Maya Rudolph is weighing in on the recent “Saturday Night Live” cast shakeups and why they don’t surprise her.
Prior to the Oct. 4 Season 51 premiere of the late-night sketch comedy series, a slew of cast members announced their departure from the show, with some sharing their candid thoughts on their seemingly abrupt exit.
Among those leaving ahead of the new season are Heidi Gardner, who made her debut in 2017; Michael Longfellow, who joined the show in 2022; Devon Walker, who had a three-year run; and Emil Wakim, who only served as featured player on the program for one year.
Following those departures, “SNL” shared in a Sept. 2 update that Please Don’t Destroy group comedian Ben Marshall, as well as Veronika Slowikowska, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson and Tommy Brennan, would join the show as this season as featured players.
Less than two week laters, a shock came to fans when Ego Nwodim, who many thought was already confirmed for the new season, announced she would officially be leaving “SNL” after seven seasons.
“The hardest part of a great party is knowing when to say goodnight,” she wrote in part in an Instagram post Sept. 12.
Nwodim, who began as a featured player on “SNL” in 2018 and then joined the main cast two years later, was one of the mainstays of the series, and notably one of the only eight Black women to have served as cast members in the series’ 50-year history.
With Nwodim’s departure, “SNL” now has no Black women cast members. After Rudolph left “SNL” in 2007, the show went seven years without a Black woman cast member, a streak that ended when Sasheer Zamata joined in 2014.
When asked about the aforementioned cast shakeups and departures, Rudolph, who was an “SNL” cast member from 2000 to 2007, tells TODAY.com “it was inevitable.”
“I feel like every few years there’s definitely a change. And I felt like it was inevitable. I mean, some people have been there for a really long time,” she says before clarifying that she was not referencing Kenan Thompson, who’s been a cast member for 22 years, making him the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history.
“But yeah, I’m never surprised,” she continues while also noting that she’s a little out of the loop. “I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors anymore. Obviously, when you work there, you have the ins and outs. But I just find out about it like everybody else.”
Dana Edelson / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Dana Edelson / NBCU Photo Bank / NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images Maya Rudolph as Christina Aguilera, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon during “Weekend Update” in 2003.
While Rudolph later quips that she has to get the scoop from Nwodim about her departure, she acknowledges that much has “changed” over the years.
“When I was starting out, I was doing improv and sketch comedy at The Groundlings, which is still a wonderful theater and such a great place to start, because it’s a place where you can get on stage and actually create characters and work, work, work,” she says. “It was just like such an important training ground.”
Rudolph says it was a different time then, before the advent of social media and people putting their content on the internet. “I didn’t have that ability then,” she explains.
But the amount of effort and the work is still the same. “I feel like practicing and doing and doing and doing and constantly doing and finding other funny people is the key,” she continues, “and just writing and performing and creating your own body of work.”
As far as who makes it on the show and how to land that coveted spot? The “Loot” star says it’s really a mixed bag.
“There are so many different types of people at ‘SNL.’ I’m a sketch performer. Some people come to it as stand ups — just stand ups and — that’s a whole other being that thrives there and then some people are just impersonators,” she tells TODAY.com. “There are so many different paths to get there. But I think creating and creating and creating and being a part of something, whether you’re a stand up or whether you’re a part of a group, I think is so important to just stay active and be seen as much as possible.”
Though Rudolph has not divulged whether fans will see her again on the new season, it’s safe to say the door remains open for the award-winning performer who nabbed an Emmy in 2020 for her portrayal of Vice President Kamala Harris on “SNL.”
“In the case of Kamala, there was nothing to do but do it,” she says.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP) (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images Maya Rudolph and Kamala Harris during the “Pre-Election” Cold Open on Saturday, November 2, 2024.
But there are some people she’s just not interested in impersonating.
“There have been other people, I think, definitely in the past, where I thought, ‘Oh, God, I don’t want to dress up like that lady’ … I feel like, if someone’s a monster in real life, I definitely don’t want to play them because I think somehow I don’t want to totally be associated,” she explains.
As Rudolph gears up for her own projects, including the third season of her hit Apple TV+ series “Loot,” the comedian says she’ll always have a soft spot for “SNL.”
“It’s sometimes strange not being on the show, because you feel like, “Oh, if I were there, I would really, I would really have fun doing that,” she says.
(“SNL” airs on NBC, which is part of our parent company, NBCUniversal.)
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
