Maya Rudolph on Her Most Successful Year Yet, Kamala Harris, and More for VARIETY Magazine

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In a new cover story for VARIETY, actress Maya Rudolph speaks with TV Editor Michael Schneider about her most successful year yet, which includes landing four Emmy nominations (the most of any performer ever), launching a production company, and her “SNL” take on Kamala Harris. She also discusses almost impersonating then-candidate Barack Obama, her distaste for being asked about her mother’s death, “Loot,” comparing her characters to drag queens, Charli XCX’s “360,” and more. 

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Rudolph on her most successful year yet: “It does feel like it’s all happening at once, which is weird. If someone was like, ‘Hey, when you turn 52, you’re going to have a moment,’ I’d be like, ‘Sorry, what?’ I did not anticipate this. It does feel like a real convergence of all good things. Everything feels different this year, for sure.”

On portraying Kamala Harris on “SNL”: “It’s definitely going to impact my fall. I have already heard from a lot of Realtors in New York. I think the day of the announcement that she was running, some lady yelled at me across the parking lot, ‘Getting ready for New York?!’…It’s a huge compliment. But it was also very bizarre, because I woke up to an article saying that I was confirmed to play her—and I hadn’t spoken to anyone! This is so much bigger than me, and this is about something very important. I’m thrilled to be associated with it, and I’m also glad that I’ve played her and everyone’s cool with it. She likes it.”

On tapping into Harris’ playful side: “I said, ‘When I see her, I see her having fun.’ And so the fictional Kamala that we created tapped into her fun. And then [‘SNL’ producer] Steve Higgins said to me that his wife called her a ‘fun aunt,’ and we were laughing at how that sounds like ‘funt.’ We just went from there. That was the moment where you realize, ‘Oh, now I know how to do this.’…All my friends were from Oakland and Berkeley. Bay Area people are my people. I know how they speak. They have that word ‘hella’ that is so Bay. I see the Bay Area alive and well in her, in certain elements of the way that she talks. But I also see the ferocity in her wisdom and her experience and all the work she’s done.”

On almost impersonating then-candidate Barack Obama: “There was a moment of asking me to step up and try. And we did try for dress rehearsal. Sadly, Obama was there and had to see me dressed as him. We both laughed heartily, and thank God that never made it to air.”

On her distaste for being asked in interviews about her the early death of her mother, “Loving You” singer Minnie Riperton: “My whole career, people have always brought up my mom, which is wonderful. But then they also bring up the tragedy of losing my mother when I was little. And they ask me how old I was when she died. The other day, I said, ‘Why the fuck are we still doing this?’ First of all, if you know me and you know who I am, you already have that information. And the second thing is, who wants to be asked about their childhood trauma every time they talk about their career? I’m 52 years old, and I have survived my childhood trauma…I answer the question and then afterwards, I’m like, ‘Why the fuck did I do that again?’ Maybe this is the day where we just go, like, ‘You can stop asking.’ It just makes a sad story. But we’re talking about great things, yeah, and humans are capable of so much more than one thing. But for whatever reason, people want to really focus on the sadness, and I’m like, ‘I good’”

On “Loot,” the first solo lead role Rudolph has starred in: “I didn’t really get offered things like that very often. I think it’s surprising to people because I’ve been here for so long, and they’re aware of what I do and what I’m capable of. But I’m not that surprised people didn’t offer them to me. It took a long time to even just kind of laugh at that fact, but it used to really piss me off.”

On how the fight to be noticed as the lead inspired her to compare her characters to drag queens: “The universe knows about drag now, and that’s wonderful. For me, it was growing up feeling like an ‘other’ and not really having a space or a name for it, but then seeing RuPaul and this positivity surrounding it…I always liked fitting into the cracks—that was just a normal thing to me. Then, feeling like there was a name for it—and not just a name, but like a pride in it and a beauty in it—that’s why ‘drag’ is the term that I think holds the most value to me. Now I see Chappell Roan performing in drag, and I feel like, ‘I see you. I get it.’”

On Charli XCX’s “360”: “I remember the week I was hosting ‘SNL,’ and Charli’s ‘360’ came out, and I was bumping it so hard in my room to get me ready for the monologue. It gave me all my strength, and that really propelled me into the summer.”

On potentially releasing music: “I thought about it so many times. I feel more comfortable in my skin now to investigate what that would be. Music comes from such a very profoundly vulnerable place that’s incredibly private and feels very tender. There’s also that part of me that loves music so much that doesn’t want to fuck it up. I worry about being able to live with my mistakes. But if I’m honest, I feel like I’m much closer to investigating that part of myself. Because music has been coming out of me my whole life, and I can’t stop”

[Photo Credit: Victoria Stevens for Variety Magazine]

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