Jacket by Isabel Marant. T-shirt by Gap. Jeans by Isabel Marant Étoile. Earrings by Marie-Hélène De Taillac. Watch by Cartier. Ring by Emily P. Wheeler. Pumps by Philosophy Di Lorenzo Serafini. Paola Kudacki

In six seasons on Saturday Night Live, Kate McKinnon has established herself as a comedic force: an Emmy-winning, character-creating powerhouse who instills every Hillary, RBG, Ellen, Justin—and even Kellyanne—with both hilarity and heart. A year after her wonderfully wacky performance in Ghostbusters, the Long Island native and Columbia grad is solidifying her movie-star stripes opposite Scarlett Johansson (and Zoë Kravitz! And Ilana Glazer! And Jillian Bell!) in this summer's insanely funny bachelorette-party comedy, Rough Night. On the occasion of her second ELLE cover, McKinnon, 33, spoke with SNL superalum Tina Fey about career idols, Leslie Jones, and the j-word (okay, fine, we'll tell you: It's joy).

Bodysuit by Gap. Trousers by Giorgio Armani. Earrings by Bulgari. Mules by Manolo Blahnik. Paola Kudacki

Here, an excerpt of her interview with Fey:

Tina Fey: Let's talk about political characters, Kate! How extensively do you follow politics in real life?

Kate McKinnon: I wasn't a newspaper person until I got hired here. You have to get ideas from somewhere, and when the election began, I began reading [the]. Now it's an everyday thing. When we're off, I try not to do it as much because you want to have a moment of joy.

Tina Fey: It's kind of stressful and all-consuming. When you play a person like Kellyanne Conway, what are the advantages of building a character off that person, as opposed to a common character?

Kate McKinnon: It's much easier for me to do an impression of someone real, because you and the audience begin with a baseline understanding of this person's life. And then if you subvert that in any way, it's a little comedy surprise. That does the bulk of the work for you.

For the full interview, pick up a copy of ELLE on newsstands Tuesday, June 20.

Dress by Versace. Earrings by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany & Co. Ring by Emily P. Wheeler. Paola Kudacki

Photographed by Paola Kudacki. Styled by Samira Nasr.

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