Kristen Wiig had just emerged from her first screening of Masterminds when she spoke with Yahoo Movies about the upcoming comedy, directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite). (You can exclusively see the first full trailer above.) Perhaps a good sign: Wiig was in a noticeably cheerful and giggly mood.

Also starring Zach Galifianakis, Owen Wilson, and Jason Sudeikis — with appearances from Wiig’s Ghostbusters teammates (and current SNL stars) Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones — Masterminds is based on a real heist that happened in the late 1990s. The Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina — also known as the Hillbilly Heist — was the second largest cash theft on U.S. soil at the time. It’s also arguably the funniest one in history as it was filled with comical missteps by a group of mostly rookie criminals. Wiig plays the main architect of the crime, Kelly Campbell, who persuaded armored car driver David Ghantt [Galifianakis] to drive off with $17.3 million. The main reason he did it: He had a crush on her.

During our interview, Wiig offered her take on Masterminds, some brief intel on the Ghostbusters she-quel, and her other major movies in the pipeline, including Zoolander 2:



The trailers for all these movies of yours have all come out in the past month: The Diary of a Teenage Girl, The Martian, and now Masterminds. How does it feel to own the multiplex?

I feel very lucky. It’s funny when they all come out around the same time because you shoot them so far apart. You have no idea when they’re going to come out. Everyone says, “Wow, you’ve done a lot of movies,” and I’m, like, “No! I shot them all at very different times.”

You’re pretty much this summer’s trailer prom queen.

And then I’m going to go away for seven years and no one will know where I am.

No, please, don’t!

[Laughs]

What drew you to Masterminds?

Many things. One being the script, and Jared Hess who I’ve been a fan of forever — Napoleon Dynamite. He’s just one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. The cast — Zach and Owen. Yeah, I was on board from the beginning.

Unless they’ve committed more crimes, the 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbers are all out of prison now. Did you happen to meet the woman you play, Kelly Campbell?

No, I didn’t get to meet her! I met David [Ghantt, played by Galifianakis]. He was on set a lot and the biggest sweetheart.

How did David feel about it? There’s clearly a lot of humor at his expense.

[Laughing] He definitely has a sense of humor about himself. It sounds so funny — this is the first interview I’ve done talking about him. I’m fully aware people know him as someone who created this heist and stole a bunch of money, and here I’m talking about him, saying, “He’s such a nice guy!”

How much really happened and how much is embellished for the sake of comedy?

I don’t know the exact percentage. I know it’s definitely based on these [real-life] characters and what happened. But, of course, it’s a comedy and it’s Jared. His style is very specific. We wanted to make a good movie.

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