Former “Saturday Night Live” cast members Punkie Johnson and Chloe Troast have revealed how their lives have changed since leaving the NBC comedy sketch show.Johnson, in an interview with People magazine over the weekend, explained that the show puts “the pressure on you” and noted that you can’t leave “SNL” — which she described as a “different monster” and a “different beast” — and do the same things you did before.“It’s very hard to understand a place like that,” Johnson said of “SNL,” where she spent four seasons before her exit last year.“They just throw you in the water — you better know how to swim. They don’t give you no life jacket,” she added.Johnson, who told the “Fly on the Wall” podcast that she left the show as she didn’t feel like she fit, said she had to figure out the difference between doing “something really great” and just going “through the motions” to determine what’s next for her career.She credits her time on the show for building something “strong” inside her, adding that she feels she can take on anything in Hollywood as she “handled every piece of adversity that went on in that building.”Punkie Johnson at "SNL50: The Homecoming Concert" at Radio City Music Hall on Feb. 14 in New York City.John Nacion/Variety via Getty ImagesTroast, who was part of the Season 49 cast before producers asked her not to return for another season, told People that it was “really hard” to adjust after the show “fundamentally changed” her life.“You don’t get a cushion when you fall,” said Troast, who credited her loved ones for their support after her “SNL” departure.“Even before the show, they were the ones that were a guiding light, and so then that’s what I looked to after. And I feel like without that, I don’t know where I would be one year out, to be honest,” she said.Comedian Chloe Troast performs onstage during Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, Texas, on April 19.Rick Kern via Getty ImagesTheir comments arrive after Season 50 cast member Devon Walker revealed why he called the show “toxic as hell” at times upon his exit this summer, telling Variety that cast members are “left hanging with big life decisions” as they’re not told for weeks whether they’re set to return.Walker — who noted his exit was a mutual decision between him and “SNL” — said he’s nonetheless satisfied with his multiyear stint in Studio 8H, calling it “beyond a success.”“Saturday Night Live” kicked off its 51st season over the weekend following a significant talent shakeup this summer that saw several departures, including Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner, along with the addition of five new cast members.Close