LOS ANGELES — Kristen Wiig lived the classic Hollywood story after coming to town in her early 20s: no experience, no connections, no work.
She wound up in retail for years before figuring out a path to make her way gradually into show business over the next decade.
“You get this idea that you’ve figured out your life, and you go for it, so I moved to L.A. and immediately got scared and partially changed my mind,” said Wiig, a “Saturday Night Live” cast member who has her first big-screen starring role in “Bridesmaids,” which she also co-wrote and co-produced.
“I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ I had no experience, and this city is filled with people who have experience and who are trying and going out there and auditioning and taking classes and doing plays.
“And I was like, ‘I took Acting 101. Hi, L.A.! I’m ready to be discovered!’ Which didn’t really happen.”
Wiig, 37, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., had fantasized about being on “Saturday Night Live,” but she had not done any comedy or acting, other than a basic course.
After a few years in sales, Wiig discovered the Groundlings, the L.A. improvisational group that has been a training ground for such “SNL” cast members as Will Ferrell, Will Forte, Phil Hartman and Laraine Newman, along with “Bridesmaid” co-stars Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy and Wendi McLendon-Covey, plus Wiig’s co-writer, Annie Mumolo.
Wiig sharpened her skills there and began landing small TV roles before joining “Saturday Night Live” in 2005.
“Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig cast Wiig in her first movie role, a tiny part in 2006’s “Unaccompanied Minors.” A year later, Wiig delivered a scene-stealing role in “Knocked Up,” playing a TV exec alternately slighting and fawning over star Katherine Heigl’s character.
“Knocked Up” writer-director Judd Apatow did the same for Wiig as he had for Steve Carell, Jason Segel and other supporting players who had impressed him: He asked her if she wanted to write something in which she could star.
In “Knocked Up,” “when we screened the movie, the first sentence out of her mouth would tear down the house. They loved her instantly. My instinct is always to say, ‘What else you got?’ ” said Apatow, a producer on “Bridesmaids.” “The fun for me is helping somebody create their film persona.”
Along with “SNL” impersonations of financial guru Suze Orman and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Wiig has shown that star-power potential in Drew Barrymore’s “Whip It,’ and John C. Reilly’s “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”
One thing Wiig never realized that she’s an innately funny person.
While flipping through her high school yearbook, she was surprised at what classmates had written about her.
“A lot of people wrote that I was funny, and that kind of shocked me a little bit, because I don’t really remember thinking about myself that way,” said Wiig.
