Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Maya Rudolph on Her Comedy Roots and SNL Legacy (September 2018)

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

Maya Rudolph knew early on she was born to make people laugh, but her run on Saturday Night Live cemented her place as a comedy powerhouse. In this chat from September 2018, Willie sits down with Maya inside SNL’s iconic Studio 8H to talk about her favorite celebrity impressions, working alongside icons like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and how the show became her comedy boot camp, paving the way for hit roles in Bridesmaids and her Amazon series Forever with Fred Armisen. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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 has stoutly.

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 1975 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 Ripperton, the late Minnie Ripperton, died when Maya was only six years old sang the song Loving You. 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 Faye, Amy Polar. 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. My pleasure. So what's it like walking back in here? You left the show, I guess, 11 years ago or so. 2007-ish. Yeah, ish. What's it like being in this room? 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 here at this show,

and I still love it because, like, my work family still works here. I don't know. It's never really, it changes, but it doesn't change. 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? It's really like family. I was amazed. You mentioned Little Maya, loving the show, reading how far back your desire to be on the show went.

Yeah. Like a five-year-old watching Gilda Radner. Yeah. And you knew effectively in kindergarten who you wanted to be when you grew up. Yeah. I thanked my parents for being young and hip and watching the show, because I, crawl into their bed and I remember seeing Rosanna-Razana Dana on the update desk and Landshark 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. Right. My parents were young. 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. So that's a long way from a five-year-old in her living room

to actually being on the stage. Was it a real dream or was it like one of those? I'm going to be an astronaut when I grew up kind of things. 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 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 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.

So as you grew up and got older, your father said, yeah, if that's what you want to do, my go for it. When I was about to graduate from college, my dad said, so what do you want to do for work? 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 L.A. 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'd wanted to be. But then I just did improv in school and didn't really think about, oh, you can go there someday. And at that point, everyone, like the new crop of S&L people were like Sherry O'Terry and Will Ferrell and Onagastire and Chris Parnell and And Chris Catan 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 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 video.

Did you? Yeah. Any I would know? Any MTV like 90s era videos? I'm trying to think. Did you ever hear of the band Ever Clear? I worked in an Ever Clear video. Yeah. Did you ever see that posthumous Biggie Smalls video where all the kids are dressed up like Biggie and Puffy. Worked on that. Did you really? We dressed a tiny little Kim. So this is when you're in the groundlings?

This is a side hustle? 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 happened. So I was like, great, I can pull clothes. And I got that in my bloodstream, and that's satiated that. But I just, I wanted to, you know, I wanted to perform on that grounding stage. 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 because 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? Yeah, I mean, when we were little, my brother and I used to go on the road, road with my parents. And I mean, talk about a 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 more, it was more like just the backstage of it, like the process of it. But it's trippy to see her mom on a stage. And your mom's cool. Yeah. I mean, like really cool. 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 so 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 four, 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 on the band. So we were

just all on the road together. And I love that stuff. They have really good snacks backstage when you're a kid, and you get to do fun things. And I like that. I got used to that, like, mentality. Like I saw a home movie recently of the Smothers Brothers teaching my brother how to yo-yo. Really? Yeah. It was really crazy. 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. True what people have said that loving you, I think you'd agree your mom's biggest hit,

was sung as a lullaby to you and your brother when you were little? 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. She put my name in there to soothe me. And they were, yeah, my dad said they were just working. working on it. I told you I interviewed Lenny Kravitz last week and he was talking about his mother

who was on the Jeffersons. Roxy. 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?

Yeah. I mean, for me, you know, losing my mom's music. my mom, she was only 31 when she died and I was so little, I was just turning seven 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, you know, videos on my iPhone and I really just had her music connect to you. And so for many years it was really tough for me to hear her voice. It was way too personal and I really feel that 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 going to feel good again to hear her music and like celebrate and enjoy it? Because it was so hard. 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 You 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.

Right. 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's talk show and. all this great stuff where they're all on their 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. That's cool. I was watching clips too, and I think it was like the 1976 American Music Award. And it was your mom and Aretha, and they were nominated in the same category. And I was like, oh, my God. Crazy. Just young and beautiful. And they're singing.

