NEED TO KNOW
- Rachel Dratch says her therapist told her to go on vacation by herself — and it was on that solo trip to Costa Rica where she met people who inspired her iconic Saturday Night Live character Debbie Downer
- Dratch, 59, told Amy Poehler on the Oct. 7 episode of her Good Hang podcast that she met people who shaped Debbie’s outlook — and then one fellow vacationer who inspired the signature bummer statements
- Dratch said the vacation was “doctor’s orders,” but shared, “Hats off to the suggestion ‘cause I never would have talked to strangers if I was with a friend”
Rachel Dratch said she came up with the idea for her iconic Saturday Night Live character, Debbie Downer, after a solo trip to Costa Rica that was “doctor’s orders” from her therapist.
While appearing on SNL costar and good friend Amy Poehler’s Good Hang podcast on Oct. 7, Dratch shared a little-known detail about the bummer-inducing character.
“It really started because I went on a vacation by myself that had been suggested to me by a therapist, and I often leave that detail out,” Dratch, 59, said, explaining that her therapist “kept saying, like, ‘Take a trip by yourself.’ ”
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Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch in New York in Dec. 2023.
Michael Simon/Shutterstock
“I was like, ‘Why? Like, I don’t want to do that. I could go with friends,’ “ the comic said, sharing that she decided to go after “I just kind of took it as, like, doctor’s orders.”
“I, like, self-propelled myself to the jungles of Costa Rica,” she said, saying she wanted somewhere remote that wasn’t full of “honeymooners.” Dratch landed in the Osa Peninsula — and shared that it was two encounters at the “communal” and “really cool” resort that inspired Debbie Downer.
Dratch shared that she met two sisters, who “told me like the rudimentary fundamentals of what is later known as ‘The Secret,’ “ she said, referencing the 2006 book by Rhonda Byrne. “I learned it from the jungles of Costa Rica from two white ladies that were from Colorado.”
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But she shared, they talked to her about the law of attraction, explaining that if you focus on positive things, you’ll receive positive things — but “if you’re focusing on lack you’ll attract lack basically,” which, of course, is Debbie’s whole vibe.
She added that her opinion of their outlook was “sealed” when they were on a walk and saw some beautiful birds. ”This woman goes, ‘I want a feather to bring home for my daughter’ and I swear like 20 seconds later, from way way, up high, this feather starts to just go and it falls down. We all see it and it lands right at her feet.”
“I was just, like, sold,” Dratch said. “I’ll join your cult.”
Rachel Dratch as Debbie Downer on “Saturday Night Live” in 2004.
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
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But it was the second encounter that went on to embody Debbie’s personality: “Later [we were] sitting at dinner — you’re with randos that are there — and people just making chitchat.”
“Someone said, ‘Where are you from?’ and I said, ‘New York.’ And then they said, ‘Oh, were you there for 9/11?’ ” Dratch mimicked in a full-blown Debbie Downer voice.
“It was like three years after 9/11. It wasn’t like it just happened,” Dratch said, sharing that, just like in the Debbie Downer skits, they had to work to “get the conversation back.”
About a week after she got home, Dratch was watching a band and “someone like Debbie Downer popped into my head — like, yes.”
When it comes to her therapist telling her to go on vacation alone, Dratch said, “Hats off to the suggestion ‘cause I never would have talked to strangers if I was with a friend.”
