In late July, Maya Rudolph’s name was trending 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 unheard of. It was because President Joe Biden announced that he wasn’t seeking reelection, and throwing his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now the Democratic nominee.
The extent of the buzz generated by “Saturday Night Live” fans who immediately thought of Rudolph reprising her role of the VP left her speechless. “It was wild!” Rudolph tells Variety. “On top of the excitement I felt, I received so many GIFs that had me laughing: LeBron [James] waiting to get in the game, Roman Roy watching his emails pour in… my phone hasn’t stopped blowing up.”
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Yes, when Season 50 premieres on Sept. 28, she is expected to return to “SNL” to play Harris with that too-cool-for-words swagger and confident wink for which she won an Emmy in 2019 and continued to play throughout the 2020 election cycle.
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But it was just a couple of days earlier that Rudolph was hit with the first round of good news — she received Emmy noms for hosting “Saturday Night Live” (and one for original music lyrics for the show), voicing Connie the Hormone Monstress on Netflix’s “Big Mouth” and portraying a jaded billionaire on her Apple TV+ show, “Loot.” Four nominations for three different projects in one year? Let’s face it, the woman’s got the gift.
“I believe my reaction was, ‘Holy shit!’” she laughs. “And all for things that are so close to my heart: ‘Loot,’ ‘Big Mouth’ and ‘SNL.’ The best actress nomination is particularly exciting because it’s my first time; that felt really cool! And I’m particularly proud of the song we wrote for my ‘SNL’ [Mother’s Day] monologue. That one just feels like a huge personal achievement. I feel so proud!”
When Rudolph went back to “SNL” to perform on the election shows in 2020, it was during COVID, and she was hit with a personal epiphany. “It cemented an idea that I already knew, which is I really am a live performer, first and foremost. I love to play characters,” she says. “I love to do all kinds of projects — and I hope that never ends — but I think my heart lies in being a live performer, and it’s where I’m my strongest. That’s why I go back to ‘SNL’ so much,” she adds. “It’s just what I love and where my heart soars.”
Although Rudolph’s big break came when she joined the cast of the sketch series in 2000, it was just the beginning of the country’s love affair with the funny lady. Her latest series, “Loot,” about a multi-billionaire divorcee who yearns to reconnect with the real world by giving away her money, was just picked up by Apple TV+ for a Season 3. Last season was transformative for the show and, especially, for her character, Molly Wells. We get to see what really touches her heart, which was an important evolution for the five-time Emmy winner.
Molly is one of those characters that could go very wrong, very quickly if not portrayed with heart. After all, a character with $87 billion in pocket change could not only be totally unrelatable but also, to many, quite obnoxious.
Rudolph explains, “That’s probably the first place I had to figure out how I wanted to play her — how do you create a story about somebody with ridiculous amounts of money that you actually want to follow, one who isn’t just a total narcissist and selfish jerk that we actually want to live vicariously through, enjoy her, see her mistakes, her ups and downs, but also this genuine feeling of having some of the same feelings.”
Molly’s journey as a philanthropist is exactly the ride Rudolph wanted to take the audience on when she signed up. “It’s like, ‘We don’t really know what we’re doing, but boy, if we had the ability to help, we would,’” she says. “Sometimes it feels like every time you try to do something good, it’s never enough, or it gets done the wrong way. But trying is where the heart is. Trying is the secret ingredient.”
Going into the series, Rudolph and show creators Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard knew what they didn’t want “Loot” to be. “We didn’t feel comfortable creating 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 their money is an interesting concept. It’s important to have something to say and hopefully try to be on the right side of history.”
Rudolph has conquered television, with “SNL” and “Loot,” on which she is also an executive producer; film, with features like “Bridesmaids”; and animation with projects like “Shrek the Third.” So, what’s left for her to master? The Great White Way, baby!
When I was a kid, I always thought that being an actress meant being on Broadway,” she shares. “Once I started working, I realized like, ‘Oh, that’s a real thing.’ But it requires a lot of hard work and something I’ve never done before, but I am very determined to get there somehow, some way, one day. But now that I’ve been talking about it, I feel like, ‘OK, we’re manifesting, let’s go!’”
Rudolph is leaving any and all options open for a career that brings her nothing but joy. She really can do anything she sets her mind to — and do it well. “The sky’s the limit!” she says. “It’s such a nice compliment to hear you say you feel like I can do anything. I felt like saying, ‘That’s what my brain thinks.’ That’s probably why I’ve done all the things that I’ve done all over the years.”
She continues, “When I see a great performance, that’s everything for me. That’s the fuel that I need. And it can come in a movie, it could come in a TV show, it could come in a song, it could come in an album, it could come in a rock show or going to see a band. For me, it doesn’t matter what the format is. The inspiration is what gives me the fuel and this insane notion that I can do anything.”
