← Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Maya Rudolph
00:53:08
Maya Rudolph knew from an early age that she was meant to make people laugh, but a seven-season run on “Saturday Night Live” put her comedic genius on the map. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist met the actress inside SNL’s famous Studio 8H to talk about her time on that show, including her favorite celebrity impressions and what it was like to work alongside cast members like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
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- [00:00]
Willie Geist
Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start. Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint, finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is.
- [00:12]
Maya Rudolph
With Thumbtack, you don't have to be.
- [00:13]
Willie Geist
A home pro, you just have to hire one.
- [00:15]
Maya Rudolph
You can hire top rated pros, see.
- [00:17]
Willie Geist
Price estimates and read reviews all on the app. Download Today, DATELINE is hitting the road for a first of its kind event and you're invited join the entire DATELINE team in Nashville, Tennessee for DATELINE Live. Lester, Blaine, Andrea, Josh, Keith and Dennis. Plus, live demonstrations, a VIP reception and more. The true crime original like you've never seen before. Buy tickets to DATELINE live now@datelinenbc.com event. It would be a crime to miss it. Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit down podcast. Thank you so much as always for clicking. We've got a great one to share with you today. One of my favorite people, Maya Rudolph, charming, hilarious, the SNL star for seven seasons and now the star of a new series on Amazon called Forever, where she teams up with her old SNL pal Fred Armisen. They play a married couple. That's about as much as I can share with you. There's a slow burn through a couple of twists in the first two episodes that establish what's actually going on in this series. And man, it is so good and she is so fun to talk to. And we got to sit down inside Studio 8H where they shoot SNL and have from the beginning since 1974. Of course, you know Maya from SNL, her impersonations of Beyonce, Oprah, Donatella Versace, among her most famous. And man, she just has such reverence for the room and reverence for the place. And it's fun to sit in that room with someone who's was really formed comedically there and also to get into her life a little bit. Her background is so interesting. The daughter of musicians, her mother, Minnie Riperton, the late Minnie Riperton, died when Maya was only six years old, sang the song Lovin youn. I'll spare you the impression of that song, but you know it, you can hear it. Maya also talks about running into her now husband for the first time, Paul Thomas Anderson, the great director of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood in that SNL studio many, many years ago, the first time she met, talks about her pals Tina Fey, Amy Poehler. You get all of it with the great Maya Rudolph right now on the Sunday Sit down podcast. Thank you for doing this, Maya. Appreciate it.
- [02:34]
Maya Rudolph
It's my pleasure.
- [02:35]
Willie Geist
So what's it like walking back in here? You left the Show, I guess 11 years ago, 2007.
- [02:40]
Maya Rudolph
Ish.
- [02:41]
Willie Geist
Yeah, ish. What's it like being in this room?
- [02:44]
Maya Rudolph
I love this room. Like even just getting out of the elevator and smelling the hallway is such a familiar and wonderful smell. But this. Yeah, this place is really comfortable to me. I love it. I love it from little Maya loving the show. I love it from, you know, 27 year old Maya who started this here at this show. And I still love it. Cause like my work family still works here. I don't know, it's never really. It changes, but it doesn't change.
- [03:24]
Willie Geist
It was cool to see you walk in here hugging the crew guys who you worked with back in the day. It really is like family, right?
- [03:30]
Maya Rudolph
It's really like family.
- [03:32]
Willie Geist
I was amazed you mentioned little Maya loving the show, reading how far back your desire to be on the show went.
- [03:39]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [03:39]
Willie Geist
Like a five year old watching Gilda Radner.
- [03:41]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [03:42]
Willie Geist
And you knew effectively in kindergarten who you wanted to be when you grew up.
- [03:46]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. I thanked my parents for being young and hip and watching the show. Cause I'd crawl into their bed and I remember seeing Roseanne Rosannadana on the update desk and land shark and thinking like, those people are so cool. And New York looks fun. Everybody looks fun and cool and they look like they're having a really good time. And I also realized later, like they were my parents age.
- [04:13]
Willie Geist
Right.
- [04:14]
Maya Rudolph
My parents were young, you know, they were like mid late 20s when they had us. And so they were kind of kids and they were the same age as the cast.
- [04:26]
Willie Geist
So that's a long way from a five year old in her living room to actually being on this stage. Was it a real dream or was it like one of those I'm gonna be an astronaut when I grow up kind of things?
- [04:35]
Maya Rudolph
I think it was a combo dream. I mean, I think about it a lot sometimes because of having children now. And I think about how powerful dreaming is for children because it makes me realize that the idea of dreaming was set so clearly in my mind because of my parents. There was never, there was never a dream that was too fantastical. Very supportive. Musician, hippie parents, you know, and like I said, they were young, but it just never occurred to me that you can't dream. So I think it seemed attainable without having any idea about the details or like what that meant or what living In New York? Might be. But, yeah, it's weird. Like, I never really thought about it.
- [05:28]
Willie Geist
So as you grew up and got older, your father said, yeah, if that's what you want to do, Maya, go for it.
- [05:34]
Maya Rudolph
When I was about to graduate from college, my dad said, so what do you want to do? And I said, I want to be on Saturday Night Live. And he said, so what do you want to do for work? And he said, I get it. I'm happy that you want that, but you need to learn how to make a living as well. So I moved back home to LA and immediately enrolled in the Groundlings theater. I'd been there when I was like 13 and always kind of. It always just seemed like a place I wanted to be. But then I just did improv in school and not. And didn't really think about, oh, you can go there someday. And at that point, everyone, like the new crop of SNL people were like Sherry o' Terry and Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer and Chris Parnell and Catan and Chris Kattan. And they were all Groundlings. And that was crazy. And I kept. And I felt like, wow, my circle's getting closer. Like, my hometown theater just gave this amazing crop of people. And I went straight to the Groundlings and I started doing theater and then for work, because my dad was right. I needed to pay for these classes and I needed a job. I started assisting my friends doing costumes for commercials and music videos. I did a lot of music videos.
