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Maya Rudolph got a cryptic text from SNL's Lorne Michaels after the Kamala Harris announcement

  • "He sent me a GIF of myself, as Kamala, in sunglasses, sipping a cocktail and saying, 'Oh no.' That really made me laugh," Rudolph told The Hollywood Reporter of her former boss' reaction last week to Joe Biden selecting Harris to be his vice president. It's not confirmed that Rudolph would bring back her Harris impression to SNL this fall. But when told that it seemed inevitable, she responded: "Right?" Rudolph said she isn't even sure what Harris' selection will mean to her future workload. "I’ve never really had to do that before!" she said. "Over the years, I’ve had to watch people come back and forth, but I’ve never been in a position like Alec Baldwin — who doesn’t even work there but is there every week. I don’t know what this means. I don’t know what the hell is going to happen — nor does anybody else." Rudolph said she's never met or spoken to Harris, who tweeted last September that she was proud to be portrayed by her. Rudolph added that she doesn't consider herself an impressionist. "I know that sounds silly, because I’ve done it," she said. "It’s one of those things that becomes part of the experience of working at SNL. There are so many people to cover during the time that you're there, that you have to just jump into anything that will work and anything that's current. The best way can describe it is like the way that my son plays superheroes. There are some people you just do. I used to do Madonna growing up, because I wanted to be Madonna. When Fred (Armisen) and I used to do 'The Prince Show,' he knew how do to Prince because he loves him. And I knew how to do Beyonce, because I love Beyonce. For me, I try to find the goofiest part of the person and the joy in them and kind of create a character. I don't ever really want to play a person. I just want to play a character. It just gives you so much more freedom." Meanwhile, Rudolph has been keeping busy doing a lot of voice work, including on Big Mouth, and producing TikTok Trump impersonator Sarah Cooper's new Netflix special. "It was really refreshing for me, personally, to see this person that was more like me than who I usually see doing something like that — just for the sake of doing it. That was really where the funny lays in her great impression," Rudolph said of Cooper. "It just feels really needed."

    TOPICS: Maya Rudolph, NBC, Saturday Night Live, Kamala Harris, Lorne Michaels, Sarah Cooper, 2020 Presidential Election