the comedy and sometimes you’re like, “Just don’t even think about it. We didn’t put that much thought into it writing it, I promise.”

GD: With stage performers, whether they’re dramatic generally or comedic, people that do Broadway, people that do the West End in London, somebody like an Emma Thompson, I just knew that was gonna well that week because she gets it. She gets being live and on the stage.

CS: And there’s a special energy. There’s some kind of weird, fun energy that someone like that has that you wanna watch and I think that always helps for our show especially because we do have a live audience, too.

GD: I’ve done it twice and both times were just a miracle to watch. I recommend to people, we didn’t know the first time obviously, I got tickets through NBC for the dress rehearsal. We’re thinking, “We’d rather have the live show.” No, you get 20, 30 extra minutes on the dress rehearsal.

CS: It’s crazy, yeah, you really get to see all of it.

GD: Then you go back to watch that night wondering which ones they’re gonna cut.

CS: Yeah, I think the same thing. I brought a couple friends and said, “The real experience is to watch dress and then air and see how it changes, how the order changes, how the sketches change.” Sometimes whole endings will change, sketches will change completely and we have to relearn them in two minutes or something.

GD: Right. Looking back, I was looking at your first show in 2012, Seth MacFarlane was your host. What did you not know on that first show that you knew a few weeks or a few months later?

CS: I think everything. When I first got there, I didn’t know what the stage was like. I come from a theater background too and I was like, “Well where’s the backstage?” I didn’t know how to not walk in front of cameras. It’s such an odd skill set that we learn at “SNL” that I don’t know that we’ll ever use all these things anywhere else. Using cue cards is its own bizarre skill set. Just even quick changes. Everything we do is such a fun, weird world that is its own planet, really.

GD: You’ve gotten to know a man who I think is maybe the best producer in the history of television. That’s Lorne Michaels. After all these years what can you tell us about him? Why is he such a genius? What does he do?

CS: I think it takes being a little bit of a maniac, and I say that out of love, but I think he’s got a very good eye for picking people out, for trusting people. The trick to Lorne I think is what Seth told me once, “When he gives you five notes, take four of them and leave one.” I think Lorne respects that and lets you do that. I think that helps. Other than that, I don’t know what his trick is. I wish I knew.

GD: Everybody wishes they knew his tricks. He produced the Emmys last year and I thought did a fantastic job. Was that a fun show to watch? You had Michael [Che] and Colin hosting and so many of your friends and costars participating.

CS: Award shows are always a little long and tough and nobody wants to be reading their two little lines or something so it was more fun in that way, watching them do it that way, like, “What will they do with it?”

GD: As I’ve had several of you on in the past three years or so I asked each one about that 40th anniversary weekend. What was your experience like for that weekend?

CS: Just magical. I wish I could get hypnotized to fully remember it all. It was such a whirlwind and I was so tired. It was the most incredible thing. I don’t think I’ll ever experience anything like that afterparty ever again in my life. The show, we have a recording of and that was amazing but that afterparty was Prince and Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, MC Hammer, everyone you could imagine, Sarah Palin, Beyonce, Jay Z. I’ve never experienced anything like that and everybody in the same room, just with these people I grew up watching as my heroes. Watching these people watch their friends in memoriam, it’s just like, “I can’t believe I’m a part of this world now.” It makes you feel so lucky. It’s touching and humbling and all of it.

GD: No announcements at all and you might not say anything but do you think you’ll be back for next season?

CS: At this point I’m pretty sure. Anything could happen over the summer but I’m pretty sure I’ll be back.

GD: Lots of people, and I could go back over the history of time, but just in recent last couple years, Bill Hader started his own show, Aidy Bryant, we just saw the debut of her new show on Hulu, Kenan [Thompson]’s got a show coming up this fall on NBC. Is that something you’d like to do? They’re not only producers but they’re actors, directors, writers on their shows?

CS: I’ve been working on a couple so hopefully one of these days, you’ll see.

GD: Would you be somebody like that does a lot of things, not just the actress on the show?

CS: I would love to, yeah. That’s the goal, would be able to produce and write and be the actress on the show.

GD: What do you think about “Barry”?

CS: It’s fabulous. I just binged it the other night. I couldn’t stop watching. It’s so good. It’s wonderful.

GD: When he’s on a talk show, or I’ve talked to him a couple times, his laugh is maybe the greatest laugh in entertainment.

CS: Bill has such a kid energy in a good way. When he hosted, we did that girlfriend game night sketch and we wrote that because I thought, “Just give Bill a toy to play with. Give him this motorized wheelchair.” Give him a toy to play with and you get the best out of Bill.

GD: He did a little spot with John Mulaney this year, hosting a game show.

CS: Yeah, watching the two of them, it’s fun watching people who you can see they enjoy making each other laugh, too. There’s always something that’s a dangerous energy, an exciting energy, especially in a live show, to that.

GD: Thank you so much. When those Emmy nominations come out in mid-July I’m hoping we see you on this year’s ballot.

CS: Thank you.