- [07:03]
Willie Geist
Did you?
- [07:03]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [07:03]
Willie Geist
Any. I would know any MTV, like, 90s era videos?
- [07:09]
Maya Rudolph
I'm trying to think. Did you ever hear of the band Everclear? I worked in an Everclear video.
- [07:14]
Willie Geist
Yeah.
- [07:15]
Maya Rudolph
Did you ever see that posthumous Biggie Smalls video where all the kids are dressed up like Biggie and Puffy? Worked on that.
- [07:25]
Willie Geist
Did you really?
- [07:25]
Maya Rudolph
We dressed a tiny Lil Kim.
- [07:28]
Willie Geist
So this is when you're in the Groundlings. This is a side hustle.
- [07:31]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. I used to assist my friend Casey Storm and get a paycheck doing costumes, which was kind of a fantasy too, because I'd always. I kind of wanted to be a fashion designer, but that never really. That never really happened. So I was like, great, I can pull clothes. And I got that in my bloodstream and that satiated that. But I just, I wanted, you know, I wanted to perform on that Groundling stage.
- [07:57]
Willie Geist
When I think about all the characters you made famous up here, I make a connection to the way you grew up with musical parents. Cause you're so good at the Musical numbers and that big sort of music diva thing that you do. Did you learn some of that from your mom or at least being around the people she was with?
- [08:13]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. I mean, when we were little, my brother and I used to go on the road with my parents. And I mean, talk about it diva. Like, seeing your mother on stage with, like, you know, amazing flowers in her hair and a whole thing going on, and she's just, you know, up there, like, it was fascinating. I have very, like, brief, tiny memories of. It was more like just the backstage of it, like, the process of it. But it's trippy to see your mom on a stage.
- [08:46]
Willie Geist
And your mom's cool. Yeah, I mean, like, really cool.
- [08:50]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, yeah. Like this. I mean, one of a kind, beautiful, but also, like, so incredibly her own. My mom was just doing her own thing, you know, And I didn't realize until I was older, at a really young age, like, so in her body and sew her own person at a time when that wasn't really necessarily the norm. And my dad, I guess when she started going on the road, I was a baby and my brother was 4 and she didn't like it and she called my dad and said, you have to come on the road with me. So he started playing guitar in the band. So we were just all on the road together. And I love that stuff. They have really good, like, snacks backstage when you're a kid and you get to do fun things. And I like that. I got used to that, like, backstage mentality. Like, I saw a home movie recently of the Smothers Brothers teaching my brother how to. Yo, yo.
- [09:53]
Willie Geist
Really?
- [09:54]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, it was really crazy, like. And I don't remember that stuff, but the feelings there. This place feels like that to me. Like, that all just kind of comes back and feels weirdly normal. And I know it's not normal to be on the road with your parents, but that's what they did, so it was normal, you know?
- [10:13]
Willie Geist
Is it true what people have said that lovin you I think you'd agree. Your mom's biggest hit, mm. Was sung as a lullaby to you and your brother when you were little.
- [10:21]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, it started. We lived in Gainesville. I was born in Gainesville, Florida. And my dad always says I was kind of a loud baby, so I think it was more or less a lullaby, but it just didn't have any words. I think they were just working on the music. And my mom would sing it as a lullaby and she'd put my name in there to soothe me. And they were yeah, my dad said they were just working on it.
- [10:45]
Willie Geist
I told you. I interviewed Lenny Kravitz last week, and he was talking about his mother who was on the Jeffersons.
- [10:51]
Maya Rudolph
Roxy.
- [10:52]
Willie Geist
Yeah, Roxy. That he can come home at night from a show, turn on the tv, and the Jeffersons is on. And he said, and there's my mom. And he's like, I have this thing that other people don't have, which is there's my mom in her prime, and she's moving and she's talking. Do you feel that way at all when you get to hear your mom's music?
- [11:10]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. I mean, for me, you know, losing my mom. She was only 31 when she died, and I was so little. I was just turning 7, and, like, it was such a strange experience. And it was so having the connection to her music for so many years and not. You know, this was an era where I didn't have a million videos on my iPhone, and I. I really just had her music connect to. And so for many years, it was really tough for me to hear her voice. It was way too personal. And I really feel like, honestly, like, it wasn't. I felt like I grew up so late in life. It really wasn't until I started having my own kids, really, that I was really kind of comfortable with it all. Like, I was waiting. I was like, when is this gonna feel good again? To hear her music and, like, celebrate and enjoy it? Cause it was so and so many people would remind me of it, and people have connections to her music. So we would talk about it. I kind of, you know, sheepishly go, like, yeah, it's great. But it was like, you don't have to play it. That's okay. You know, there's. Hearing your mother is. It's just so internally, you're connected, you know? But having it now, now playing it for my kids. YouTube is amazing. Like, all these talk shows that I'd never seen from the 70s that are brilliant. Like, Sammy Davis talk show and all this great stuff where they're all on there goofing around and they're in their prime. It's wild to see, but it's really cool. Like, I'm sort of re. Educating myself on her stuff.
- [12:55]
Willie Geist
That's cool. I was watching clips, too, and I think it was, like, the 1976American Music Awards, and it was your mom and Aretha, and they were nominated in the same category. And I was like, oh, my God.
- [13:05]
Maya Rudolph
Crazy.
- [13:06]
Willie Geist
Just young and beautiful. And the singing is incredible.
- [13:10]
Maya Rudolph
That era, man. I mean, that era of Music is like, what a way to grow up. That. I mean, it's an era that does not exist anymore. It's like you said, like Aretha in the room is like, that was normal, right? Or like Stevie Wonder, you know, that was just normal. And that's, that's just an era that's kind of like these beasts of, oh my gosh, these powerhouses of music, these people who are just gifted. It's a different time.
- [13:41]
Willie Geist
You know, you mentioned how young your mom was and how young you were when she passed away. What was it like growing up as a kid without your mom around and it was on your dad to raise the two of you.
