With its punishing cancellation policy and spiritual platitudes, you might not expect SoulCycle to be able to take a joke. Not so, insists the cast of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, who, at last night’s second-season premiere, told us that there were no hard feelings after the show’s (spot-on) parody episode.
In season one’s “Kimmy Rides a Bike!” Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) falls prey to an addictive biking workout called Spirit Cycle, taught by a controlling instructor (Nick Kroll) who mirrors the cult leader Kimmy had just escaped from. Jane Krakowski told us she was relieved to learn that SoulCycle didn’t take it the wrong way. “I used to go all the time and I’ve taken a slight break but [Ellie] is still really into it, and apparently they were happy for the nod,” she explained, before leaving the screening in order to appear in Broadway’s She Loves Me.
“That one over there, the redhead. She’s the one who does SoulCycle,” cast member Carol Kane said. “I happen to know that Ellie [Kemper] does it like a fiend. So I guess we weren’t banned. Not yet. We might keep trying.”