It was incredible. 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 just an era that's kind of like these beasts of these powerhouses of music,

these people who are just gifted. it's a different time, 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? 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 continue 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 intensely large hair. And people probably wondering. 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, like, 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 were asking, what are you? What's your ethnicity? And you're like, oh, I'm, I'm having. half black, I'm half Jewish, you know. But labeling yourself, I think, in 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 how you

carry yourself. Right. 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, I'm 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. So you still feel that way a little bit, given all your success and the way people love you?

Those bones are in there, but as an adult, you can work on them. Right. You know? And it, like I said, it's like the idea of yourself as a little person. And 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. So 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? 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 Khan was 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 a friend, 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 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. Put it out there. 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, or 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 in 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's really cool. But actually, I don't know if a lot of people know, there was that music phase, right, after college, with the rentals, your band?

Yeah. Little vocals, little keyboard. A little moog, or as I say, Moog. A little Moog? Yeah. Yeah. So you can sing. That's not just an act up there when you're doing sketches and everything.

Yeah, 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 were 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.

I was like, I feel like that's a cheat. 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. 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? 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 S&L, 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 Tishon 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. And then just did that thing that you were just like, what was I thinking? What the hell was I thinking? So I didn't come to the audition. Wow. And I went back to the groundings with my tail.

between my legs and sobbed about it a lot. Like, I think at the time she thought the contracts were binding, I don't know, I mean, I couldn't have cared less what the contracts look 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, 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 of choky.

Sure. Those kernels get caught back here. It's not a smooth move. And all, 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. This is 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 mean, it was awful. I walked back to my crappy, you know, Times Square hotel and talk to myself and cried. walking down the street, just like, you idiot. You figured you blew it. Yeah, figured I blew it. Came the next night and watched the show for the first time. I realized I had, 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 magical. And, oh, and then I watched my, you. the future father of all four of my children walk past me. That was a whole other level. That was super weird. Wait, he was there that night? 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. And did you meet him that night? No, but I recognized him. I was like, what is this place? What's going on? He was in his little suit, walked through, real busy, walked around.

By the way, nobody was. walks around during a live show. Paul did. He just walked around. They were shooting. He was walking around between the cameras. I had no idea. That's a great piece of Maya Rudolph trivia. It was crazy. 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 to 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 where 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? It was like six, seven, eight in the morning. And I just remember everyone's doors closing. And I went in my room. Zach Galafinakis and I were both there. He was a guest writer. Yeah, it was, we both looked to each other like, what do we do? I don't know. Because you're not celebrating yet, because you're just there for three weeks.

No, it's a trial period. It's a trial period. Right. Yeah. But you did something, right. Yeah, I got, I pitched a sketch on Tuesday where I think, what was the name of the MTV show as like some countdown with a R.L. TRL with a Nanda Lewis. Yeah, well, at the time it was, I did, I played it.

I thought, oh, I can play a Nonda Lewis. I look like her. I'll just say that. And then we ended up doing it. It was crazy. It was really crazy. You had such a good, you were there seven seasons, eight seasons? Somewhere in between, I think.

You had great cast, but particularly great women. I mean, with you, Tina, Amy, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Whig later. Do you guys think of yourselves as sort of a crew, kind of a breakthrough crew at SNL? 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 Anna 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, you know, good girls. Like we worked really hard. We wrote our sketches. We didn't mess around. Like we fought to be here. And like really, it really matter. 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're all just like really hard workers. And we were lucky enough to be together. And, and you know, my personal experience with other women, you know, people said when you get here like, oh, it's a, 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, 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. 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, um, 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. I, you know, I never got, I never had a sister. So those girls are my sisters.

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 S&L character for you? 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, like, when I play Beyonce, I might as well be in drag. Like, I don't feel like a woman compared to the woman that Beyonce is. But it's like, 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. So that was more homage. 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 got to know, like, it's an adult's like Cinderella moment. Like, it is me, like, playing dress up getting to be, like, the most fabulous person I want to be. But she actually wasn't a Gemini's twin 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.