- [13:52]
Maya Rudolph
It was bizarre and like the most. It was just so. First of all, my dad's amazing and I don't really know that I would be the person I am without him and his strength. And also just. He just happens to be an incredible human being. He's just a really positive, beautiful person. And he's really like, I mean, single handedly been my everything. Always the most supportive, like, just kind of continued to carry on the way that he and my mom were raising us. But when you're that kid whose mom died and people know who your mom was, it's too public, you know, Like, I would have loved for it to have been a private thing. And you're always aware that people know, like, oh, that's that girl whose mom sang that song, you know. And then I mean, combine that with being like the only mixed kid in your class and having really, really intensely large hair.
- [15:06]
Willie Geist
And people probably wondering just.
- [15:08]
Maya Rudolph
Like, what are you? You don't know how to do your hair, so your mom must not be black. And I'm like, no, my mom is black. She's not here. It was like, it's a lot, it's a lot. Like you're really figuring that stuff out at those young ages and you're figuring out identity and who you are and the people around you and feeling like an other, which has really been like my experience for the majority of my adolescence was brutal. It was really hard. And also, I think giving myself that title, you know, it's one thing to experience it in a way where you feel like people are labeling you or like you're like, your hair's so ethnic. Can I touch it? That was a nice one that I got in college. But you know, people sort of trying to understand you or asking, what are you? What's your ethnicity? And you're like, I'm half black, I'm half Jewish, you know, but labeling yourself, I think an other is a really interesting element of it, too, because I think, as I've really thought about a lot of this stuff, it's also about white, how you carry yourself, and the way that you want people to perceive you. And I think I really allowed myself to feel when I was little, I think, as a coping mechanism, like, I'm a weirdo. I'm not like anybody else. No one else's mom died. You know, no one else has this much hair. And, you know, it's something I'm learning, still learning a lot about. About how children can really blame themselves when they have. When their life is out of control or cope or the things they cope with. And it's like now in my 40s, I am genuinely still, like, growing up and figuring out how to shed those labels that you give yourself that just don't serve you anymore.
- [17:18]
Willie Geist
So you still feel that way a little bit, given all your success and the way people love you.
- [17:23]
Maya Rudolph
Those bones are in there. But as an adult, you can work on them.
- [17:28]
Willie Geist
Right?
- [17:29]
Maya Rudolph
You know, and like I said, it's like the idea of yourself as a little person, it's like little Maya needs to be reminded sometimes. Like, you're grown up now, you have four kids, you know, but we all do it, I think, in one form or another. I think there's always a part of ourselves that. That's the child part, you know?
- [17:55]
Willie Geist
So do you. Do you think that's where the comedy came from then? Maybe to compensate in some way or to redefine yourself as the funny one?
- [18:01]
Maya Rudolph
Oh, yeah, I remember it. I remember we did have a funny household, for sure. My dad used to show us Mel Brooks movies. I mean, Mel Brooks movies were like everything to me. Madeline Kahn was, oh, man, my everything. And I thought, like, oh, yeah, I want to do that. I want to be like her. And it was like a combination of Mel Brooks movies and Saturday Night Live and the Muppet Show. Like, those three. Three good ones were like. They just all kind of went together and made sense to me. And my dad always said, your mom was really funny. If she wasn't a great singer, your mom would have been a comedian. I was like, really? But I remember having. I think it was like, around kindergarten or something, and she was crying about something, and I remember trying to make her laugh. And that was always my role with my friends growing up. I was the one that made my friends laugh. It was just so much more comfortable to me. I didn't want to. I didn't want to Be sad. And I think I, at a certain point, maybe even feared being sad. It was too scary to go to. And so I just. Waka, waka.
- [19:15]
Willie Geist
Put it out there.
- [19:15]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. But I also, like. I think somewhere deep down, it also just was a language I understood, you know? And my brother and I used to watch the Gong show. And there was also a show afterwards on it called Make Me Laugh, where someone would sit in a chair and comedians would have 60 seconds to make them laugh. And we used to play it. My brother and I would play it for each other and, like, I would try to make him laugh. It was just. I don't know, it just was cool. I just thought comedy. I just thought laughing and comedy was very cool. And I. They were my rock stars. Maybe I was rebelling from my musician parents. Like, yeah, music's cool, but comedy. Comedy's really cool.
- [19:59]
Willie Geist
But actually, I don't know if a lot of people know, there was that music phase right after college with the Rentals. Oh, yeah, your band.
- [20:06]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [20:07]
Willie Geist
Little vocals, little keyboard, a little moog.
- [20:10]
Maya Rudolph
Or as they say, moog. Little moog, yeah. Yeah.
- [20:13]
Willie Geist
So you can sing. That's not just an act up there when you're doing sketches and everything.
- [20:17]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, I think I sing. I think I didn't like. Again, I think I didn't like singing for a long time because it felt like too close to the bone. And also, like, my mom's a singer. I just do it. It's just a hobby for me. Like, I'm not a professional singer, but I think when I was younger, it was definitely in my mind, like, do you want to be a singer? Do you want to be, like, on the old Broadway? Like, do you want to go to New York and be on Broadway? You know, like, those are all kind of the fantasies. And then I think I thought it was so cool to, like, be like, a rock star. I mean, I'd go to see shows and stuff all the time growing up thinking, like, oh, yeah, I want to be on stage and do that. But it was. It looked too hard. I think it's a lot. It's a lot. And also, I definitely put. There's no question that I put an expectation on myself. Like, I set a bar that was too high, so I just avoided it. It really wasn't until I started doing stuff at the Groundlings that I had a teacher. Actually, Mindy Sterling was my teacher at the time, and she said, you know, you sing, you should really incorporate it in your stuff. And I was like, I feel like that's a cheat. It's not like a. It's not like a thing that I'm doing, like, I'm proud of or, like, look at me, I'm a singer. But I realized it was a comfortable place. And once I leaned into that, the stuff that I started writing came out more comfortably and more naturally, for sure.
