"Every single bit of information is coming in so fast. So fast that even a show like SNL that gives you everything up until the last minute didn't even have time to build half the sets they probably wanted to build to cover all this insanity," Rudolph said during her Tuesday night appearance on 'Watch What Happens Live'
Maya Rudolph has opened up about what it was like working on Saturday Night Live's season 46 premiere amid the rapidly changing news cycle and only a day or so after Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis.
Rudolph spoke about the experience while appearing on Tuesday night's episode of Watch What Happens Live. After host Andy Cohen praised the Emmy winner's performance as vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris alongside Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump and Jim Carrey's Joe Biden during last Saturday's cold-opening, the actress and comedian described performing as "pretty wild."
"It's so insane," Rudolph said. "Everything is on steroids. Every single bit of information is coming in so fast. So fast that even a show like SNL that gives you everything up until the last minute didn't even have time to build half the sets they probably wanted to build to cover all this insanity."
Rudolph admitted that typically in her "post-cast-member-of-SNL-life," she'd thought about how much she'd want to be on the show, but that her appearance on last weekend's episode was actually "a real fascinating time." While Trump announcing he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 in a 1 a.m. tweet last Friday added to the chaos of Saturday's show, Rudolph said the on-set safety protocols prompted by the pandemic were already making it more difficult for the cast and crew to work during the show's live return.
"Believe it or not, everything was slower. It was a lot harder to get things to cards," Rudolph explained. "I didn't get my lines to cards, I mean, until air, so I had never run that sketch until we did it live."
Rudolph praised Carrey, who debuted his Biden impersonation last week, and SNL's crew for what they were able to pull off. "I can't believe what they were able to accomplish on Saturday," Rudolph said. "Bless Jim Carrey's heart because he just jumped right in."
Alec Baldwin also spoke about the harried experience of performing during Saturday Night Live's first live show since April in a recent Instagram post. During the nearly 15-minute video, Baldwin acknowledged the experience and professionalism of the sketch series' crew and creative team as they weighed how to cover Trump following Tuesday night's presidential debate and the sudden news of his COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization.
"This is a group of people that are pretty savvy. They're in network television, [SNL creator] Lorne [Michaels] is, you know, one of the smartest people in the business," Baldwin said in his Instagram post. "And the other people from the network who come and go but interact with him, they know that they don't want to sink the ship."
Article by: Abbey White for the Hollywood Reporter.
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