Maya Rudolph may be even more invested in Kamala Harris’ political future than the California senator herself. Rudolph portrayed Harris on the most recent season of Saturday Night Live and was nominated for an Emmy last week for her impersonation. In fact, Rudolph was recording an interview with Entertainment Weekly about her Emmy nom on Tuesday when news broke that Joe Biden has selected Harris as his running mate. “That’s spicy,” she told EW.
Harris’ ranking on the Scoville scale aside, Rudolph was temporarily at a loss for words when asked about returning to SNL to reprise her impersonation: “Oh s—-. Ruh-roh,” Rudolph initially responded. “I love going to the show any excuse I can get,” she continued before acknowledging that the current pandemic provides some hurdles to continuing on the late-night sketch series. “I just didn’t really anticipate traveling during this pandemic, but if there’s anyone who can work it out I’m sure Lorne [Michaels] has some kind of invisible helicopter that can get me there. Ever since I was a kid, truly, I wanted to be on any kind of SCTV, Saturday Night Live, and I can’t believe that I got to work there, and I can’t believe that it’s my family still...I’m so thrilled that I got to go back. It’s my favorite place to play...I’m as surprised as you are, guys. I don’t know that I’m ready to go right this minute, but it’s so nice to have this nomination be associated with the show because it’s my true love.”
Though she never received an Emmy nomination during her run as a series regular on SNL from 2000-2007, Rudolph has now been nominated twice for guesting on the show, the first nom coming in 2012. Rudolph is actually a triple nominee this year. She up against herself in the Guest Actress In A Comedy category (having also scored her third nomination for The Good Place) and also has a chance to win in the voice-over category for her work on Big Mouth.