- [21:49]
Willie Geist
And so you start getting attention at the ground links. Do you remember the day when the guy in that office right behind you called?
- [21:58]
Maya Rudolph
It was actually. It was actually a mess. It was like, I mean, I shouldn't have worked here. I botched it so many times. It was. You know, I was performing a show. We knew these guys were coming from snl, and we were so excited and all nervous. And I sat down with them afterwards, and one of them was Steve Higgins, producer and a writer named Tishawn Shannon. And we went to Pink's Hot Dogs afterwards, and he said, you were great. You should come audition for the show. I went, really? Oh, okay. And so the auditions were coming. I had a manager at the time who just said, you know what? You shouldn't go. This isn't a good time. I was, like, young and impressionable, and I listened and I said, okay, I'll wait for the next one. Like, and then just at that thing, you're just like, what was I thinking? What the hell was I thinking? So I didn't come to the audition.
- [22:52]
Willie Geist
Wow.
- [22:53]
Maya Rudolph
And went back to the Groundlings with my tail between my legs and sobbed about it a lot. Like, I think at the time, she thought the contracts were biting. I don't know. I mean, I couldn't have cared less what the contracts looked like. I just wanted to be here. So I was obviously, like, too impressionable and, like, too scared, too insecure. But somehow, some divine fate. I sent a tape of my sketches, and then I got a call saying, lauren wants to meet you. And so I came and I met him up there in his ninth floor office. It was a Friday night, and I was really nervous. He always keeps popcorn on the table. So I just started, like, eating popcorn, which is not smart to do when you're nervous or meeting anyone for the first time because you get a little dry mouth and chokey.
- [23:45]
Willie Geist
Those kernels get caught back here, too.
- [23:47]
Maya Rudolph
It's not a smooth move. And I don't remember much, but I remember Lauren asking, why do you think you should work here? And I said, because I love wearing wigs. It's the dumbest, weirdest answer. I was too nervous to speak to. I mean, he was a demigod. To me. Like, to me, he was a rock star. So I was like, that. Lorne, I'm in that. Lorne's office. I'm in. It was awful. I walked back to my crappy, you know, Times Square hotel and talked to myself and cried. Walking down the street just like, you idiot.
- [24:27]
Willie Geist
You figured you blew it. You figured you blew it.
- [24:29]
Maya Rudolph
Figured I blew it. Came the next night and watched the show for the first time. I realized he said, come watch the show tomorrow. I'd never been in here before, so I got to watch the show a bit and stood right there, and it was. It was magical. And. Oh, and then I watched my. The future father of all four of my children walk past me. That was a whole other level. That was super weird.
- [24:59]
Willie Geist
Wait, he was there that night?
- [25:01]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. So Paul was here as a guest writer for a couple weeks the same year I got hired, but I didn't get hired until the last three weeks of the season. So he just came by to visit.
- [25:12]
Willie Geist
And did you meet him there?
- [25:13]
Maya Rudolph
No, but I recognized him, and I was like, what is this place? What's going on? He was in his little suit, walked through, real busy. Walked through, walked around. By the way, nobody walks around during a live show. Well, the camera. Paul did. He just walked around. They were shooting. He was walking around between the cameras.
- [25:32]
Willie Geist
I had no idea. That's a great piece of Maya Rudolph trivia.
- [25:36]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. And then didn't hear for a while about that good old Lauren meeting. It did not go well. And then I got a call saying, they want you to come do the last three weeks of the show. But it was like a trial period. It's like going to school with three weeks left and you don't know where to sit in the cafeteria. I didn't know who to talk to, what to do. I didn't know how it worked. And I remember Chris Parnell was probably one of the only people I knew here. And I said, what do we. My first day was a writing night because we didn't have pitch meeting. It was a Tuesday. And I said, what do we do? And he said, we just write. And I said, till when? He was like, 6, 7, 8 in the morning. And I just remember everyone's doors closing. And I went in my room. Zach Galifianakis and I were both there. He was a guest writer. Yeah, it was. We both looked at each other like, what do we do? I don't know.
- [26:26]
Willie Geist
Cause you're not celebrating yet, because you're just there for three weeks. No, it's a trial Period.
- [26:30]
Maya Rudolph
It was clearly a trial period, right? Yeah.
- [26:32]
Willie Geist
But you did something right.
- [26:34]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, I got, I pitched. I pitched a sketch on Tuesday where I, I think. What was the name of the MTV show? It was like some Countdown with trl. Trl with Ananda Lewis and Bailey. Yeah, well, at the time it was. I did. I played it. I thought, oh, I can play Ananda Lewis. I look like her. I'll just say that. And then we ended up doing. Was crazy. It was really crazy.
- [27:01]
Willie Geist
You had such a good. You were there seven seasons, eight seasons, somewhere in between, I think. And you had great cast, but particularly great women. I mean, with you, Tina, Amy, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Wiig, later. Do you guys think of yourselves as sort of a crew, kind of a breakthrough crew at snl?
- [27:19]
Maya Rudolph
I mean, we were aware that people were reacting to us that way. But it's funny, we're all from different places. The east coast girls came from Second City, and Ana and I came from Groundlings. But we were all kind of like, separated at birth and experiences, so we all made sense to each other. We were good girls. We worked really hard, we wrote our sketches. We didn't mess around. We fought to be here. And, like, really, it really mattered to all of us. But I say that because I feel like it was just kind of this serendipitous rare time where we were all kind of more or less cut from the same cloth and, like, doing our own versions of that. But we were all just like really hard workers and we were lucky enough to be together. And, you know, my personal experience with other women, you know, people said when you get here, like, oh, it's a boys club. And you're like, we're good. Let me get in there. Like, I never had that experience with comedy. I know it has existed and can exist, but I always felt like either. My era was always really lucky, but I just. I just didn't really play that game. I like co ed sports. I mean, I'm a little bit of a boy, too. I mean, I was raised in a house with my dad and my brother and I speak boy really well. And I like it. Like, it's kind of part of my makeup too. But I just felt like to me, this kind sketch comedy to me is a team sport.
