Ariana Grande says she unpacks ‘SNL’ character Antonio in therapy

Actors often describe how difficult it can be to let go of a meaningful role once they’ve finished a project. For Ariana Grande, that role would be her heavily traumatized, bowl-cut athleisure Saturday Night Live character, Antonio.

The Evil star recently revealed she still has a strong connection with her viral, dead-eyed castrato a month after hosting the show.

“He’s still with me, you know?” Grande told host Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s episode of The Tonight Show. “I’m still unpacking Antonio’s emotional weight with my therapist.”

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The character was part of a sketch called “Castrati,” which showed Antonio being introduced by his parents (Andy Samberg and Maya Rudolph) to perform for Prince Enzo (Andrew Dismukes) to show how the castration process preserved his high-pitched vocals.

Grande isn’t the only person who has changed forever after the skit aired. She also said that fans have started coming up and asking her to sign pictures of the character at Evil premiers across the globe.

“They’ve made it to the premieres, which is crazy,” she told Fallon. “But I mean, I really—I get it. I appreciate it.”

Fallon also asked Grande about her viral “Bridesmaid speech” sketch in which a group of bridesmaids describe the events of their bachelorette vacation — including how the bride joined a man named Domingo (Marcello Hernandez) — all to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s hit “Espresso.”

“I think I loved it the most because you sing off-key is very rare,” Fallon noted.

It was also one of Grande’s favorite sketches. “It was really fun. It was kind of what we found in the moment,” she explained. “I pitched it to the writers… I said, ‘Would it be funnier if it got progressively worse as it went on?’

If you came all this way, you might as well hear about the sketches directly from Grande by watching the clip above.