What about, and Donatella? 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... She came here as a writer, 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's about to run through a plate glass window and not get a scratch on her, I love that. Like, it's just so powerful. But Bronx Beat is, like, the closest, my heart because after I'd worked here, after I'd finally like gotten to know this place and everyone in this 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 all. 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 S&L.

I've never improvised in any other sketch. Really? Yeah. We always, always stay on cue cards. Yeah. Brod's beat's a personal favor for me. I grew up in New Jersey, and there are elements of just that cultural, like the moms. You give me my children, that whole thing.

Like, it's just right on there. I love it so much. So we owe it to your hairstylist. Jody. It's good to know, Jody. She's still here. 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? 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 do 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 L.A. 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. We felt like, yeah, okay.

We've got to keep this going. And so we just set out to find someone to write it first. We said, like, we want to find someone great to, to, to hand it to. And we met with Alan Yang, who, I mean, Alan is, is a rare breed. He's a great writer. You know, I knew him because of Parks and Rec, and he's been doing Master of Nunn and created that show. And with Aziz, and he's like, he's one of those rare young people who is professional, um, 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, we don't want any more BS. We want to work with great people. Right. 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 that's, and we went from there. There's a lot we can't say about the show. that I want to say, but we're not going to say it. Me too. How do you describe it then to people who are thinking about checking it out? It's the 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-term relationship. And then, you know, things change. But they end up kind of getting out. 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 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. And then stuff happens. And then stuff happens. That's like, I can't even use an adjective, I don't think, because that might give it away a little bit. No, I want to use a lot of four-letter words.

I'm trying not to. And then stuff happens. Just trust us hang in for the first couple episodes. Yeah, it's, right? Yeah. And I was saying you earlier, like, I'm not trying to be cagey about the show, but 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. 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. Yeah. It must be great to just walk into the room and say, I know this is going to work.

That's, I mean, I used to say Fred was my comedy husband. I mean, that's just a special relationship we have. I say used to because I think I'm in a long line. 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. 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 that 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. You put two people who like working together with a good showrunner. You had a pretty good formula. Yeah, yeah.

A couple more things before I let you go. I told you I let my children watch bridesmaids a couple days ago. Had that go. 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 going to do when you made that movie with your friends. 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, 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 a viewer. because we were all very ground links 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 bronchy and great. 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. Especially when we're together, right?

Oh, yeah. And you said the bridal shop scene wasn't in the original script. No. I didn't know that. Yeah, that was actually, Judd 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 scene in the street 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 stuff. 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. It's happening. 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 going to lie, where I was like, am I going to have a bridesmaids moment? Oh, really?

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 going to have a bridesmaids moment. I'm going to be the lady in the street. Like, but I am that lady, and this is really embarrassing. That would be a moment. That would be a moment.

If you reenacted the bride's woman in real life. Yeah. Yeah, that wouldn't have been good. And then Kristen says, oh, you're really doing it, aren't you? You know what you're really doing it? You're really doing it. 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 proof.

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 stenophic. would write all the improvs down and then we'd come back in and there was another script. It was like, oh wow. And you're talking about some pretty, pretty heavy duty. Yeah. Heavy lifting improvisers. 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. Yeah. But then when you saw it all together, you were like, oh, I've never had anybody. I've never had people react to anything I've done that in that way before. And it was really interesting. It was really eye-opening the way that people talked about.

it and and again it wasn't it I think as someone who I would say is born and raised it 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 weekend and week out and it's kind of a wonderfully humbling way to work but also you know we're also right 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. And now you have an 11 and a nine-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. I'm sorry. It's good. They need to, they need to see that. They're ready.

It's time. The last thing, you mentioned your husband. The movie Phantom Thread, he was quoted as saying, was inspired by you. Have you heard this? Yeah. And I don't know if that's a good thing. Have you seen the movie? Yeah, I've seen it.

He said he was sick one day and you were caring for him. and he said, oh, this is a movie. 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 omelet.

But I have gotten some good ideas from friends who have seen the movie. He doesn't sew anything into your clothes or anything like that? Not that I know of. I need to keep an eye out. I need to start ripping the seams open of my coats. It's kind of where I was going. I mean, I want to check the scenes.