- [29:03]
Willie Geist
Yep.
- [29:03]
Maya Rudolph
And that group of women, we all come from that, we all understand it and it's a way to really work well together and then, you know, strengthen each other. Plus, as a woman, I've always just been a woman that I like other women. You know, some Women don't. Some women are like, I'm good being the only lady in the house. I like women. You know, I never got. I never had a sister, so those girls are my sisters.
- [29:33]
Willie Geist
Terrible question, I know. But if I gave you a list of Beyonce and Oprah and Gemini's twin and Bronx Beat, is there a favorite SNL character for you?
- [29:47]
Maya Rudolph
Oprah was just a liberating joy. Like, who doesn't want to be Oprah? It was the most exquisite fun to, like, give things away and have people's heads blow off, literally. In this case, it was like having a superpower. But the inner me who, like, wants to be this amazing, fabulous woman. When I play Beyonce, I might as well be in drag. I don't feel like a woman compared to the woman that Beyonce is. But for me, it's like my Cinderella moment. It's getting to be the person that I find, like, I most admire. I mean, she's everything.
- [30:31]
Willie Geist
So that was more homage.
- [30:33]
Maya Rudolph
That was homage, yeah. But she's seen me do it. We've never had a conversation about it, so I hope she doesn't hate it. She's gotta know, like, it's an adult's, like, Cinderella moment. It is me playing dress up, getting to be the most fabulous person I wanna be. But she actually was in a Gemini's twins sketch years ago and was really, really fun and great about it. So I don't know. I will say this, and I didn't answer your question right. Well, it's a tough one.
- [31:06]
Willie Geist
And Donatella.
- [31:07]
Maya Rudolph
And Donatella was like, my. Donatella was the beginning of. It was, like, the first success I had here, and I owe it all to my friend Emily Spivey. I met her at the Groundlings, and she just. She came here as a writer, and she wrote it for me, and it really, like, changed my experience here. Plus, again, it was another, like, fabulous, semi, like, zombie fun character to play that could do anything. I love a character who can literally do anything. Like, if she. She's about to run through a plate glass window and not get a scratch on her. I love that. Like, it's. It's just so powerful. But Bronx beat is, like, the closest to my heart because after I'd worked here, after I'd finally, like, gotten to know this place and everyone in this room building, and it was something that Amy and Emily and I wrote together. And we wrote it based on our friends in the hair department, our girlfriend Jody. We're both just playing Jody. She's from the Bronx. She. I mean, she would give us things to do. After a while, she was like, say this thing about my husband. And we would just do it. And the three of us would sit in the room, and it was joyful to write, and we would just all write it together. And it was the only time I've ever improvised at snl. I've never improvised in any other schools. Really? Yeah, we always, always stay on cue cards. Yeah.
- [32:32]
Willie Geist
Broadspeed's a personal favorite for me. I grew up in New Jersey, and there are elements of just that cultural. Like the moms give me my children. That whole thing, like, it's just right on there.
- [32:42]
Maya Rudolph
I love it so much.
- [32:43]
Willie Geist
So we owe it to your hairstylist, Jody. It's good to know Jodi.
- [32:46]
Maya Rudolph
She's still here.
- [32:48]
Willie Geist
And among the many people you met here was the great Fred Armisen. Which brings us to your latest project, Forever. Did the two of you go out and say, we're a package deal. Let's go find the creative team to help us make it happen, or did you have a story in mind? Or you just knew you wanted to work with Fred?
- [33:06]
Maya Rudolph
We knew we wanted to work together. We wanted to play a married couple or any sort of couple, really. We didn't know what. We just knew we wanted to be together. We love working together. And when you don't have that office that you know you're going to walk into on Monday, you have to create a work situation to be together. And he was in New York for a long time. I was in LA having my kids, and we just said, we've got to do it. We've got to do it. We did a stage show together for a minute, and we felt like, yeah, okay, we got to keep. We've got to keep this going. And so we just set out to find someone to write it for us. We said, like, we want to find someone great to hand it to. And we met with Alan Yang, who. I mean, Alan is a rare breed. He's great writer. You know, I knew him because of Parks and Rec, and he's been doing Master of None and created that show and with Aziz. And he's like, he's one of those rare young people who is professional, aggressive in his creativity. He's ambitious, like, he wants to work and super positive. And we were like, oh, that's the guy. Like, we're tired. We don't want any more bs. We want to work with great people. We want work to be a joy. And we've been lucky so far in the work that we've Done together, like, let's make this a great experience. And Alan just, like Alan just said, oh, I'll send you some ideas. And it became like a list of many incredible ideas. And we went from there.
- [34:43]
Willie Geist
There's a lot we can't say about the show that I want to say, but we're not gonna say it.
- [34:47]
Maya Rudolph
Me too.
- [34:48]
Willie Geist
How do you describe it then to people who are thinking about checking it out?
- [34:52]
Maya Rudolph
It's a story about a relationship. It's a couple and their day to day, their ins and outs, and what it's like to be in a long relationship. And then, you know, things change. They really. But they end up, you know, kind of getting out of their rut. They go on the same vacation every year, and they kind of do the same thing every year. And I think my character is sort of the. The one that's trying to bring a little spice to the relationship. So she suggests they go on a new vacation and they go skiing and they just try it out.
- [35:36]
Willie Geist
And then stuff happens.
- [35:37]
Maya Rudolph
And then stuff happens.
- [35:38]
Willie Geist
That's like. I can't even use an adjective, I don't think, because that might give it away a little bit.
- [35:43]
Maya Rudolph
I want to use a lot of four letter words. I'm trying not to. And then stuff happens.
- [35:48]
Willie Geist
Just trust us. Hang in for the first couple episodes.
