Maya Rudolph may be funny – really funny – but according to the actress, her life is pretty ordinary.
The 40-year-old mother of three (who’s expecting her fourth child with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson) can soon be seen in the new film, The Way, Way Back, an indie flick celebrating teen awkwardness, but describes her own childhood and upbringing as “boring.”
Despite growing up in Los Angeles, as the daughter of soul singer Minnie Riperton, she doesn’t recall any wild periods.
“I wasn’t angst-y,” Rudolph tells theGrio. “I never, like, dyed my hair. I wasn’t that cool. I did tell [co-star Sam Rockwell] about my bad hair, which was when I was 14. I would take the front, and I would flip it up, and then I would take a piece with gel, and just have it hanging. It was because that was the 80’s.”
From childhood aspirations to stardom
Other than experimenting with her coif, Rudolph says she primarily dreamed of getting a job at a geeky local gift store named Oz, or working at summer camp. Either opportunity would have provided a carefree existence much like the sentiment she feels for her film.
“Those counselors in Meatballs were the coolest people ever,” she says, referencing the 1979 comedy flick. “I wanted to be cool like that.”
Some might say Rudolph has far surpassed the barometers of camp coolness, considering her status as an A-list comedian in Hollywood.
Over the years, the actress has progressed substantially from her roots on stage to the big screen, earning her credentials through a successful run on Saturday Night Live.
Rudolph got her start as a member of the L.A. theater troupe The Groundlings, and credits her acting abilities with her work in the theater. She joined the cast of SNL in 1999, and spent eight years performing for the sketch show.
“You forget when you’re not doing it how the connection with people in a room is so incredibly important,” Rudolph explains. “You’re not just doing something in a vacuum. You’re actually getting a laugh, or getting a response, or performing for the people in the room. It’s a very different feeling. Physically, the energy is very different.”
Surprisingly, she says many of her colleagues in the business have not chased the same opportunities. While she always gravitates back to live performance, others avoid it.
“I try and do it often as I’m able to,” the actress remarks. “I thought it was really interesting too, all the years of doing SNL, so many hosts had never done theater. I mean it’s different for everyone. So many people say, ‘How do you do this?’ It’s interesting the routes that people have taken, and then they absorb it and love it, or sometimes they don’t.”
Women are definitely funny
Along with fellow SNL vets Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig and Amy Poehler, Rudolph has seamlessly transitioned from live entertainment to the scripted world of film and television. Most recently, she starred in the TV show, Up All Night, as well as films like Friends with Kids, Grown Ups and Bridesmaids, for which she was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
Rudolph has made humor her business, and it’s a suit that fits well, even off-camera in her clever banter. Like Fey, she says she is not impressed with Jerry Lewis’ recurring stance that females can’t be funny, and doesn’t buy it.
“He’s going to love me,” she says. “What about Carol Burnett? Do you have his number? We should call him, and go, ‘What about Carol Burnett?’”
A look at The Way, Way Back
Nowadays, Rudolph can primarily be seen in the cinema, and has at least five films in motion including The Way, Way Back, out in theaters July 5.
In the movie, she portrays a 30-something single woman who works at a local water park, primarily because she’s smitten with the manager [Rockwell].
The two have a complicated romantic relationship, and serve what Rudolph describes as a “weigh station between adolescence and adulthood” for a 14-year-old boy [Liam James], who’s stuck with his dysfunctional family for the summer. Seeking a break from reality, the boy gravitates to the park and the newfound company as a chance to come into his own, amongst people who accept him.
“Without the responsibility of having their own children, and sort of taking this child into their fold, there was definitely a parenting thing,” Rudolph comments about her character’s relationship with the boy.
On the contrary, the actress says her own family vacations are pretty standard, or certainly not as “depressing” or rowdy as the household in this movie.
“You’re just like ‘Who needs to eat?’” she jokes. “You’re not doing upside down beer funneling with the kids…Maybe in 20 years.”
Life in the Rudolph clan
Given her eldest child is only 7-years-old, none of Rudolph’s kids have had the chance to experience their mother at her comedic finest, but she says they don’t think she’s cool anyway.
Nor will she push them to follow her direction.
“I’m more fascinated in what comes out naturally,” Rudolph explains. “It fascinates me when you see things in your children. Not just what you do for a living necessarily, but genetically, their personalities. I find that really fascinating. And I try not to touch it. I try not to mess with it because I want them to become who they’re going to be. But you can’t help it as parent. You’re in there all the time. “
Growing up in an interracial family and raising her own, Rudolph says she was surprised to hear about the recent controversy surrounding the Cheerios advertisement, which featured a mixed couple and their biracial daughter and caused outrage amongst some in the online community.
Rudolph blames the negative comments on enraged Internet clingers.
She comments, “Who’s writing that? You mean nerds. Angry nerds. I mean, I love nerds, but angry nerds is a whole different breed.”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @courtgarcia