Maya Rudolph may win an Emmy (her third) for eating a plate of hot wings…on live television…as a perspiring, leather-clad Beyoncé. That sketch was the highlight of Rudolph’s most recent Saturday Night Live hosting gig, which earned her a nod for outstanding guest actress in a comedy series, she tells V.F.’s Hillary Busis on Little Gold Men.
“I loved doing the Beyoncé hot-wing sketch. It was so much fun,” she recalls. “Sometimes people just write stuff and you’re [thinking], Oh, this is the best job. It’s so goofy.” The moment of levity was particularly gratifying during a period at SNL where audiences were downsized and masked, while cast and crew were abnormally distant. Despite the precautions, returning to her sketch-comedy home of seven seasons is always on the table. “To me, that was a vacation,” Rudolph explains. “It’s, ‘Would you like to take a weeklong vacation at SNL?’ ‘Yes, I would.’ To me, that’s a nice hotel stay.”
In a wide-ranging interview, Rudolph reflected on playing in SNL’s sandbox and voicing the “unfiltered version of all of us” on Big Mouth, for which she’s also Emmy nominated. This week’s Little Gold Men, hosted by Katey Rich, Joanna Robinson, Richard Lawson, and guest David Canfield, includes a preview of Jane Campion’s buzzy Oscar-hopeful The Power of the Dog (based on Thomas Savage’s novel), debate about the all-too-predictable Ted Lasso backlash, and interview with the show’s Emmy nominee Juno Temple.
Take a listen to the episode above, and find Little Gold Men on Apple Podcasts or anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also sign up to text with us at Subtext—we’d love to hear from you.
Read highlights from the Maya Rudolph conversation below.
On hosting Saturday Night Live mid-pandemic:
Maya Rudolph: It’s such a testament to that show that because it’s a well-oiled machine and it has been going on in a certain way for so long, they were able to draw from all of the things that make it what it is and do the best they could, under those circumstances. But it was still really hard. We did a lot fewer sketches and it was just different. There wasn’t a regular audience. It was healthcare workers and they were wearing masks and there weren’t as many people in the room. It wasn’t a full capacity audience and people weren’t laughing as freely because everyone’s afraid of dying, there’s that too.
It was surreal. And at the same time, it was also very joyful to be among other human beings in a safe environment. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it because it was something that truly had never been done before and was just a once in a lifetime experience. I’ve always felt that way about that show. I love the ability to harness all things in a live show. That’s the most exciting part of it. It’s just my favorite format.
On playing Kamala Harris opposite Martin Short’s Doug Emhoff:
I don’t know whose [idea] it was, but no one had to ask me. It was just like, “Marty’s coming.” It was, “Oh, thank God. Okay, great. How perfect. [He’s] somebody who I knew is going to be physical and deeply affectionate and so likable and so Goddamn funny.” That part is nice because then with routine, with knowing people, you can start to fill in the blanks more easily. That was definitely one of them where I thought, “Oh, that’ll be fun. That’ll be really fun.”
On recreating her late mother Minnie Riperton’s album covers:
It was joyful, we did it last time I hosted [SNL]. And we did it this time too. It’s only because Mary Ellen Matthews, the photographer, is so incredible. She and I are so connected and know each other for so long and so well. That place feels like home for me and so it was a comforting, loving tribute. She knows how much the show means to me and how much it’s a full circle moment for me. I think that makes it the right and unique place to do something like that. Because that experience and being in that studio for me feels like a, “Look at me, Ma” moment.
On playing Connie the Hormone Monstress for four years:
Well, obviously the writers love writing for her because everything I say is gold. Every single thing that Connie says is so much fun to say. And I think it’s because it’s so uninhibited. It’s all of the things that you wish you could say, and that never come out of you, that you would have to be pushed to say. She’s the unfiltered version of all of us. She gets to be this dynamic, powerful, sexy, forceful, feeling, emotional woman, monster female, whatever she is. She’s allowed to feel, she’s allowed to cry and yell in the same breath. And we forgive her for it because she’s just raging with hormones. It’s very freeing. I think she’s just become this fun poster child for being who you are or speaking up or being stronger.
On the upcoming Big Mouth spin-off:
It’s just more in the world of all of the monsters, not just the hormone monsters, but running the gamut of emotions, feelings, everything. Because they started bringing in some pretty great concepts of the Gratitoad [voiced by Zach Galifianakis] and Shame Wizard [David Thewlis] and different little things. I think along the way that really helped spotlight feelings that people were going through and puberty and adolescence and life, depression. It’s just way more into the world of the human, emotional psyche, I guess.
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