Maya Rudolph Says She Has a 'Really Hard Time' Doing 'Mean' Comedy: 'I Can't Stomach It'
"It doesn't feel good coming out of me," the 'SNL' alum said of doing 'mean' comedy
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Maya Rudolph attends the premiere of the Apple TV+ comedy "Loot"Maya Rudolph is examining her comedy strengths and weaknesses.
The actress, 51, discussed her comedic performances and preferred "methods" in a new interview for Town & Country's May cover.
“I have a really hard time with mean comedy,” Rudolph admitted. “Those things that are like, ‘Oh, I’m being funny, but I’m making fun of you?' I can’t watch it. I can’t stomach it. And it doesn’t feel good coming out of me.”
Rudolph is best known for her Emmy-winning performances in Saturday Night Live, as well as her work in Bridesmaids, Big Mouth and most recently Loot.
Apple TV+
Joel Kim Booster, Ron Funches, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Meagen Fay, Nat Faxon and Stephanie Styles in Loot Season 2She admitted that during her SNL tenure, she did try to incorporate the “mean comedy" into her sketches, but it wasn't something she wanted to see through.
She attempted to develop a character based on a friend’s “really f------ annoying girlfriend” because “those are the characters that stand out, you know? You’re in a room like this, and you’re seeing somebody really obnoxious, and you think, ‘Oh my god, that would make a great character,' " Rudolph said.
However, once she began writing the sketch, she realized she didn't "want to hear this person talk.”
When she did impressions — notably of Beyoncé, Oprah and Whitney Houston — she just “wanted to be, like, this fabulous woman," she said.
“I say it all the time, but I think I’m a drag queen, really,” added Rudolph. “I think a lot of my impressions come from watching people because I love them and I’m obsessed with them, and I want to be them somehow.”
“So when I started getting to play Beyoncé, I felt like, I know how to do this. Because it’s the same thing I did when I was little,” she said of her impressions of the Renaissance singer. “You’re dressing up like a princess. You put on the leotard and some weird scarf, and you’re like, ‘This is my beautiful ball gown.’ ”
During her conversation with Town & Country, she shared how the variety show not only allowed her to "become" those fabulous women but also introduced her to her now-husband, director Paul Thomas Anderson.
Anderson, 53, had attended one of SNL's afterparties with his sights set on meeting Rudolph. “He said he saw me in a sketch and said, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry.’ But I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Maybe he just told me that to be sweet,” she explained.
The couple, who has been together for over two decades and share four children — Pearl, 18, Lucille, 14, Jack, 12, and Minnie, 10.
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Season 2 of Loot airs Wednesdays on Apple TV+.
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