- [35:51]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, it's right. Yeah. And I was saying to you earlier, like, it's not. I'm not trying to be cagey about the show, but I. It was written to be a personal viewing experience and you can't have one episode without the other. And Alan was so smart. He said, you know what I really would like to do is write all of the episodes first and once they're all completed, then we should go in and shoot because I want to know where we're going. I want us all to know where we're going. And sometimes with television you don't know and it is open ended and you just kind of keep going. But it was amazing to know where we would be in that last episode when we started on the first day.
- [36:32]
Willie Geist
It must be so nice to work with somebody you have this shorthand with and you don't have to get to know the person beforehand. I could have sworn in a couple scenes, I almost saw you start smiling when he was delivering a line. Like a knowing smile between the two of you.
- [36:44]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [36:45]
Willie Geist
It must be great to just walk into the room and say, I know this is gonna work.
- [36:48]
Maya Rudolph
That's. I mean, I used to say Fred was my comedy husband. I mean, that's that's just a special relationship we have. I say used to because I think I'm in a long line of. He has a lot of comedy wives, but I'll take it. You know, he's my people, and when we first met here, it was like I'd known him forever. We also have, like, a very funny kind of. We're also both sort of musicians, and we both kind of speak that language, and we just get right back into where we left off every time we see each other. I'm so incredibly amazed by him as a comedian, and he's just truly gifted, and so I could kind of just watch him do anything always. But I find that I'm a better version of myself as an actor around him, for sure. He's one of my favorite people to work with. And I think chemistry is something that is. You can't make up. And so we knew going in that that would be an element that we wouldn't really have to work on. And it's really nice to be able to infuse these characters with an authentic connection.
- [38:14]
Willie Geist
You put two people who like working together with a good showrunner. You had a pretty good formula.
- [38:18]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. Yeah.
- [38:19]
Willie Geist
A couple more things before I let you go. I told you I let my children watch Bridesmaids. Yeah, a couple days ago.
- [38:25]
Maya Rudolph
How'd that go?
- [38:26]
Willie Geist
There was some muting and fast forwarding that happened. Yeah, but they love your scene at the bridal shop. How big a deal was not just that scene, but that movie for you and your career? I looked up the numbers. Today made almost $300 million. You couldn't have imagined what it was gonna do when you made that movie with your friends.
- [38:47]
Maya Rudolph
No. And I remember while we were making it, saying, this is so fun. We were all having a really good time. That movie was the first example to me, actually, about having chemistry with people, you know, working with people that you already know and how authentic those relationships can be. That was the first time I realized what that does to me to a viewer, because we'd all. We were all very groundlings connected. Melissa and Kristen and I actually weren't there at the same time, but we kind of overlapped. And she said she'd see my show, but we had all the same friends. And then obviously, we bonded here and Wendy. And it was one of those funny, rare things where we liked what we were doing. And we kept saying, I hope other people think it's funny. We think it's funny, but we were enjoying ourselves. And then I'd never heard people say like, wow. It's kind of raunchy and great. And you guys are women. And I was like, have you met me? This is normal. I don't know why you think this is, like, a branching out of what women do. This is what we do. This is it.
- [39:59]
Willie Geist
Especially when we're together, right?
- [40:01]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
- [40:02]
Willie Geist
And you said the bridal shop scene wasn't in the original script. No, I didn't know that.
- [40:06]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. That was actually Jud suggested that we go to a Brazilian restaurant and get food poisoning. And at the time, we were very hesitant. And I think my characters. I think the way they described it my. Was the stage direction was she jumps up in the air in slow motion as though she's been shot by a bullet. And I remember being like, kristen, I don't know if I want to have, like, that severe of diarrhea in this movie. That seems embarrassing. Like, we did not know what we were getting into. And it took a while to get everybody on board. And then it was so fun to shoot that scene.
- [40:56]
Willie Geist
Well, you actually played it brilliantly. You didn't do the shot with a gun thing. You sort of slow walk it, and there's this resignation that comes over your face, and it's happening.
- [41:05]
Maya Rudolph
I think that's what would happen to me if I really pooped my dress in the street. I do think that I would just get low. There have been moments in life, I'm not gonna lie, where I was like, am I gonna have a bridesmaids moment?
- [41:20]
Willie Geist
Oh, really?
- [41:21]
Maya Rudolph
Oh, yeah. I was with my daughters at a top shop once, and I was like, excuse me, is there a bathroom here? And the lady was like, no, you have to go next door. And I went, oh, I'm gonna have a bridesmaid's moment. I'm gonna be the lady in the street. But I am that lady, and this is really embarrassing.
- [41:36]
Willie Geist
That would be a moment if you reenacted the bridesmaid. Didn't happen in real life.
- [41:40]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, yeah. That wouldn't have been good.
- [41:42]
Willie Geist
And then Kristen says, oh, you really do.
- [41:44]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, you really do. I don't. I remember her saying that and going, oh, my God. That's really funny. I mean, the beauty of being able to improvise in that movie was that was one of those rare things when it's highly encouraged. We actually used to do it in rehearsal. They would tape it. We had, like, Judd's assistant acted as the stenographer, would write all the improvs down, and then we'd come back in and there was another script oh, wow. And you're talking about some pretty, pretty heavy duty, heavy lifting improvisers.
- [42:13]
Willie Geist
It's funny because We've interviewed Melissa McCarthy and Chris O' Dowd a few weeks ago and they both said, like, yeah, we felt like it was funny when we were shooting it.
- [42:20]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [42:20]
Willie Geist
But then when you saw it all.
- [42:21]
Maya Rudolph
Together, you were like, oh, I've never had anybody. I've never had people react to anything I've done in that way before. And it was really interesting. It was really eye opening the way that people talked about it. And again, it wasn't. I think as someone who I would say is born and raised at Saturday Night Live, like, there is an underdog element here to the cast. I mean, that's the whole premise of the Not Ready for Primetime Players, because you're kind of hosting these movie stars week in and week out. And it's kind of a wonderfully humbling way to work. But also, you know, we're also writing sketches and sometimes you work really hard on them and they make it to dress and then they don't get on the air. And I say all that to say, like, I'm used to disappointment. Like, I knew it was funny, I thought it was great. But that doesn't. I'm used to disappointment. I don't always expect people to love what I love. So that was really shocking to see people unanimously love something that I already loved. I was like, wait, you like, I like it. You like it? Like, it was. It was wild.