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. And after we sat down for that conversation, Maia 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. Oh, I love the smell. What is that, do you think?

A little paint maybe? It's the show coming together. This floor's been here for a while. It's had some llamas on it. Here's your crew right there. And look who's next to you. Oh, my friend. Oh, it's so good.

It's rare when you get us all dressed up. 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 then. It's pretty crazy. I feel like the forest gump of comedy. Like, I was there when they were all there. It's, this bunch is pretty crazy. Yeah. And then this is a little bit earlier, right? Because Tina's still there. That's got to be earlier in your run, right? 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. Yeah, there he is.

Amy came the following year. So it must have been my second year there. And do you all keep up? I mean, it is sort of a club once you've been on SNL, right? 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,

and it kind of started out of, like, kids' first day at school. or what do 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. Do you? Yeah. Yeah, we text talk. What is it?

We have a chain. You're a text chain? Very good. You're so hip. I'm pretty hip. What are you on like Snapchat too or something like that? I don't know what that is. I would never know.

You can put sunglasses on your face. That's where we are technologically. That's the great advance. You put sunglasses on your pictures. I mean, all this stuff, like, 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 going to see the host pictures from the recent season and, like, see how they change. But it's all kind of the same, too. Right, right, just different faces.

Yeah, yeah. And especially because Mary Allen, the photographer, like, 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. Right. This is also another smell I enjoy. Yeah, that's kind of the one I was thinking. There's a little woodworking.

Well, there's always something being worked on in here. Yeah. 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 say, hold the work, because it literally has to be built in, what, three days? 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.

Right. They're specific to what's written. Not to mention the wigs too. Have to be built in a few days? I've experienced a few SNL wigs. Have you? When we do our Today Show Halloween. Oh, yeah.

The amazing team over here does the wigs. They're truly amazing. I don't think anyone realizes how good they are because they look so seamless. I think that's why people think it's no big deal because they're so good. We did an SNL Halloween a couple of years ago, and I was Will as the cheerleader. Oh, nice. With Cherry, and we had the actual outfits. The tag in mind said Will in it.

It was pretty cool. Yeah, cool. 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. Is that where we have the meetings? I think that's Lauren's office.

I think that's the writing room. Yeah, that's the eighth floor rewrite table. 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. Press your nose against the glass. Yeah. I don't know if people realize those show days are insane on Saturday, right? Because it's changing. You do rehearsal. You get rid of some stuff.

You put some stuff in. You shorten a sketch. 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 think Lorne 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 going to 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 one element of it didn't work but they wanted in the show so they cut that and change it

and you've got the costume department like figuring it out for the 1130 show. It's nuts. Because that rehearsal show is not over till 10 so now you've got 90 minutes till the show. Yeah, and then you like go in that room and eat a really crappy sandwich and wait to see your fate

like if your piece got in and then sit in Lorne'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 sketches in there and like oh and then you stay really like quiet about it

and then you get your notes and do it all over again you've done pretty well for someone who was choking on popcorn 20 years ago in that office same office Lauren and I have laughed about it since he's you know once you're a part of his life life, you're, 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. I say you don't have to work there anymore because I, when I left, I was exhausted. When I see this show now, sometimes I'm like, ooh, that's a lot of work. Like, I'm good. I like popping in, and then I like going home.

Plus, you got kindergarten in seventh grade to worry about it. Yeah, this is a lot. 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 noony and noony at, like, 8 in the morning, and my daughter was just waking up. Oh, so now you're up for the day.

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 just 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 family, like all in one. And then I was like, all right, that's too much.

Do your kids watch sketches on YouTube? Do they watch your old SNL? Do they have favorites? My son likes Sofa King. Oh. Wow. For obvious reasons. Yeah.

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 going to be. She's you. She's going to be walking through those doors any day now.

She's you watching Gilda Radner. Yeah. She takes it really seriously. It's coming. Oh, boy. I'm not ready. Lord, I'm not ready. 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 your new episodes every Sunday. And, of course, be sure to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on End. B.C. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.