Maya Rudolph says her white SNL castmates mocked her hair, recalls growing up admiring Lisa Bonet

Indiewire

In an in-depth New York Times Magazine profile, Rudolph talked about the frustration of being mixed-race and different on Saturday Night Live. Rudolph said she'd have to devote hours every week to altering her hair so it could fit under the show's wigs. The blow-dry station “was on the same hallway as a lot of the dudes’ dressing rooms," she says. "And every (expletive) Friday night, we’d hear some (expletive) white guy walking down the hall going, ‘Is something burning in here? What’s burning?’ I’m like — ‘I’m. Get-ting. My. Hair. Done.’" Though she had a mostly positive experience working at SNL, she remembers hating being passed over because a character was white. Rudolph also recalled growing up mixed-race and admiring Lisa Bonet. “I was obsessed with The Cosby Show, but mainly because of Lisa Bonet,” Rudolph said. “There is no prettier creature in the universe.” Rudolph said she would brag about being mixed race because of Bonet.  “I’d be like, ‘I’m mixed, too!’ 'Just like Lisa Bonet!’"