- [43:35]
Willie Geist
And now you have an 11 and a 9 year old in my house who are fans who snatch that DVD at Target. So that's going. You're getting your cut of that five bucks.
- [43:43]
Maya Rudolph
I'm sorry. It's good. They need to. They need to.
- [43:47]
Willie Geist
They're ready. It's time.
- [43:48]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, it's time.
- [43:48]
Willie Geist
The last thing you mentioned, your husband, the movie Phantom thread he was quoted as saying was inspired by you. Have you heard this?
- [43:56]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [43:56]
Willie Geist
And I don't know if that's a good thing. Have you seen the movie?
- [44:00]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, I've seen it.
- [44:02]
Willie Geist
He said he was sick one day and you were caring for him and he said, oh, this is a movie.
- [44:07]
Maya Rudolph
He said that I looked at him in a loving way that he hadn't seen in a very long time. I think I find it very funny, but I think it comes from this idea of being vulnerable and allowing someone to care for you. I've never made him a mushroom omelette, so. But I have gotten some good ideas from friends who have seen the movie.
- [44:36]
Willie Geist
He doesn't sew anything into your clothes or anything like that?
- [44:38]
Maya Rudolph
Not that I know of. I need to keep an eye out. I need to start ripping the seams open of my coats.
- [44:45]
Willie Geist
That's kind of where I was going to check the seams.
- [44:47]
Maya Rudolph
It's pretty cool. What? One simple act where you just think you're making sure your husband doesn't have the flu can inspire.
- [44:58]
Willie Geist
And after we sat down for that conversation, Maya and I hopped up out of our chairs and she kind of walked me through the studio, down the hallway. A trip for her down memory lane. So you were talking about walking in here and a familiar smell.
- [45:11]
Maya Rudolph
I love the smell.
- [45:12]
Willie Geist
What is that, do you think? Is it a little paint? Maybe it's the show coming together.
- [45:17]
Maya Rudolph
Floor's been here for a while. It's had some llamas on it.
- [45:22]
Willie Geist
Here's your crew right there. And look who's next to you.
- [45:25]
Maya Rudolph
Oh, my. Fred. Oh, it's so good. It's rare when you get us all dressed up.
- [45:32]
Willie Geist
Yeah. Is it fun to look at a picture like that and see how well everyone's done? I mean, you could go down the line there. And all the projects they've done since.
- [45:39]
Maya Rudolph
Then, it's been crazy. I feel like the Forrest Gump of comedy. Like, I was there when they were all there. This bunch is pretty crazy. Yeah.
- [45:52]
Willie Geist
And then this is a little bit earlier, right?
- [45:55]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [45:55]
Willie Geist
Cause Tina's still there. That's gotta be early in your run, right?
- [45:59]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. I think that might have been when Fred first started, maybe because Amy was there. Yeah, I think that was about the same time.
- [46:06]
Willie Geist
Oh, yeah, there he is.
- [46:07]
Maya Rudolph
Amy came the following year, so must have been my second year there.
- [46:12]
Willie Geist
And do you all keep up? I mean, it is sort of a club once you've been on snl, right?
- [46:17]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, for sure. I mean, well, the girls and I. I don't know, it might have been Tina who started it. We text each other and now we have a text unit. It kind of started out of like kids first day at school or what are you guys doing? Because there's some in New York and some in California, and now we all keep track of each other and probably talk every day.
- [46:39]
Willie Geist
Do you?
- [46:40]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah, yeah, we text. We text, talk. What is it? We have a chain.
- [46:45]
Willie Geist
You text change. You're so hip.
- [46:47]
Maya Rudolph
I'm pretty hip.
- [46:48]
Willie Geist
What are you on, like, Snapchat too, or something like that? I don't know what that is.
- [46:51]
Maya Rudolph
I would never know. You can put sunglasses on your face.
- [46:56]
Willie Geist
That's where we are technologically that's the great advance. You put sunglasses on your pictures.
- [47:01]
Maya Rudolph
I mean, all this stuff is so familiar, and yet it's ever changing, which is what I love. I love knowing that when you come down the hall, you're gonna see the host pictures from the recent season and, like, see how they change. But it's all kind of the same, too, Right?
- [47:16]
Willie Geist
Right. Just different faces.
- [47:17]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. Yeah. And especially because Mary Ellen, the photographer, like, she's. She's been so consistent for so long that it has its own. Its own thing. It's like its own look. And it only kind of belongs to this place.
- [47:34]
Willie Geist
Right.
- [47:35]
Maya Rudolph
This is also another smell I enjoy.
- [47:37]
Willie Geist
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. There's a little woodworking.
- [47:40]
Maya Rudolph
Well, there's always something being worked on in here.
- [47:42]
Willie Geist
Yeah.
- [47:43]
Maya Rudolph
Especially during. I mean, they're down now, but especially during a show week. I mean, think about it. It's like we don't really read the sketches until Wednesday night when you work here. So they're not really. They're painting stuff when we go home and sleep. And then you come in and something's being soldered and hammered. And you always hear them saying, hold the work. Because it literally has to be built in what, three days?
- [48:07]
Willie Geist
Right. That's the amazing thing. People don't realize. It's not like you have those sets sitting around and you move them in.
- [48:11]
Maya Rudolph
Right.
- [48:11]
Willie Geist
They're specific to what. What's written.
- [48:14]
Maya Rudolph
Not to mention the wigs, too, have to be built in a few days.
- [48:18]
Willie Geist
I've experienced a few SNL wigs.
- [48:20]
Maya Rudolph
Have you?
- [48:21]
Willie Geist
When we do our Today show, Halloween.
- [48:23]
Maya Rudolph
Oh, yeah.
