In late July, Maya Rudolph’s name made headlines on social media. The reason had nothing to do with her four Emmy nominations for her work on three different shows – a feat that is not only impressive but also unprecedented. The reason was that President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election and pledged his support for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the Democratic nominee.
The excitement generated by Saturday Night Live fans who immediately thought Rudolph would reprise her role as vice president left her speechless. “It was wild!” Rudolph tells Variety. “In addition to my excitement, I received so many GIFs that made me laugh: LeBron (James) waiting to get into the game, Roman Roy seeing his incoming emails… my phone won’t stop blowing up.”
Yes, when season 50 premieres on Sept. 28, she is expected to return to “SNL” to play Harris with the outrageous swagger and confident wink that won her an Emmy in 2019 and continued to play throughout the 2020 election cycle.
Courtesy of Will Heath/NBC
But just a few days earlier, Rudolph had received the first wave of good news: She received Emmy nominations for her hosting of “Saturday Night Live” (and one for original lyrics to the show’s music), her voice for Connie, the Hormone Monster in Netflix’s “Big Mouth,” and her portrayal of a disillusioned billionaire in her Apple TV+ show “Loot.” Four nominations for three different projects in one year? Let’s face it, the woman has what it takes.
“I think my reaction was, ‘Holy crap!'” she laughs. “And all for things that are so close to my heart: ‘Loot,’ ‘Big Mouth,’ and ‘SNL.’ Being nominated for Best Actress is especially exciting because it’s my first nomination; that was a really cool feeling! And I’m especially proud of the song we wrote for my ‘SNL’ (Mother’s Day) monologue. That just feels like a huge personal accomplishment. I’m so proud!”
When Rudolph returned to “SNL” in 2020 to perform on the pageant shows, it was during COVID, and she experienced a personal revelation. “It solidified an idea that I already knew, which is that I’m a live performer first and foremost. I love playing characters,” she says. “I love doing all kinds of projects — and I hope that never stops — but I think my heart is as a live performer, and that’s where I’m strongest. That’s why I go back to ‘SNL’ so often,” she adds. “It’s just what I love and what makes my heart beat.”
Although Rudolph’s big break came when she joined the cast of the sketch series in 2000, that was just the beginning of the country’s love affair with the funny lady. Her latest series, “Loot,” about a divorced multi-billionaire who longs to reconnect with the real world by giving her money away, was just picked up by Apple TV+ for a third season. The final season was a transformation for the show and especially for her character, Molly Wells. We get to see what really touches her, which was a major development for the five-time Emmy winner.
Molly is one of those characters that can go very wrong very quickly if she is not portrayed with heart. After all, a character with $87 billion in change could be not only completely incomprehensible, but also quite repulsive to many.
Rudolph explains: “That was probably the first point where I had to think about how I wanted to play her – how do you create a story about someone with absurd amounts of money that you actually want to follow, who is not just a total narcissist and selfish jerk, whose skin we actually want to put ourselves in, where we want to find joy, see their flaws, their ups and downs, but also have that real feeling of having some of the same feelings.”
Molly’s journey as a philanthropist is exactly the journey Rudolph wanted to take audiences on when she signed on. “It’s like, ‘We don’t really know what we’re doing, but boy, if we could help, we would,'” she says. “Sometimes you feel like every time you try to do something good, you’re never enough or you’re doing it wrong. But trying is where the heart is. Trying is the secret ingredient.”
When they started the series, Rudolph and series creators Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard knew what they didn’t want “Loot” to be. “We didn’t feel comfortable making a show about wealth inequality without having honest conversations about it,” she says. “But I think the idea of a billionaire deciding to give away all his money is an interesting concept. It’s important to have something to say and hopefully try to be on the right side of history.”
“Prey”
Rudolph has conquered television, with “SNL” and “Loot,” which she also executive produces; cinema, with features like “Bridesmaids”; and animation, with projects like “Shrek the Third.” So what else does she have to conquer? The Great White Way, baby!
“As a kid, I always thought being an actress meant being on Broadway,” she says. “When I started working, I realized, ‘Oh, this really exists.’ But it takes a lot of hard work and it’s something I’ve never done before, but I’m determined to somehow make it happen one day. But now that I’ve talked about it, I’m like, ‘OK, we’re manifesting, here we go!'”
Rudolph is keeping her options open for a career that brings her nothing but joy. She can truly do anything she sets her mind to – and do it well. “The sky’s the limit!” she says. “It’s such a nice compliment when you say you think I can do anything. I wanted to say, ‘This is what my brain thinks.’ That’s probably why I’ve done all the things I’ve done over the years.”
She continues: “When I see a great performance, it means everything to me. That’s the drive I need. And that can happen in a movie, in a TV show, in a song, on an album, at a rock show, or going to see a band. For me, the format doesn’t matter. It’s the inspiration that drives me, and this crazy idea that I can do anything.”
