Maya Rudolph visited last night’s Tonight Show and she and Jimmy Fallon chatted about, naturally, Rudolph’s return to Saturday Night Live for the season 46 premiere to play vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris (she’ll be back this weekend too and the impersonation has already scored her an Emmy win in September). When asked by Fallon about returning to the show during a pandemic, Rudolph called it “so strange and yet so comforting, because the minute you’re in that building and you hear the music, you’re like, ‘Oh, life’s back to normal again!’ With just some little alterations.†As for the impersonation itself, it sounds like Rudolph takes the role pretty damn seriously. “I’m so grateful, always, to be a part of that place. And then like, when in my wildest dreams did I think there would ever be a candidate that looks remotely close to whatever this is?†she said. “It’s my civic duty. I gotta do it. I gotta get there and do whatever I need to do to make sure that she wins this election.â€
If Rudolph had no other reason to do the impersonation, though, her recent Emmy win for SNL has given her a new excuse. “I’ve never won anything in my life! I won that first Emmy for Big Mouth really, truly, genuinely not expecting anything, and then I was nominated for SNL and I was like ‘Oooh, now I want another one,’†she told Fallon. “I became an addict overnight. I was like ‘I wanna win again. Give it to me again.’â€