- [48:23]
Willie Geist
The amazing team over here does the.
- [48:25]
Maya Rudolph
Wigs, so they're truly amazing. I don't think. I don't think anyone realizes how good they are because they look so seamless. I think that that's why people think it's no big deal because they're so good.
- [48:37]
Willie Geist
We did an SNL Halloween a couple years ago, and I was Will as the cheerleader with Cherry. And we had the actual outfits. The tag in mind said Will in it. It was pretty cool.
- [48:50]
Maya Rudolph
Really.
- [48:50]
Willie Geist
Yeah. Cool.
- [48:51]
Maya Rudolph
That is the coolest thing. Sometimes you'll have a fitting and it'll say, like, Molly. And I'm like, is this Molly's girdle? Oh, this is Molly Shannon's girdle. That's. Is that where we have the meetings? I think that's Lauren's office.
- [49:08]
Willie Geist
I think that's the writing room.
- [49:10]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. That's the eighth floor rewrite table.
- [49:12]
Willie Geist
Yep.
- [49:13]
Maya Rudolph
I've eaten a lot of Cold food in there. I doubted myself quite a bit at that table. That's usually where more of the Harvard writers are running the table. And you're like, oh, it's serious down here. But then you're like, is that Kanye? Oh, Kanye's rehearsing. Okay, take a little break.
- [49:32]
Willie Geist
Press your nose against the glass. Yeah, those show. I don't know if people realize those show days are insane on Saturday.
- [49:39]
Maya Rudolph
Right.
- [49:39]
Willie Geist
Cause it's changing. You do rehearsal, you get rid of some stuff, you put some stuff in, you shorten a sketch.
- [49:45]
Maya Rudolph
It's an amazing foundation to have. I feel like I can do anything now because it's really like comedy army training now. When I go to work on other things. I feel like I have skills that most people don't have because I know how to produce something in a very short amount of time. I know how to make changes in a very short amount of time. And I. I think Lauren has always instilled in us, like, anything is possible. So they're like, no, we don't want it to be flamenco dancer. And you're like, right, we're gonna have 300 police officers instead. Like, we can make it happen. Because that's the kind of stuff that happens on Saturday. You know, we'll do, like, we would do the dress rehearsal show at 8, and then 1 element of it didn't work, but they wanted the show, so they cut that and change it. And you've got the costume department, like, figuring it out for the 11:30 show. It's nuts.
- [50:36]
Willie Geist
Cause that rehearsal show's not over till 10. So now you've got 90 minutes till the show.
- [50:41]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. And then you, like, go in that room and eat a really crappy sandwich and wait to see your faked, like, if your piece got in, and then sit in Lauren's office somewhere. I always sat on the couch. Everyone sat in their same spots out of, like, superstition, probably. And then you look to see if your sketch is in there, and, like. And then you stay really, like, quiet about it. And then you get your notes and do it all over again.
- [51:08]
Willie Geist
You've done pretty well for someone who is choking on popcorn. Twenty years ago, in that office, in.
- [51:12]
Maya Rudolph
That same office, Lorne and I have laughed about it since. He's, you know, once you're a part of his life, it's forever. Like, he's probably one of the most loyal people I've ever known in my life. And he really cares about all of these people that have come through this place. It really matters to him. It's nice, you know, to know that you still have a home somewhere, even when you don't work there anymore. Or I say, you don't have to work there anymore. Because when I left, I was exhausted. When I see this show now, sometimes I'm like, ooh, that's a lot of work. I'm good. I like popping in and then I like going home.
- [51:59]
Willie Geist
Plus, you got kindergarten and seventh grade to worry about. Yeah. This is a lot.
- [52:03]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah. My first year after my maternity leave, doing the show with a baby was bananas. I'm sure I would get home from writing a noonie and noonie at like, 8 in the morning, and my daughter was just waking up.
- [52:16]
Willie Geist
So now you're up for the day?
- [52:17]
Maya Rudolph
Yep. Or I would put her to bed, like, give her a bath and everything, and then go to write all night long. It was crazy. I don't know how I was running on fumes, but I loved it so much. It was like merging my first love, which was this place, with my new first love of my. Of my family, like, all in one. And then I was like, all right, that's too much.
- [52:42]
Willie Geist
Do your kids watch sketches on YouTube? Do they watch your old SNL? Do they have favorites?
- [52:48]
Maya Rudolph
My son likes Sofa King.
- [52:50]
Willie Geist
Oh, wow.
- [52:52]
Maya Rudolph
For obvious reasons.
- [52:53]
Willie Geist
Yeah.
- [52:53]
Maya Rudolph
My. My oldest daughter Pearl loves chicken by chicken man. She likes to say chicken by chicken Man. Yeah. My daughter Lucy is into it, but she watches it very, very seriously. I'm like, oh, no, she's gonna be.
- [53:14]
Willie Geist
She's you.
- [53:15]
Maya Rudolph
She's gonna be walking through those doors any day now.
- [53:18]
Willie Geist
She's you watching Gilda Radner.
- [53:19]
Maya Rudolph
Yeah.
- [53:20]
Willie Geist
Yeah.
- [53:20]
Maya Rudolph
She takes it really seriously.
- [53:22]
Willie Geist
It's coming.
- [53:23]
Maya Rudolph
Oh, boy. I'm not ready. Lord, I'm not ready.
- [53:28]
Willie Geist
Thank you. That was great. I appreciate it. My thanks again to Maya Rudolph. Her new show Forever, is streaming now on Amazon. You can check it out. As always, thanks to you for tuning into the Sunday Sit down podcast. If you like what you hear, check out the library of extended conversations with all my guests. And don't forget to click subscribe to hear new episodes every Sunday. And of course, be sure to tune into Sunday today every weekend on Indeed dc. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you next week on the Sunday Sit down podcast. A real Etsy buyer review for handmade home decor by a real Etsy seller. They are truly beautiful to look at and absolutely original. Discover pieces created and loved by real people. Shop the Etsy app.