Maya Rudolph (with co-star Catherine O’Hara) in Away We Go.

Credit: supplied

MOVIES: Laughing on the inside

After eight years spent playing for laughs, Maya Rudolph is getting serious. Kind of. The alumna of Saturday Night Live, wherein she created such memorable characters as the perennially pissed-off Donatella Versace and avant-garde art dealer Nooni Schoener, is making a move to the big screen. But unlike many of her predecessors and colleagues from SNL, Rudolph isn’t looking to stretch a five-minute goof into a 90-minute mistake (memories of It’s Pat surely haunt Julia Sweeney to this day). Instead, the comedian is dialing back the funny for her first motion-picture lead, in the offbeat dramedy Away We Go (scheduled to open June 12).

As far as indie cred goes, Away We Go is a lock. The story of a thirtysomething couple, Verona (Rudolph) and Burt (The Office’s John Krasinski), looking for a place to put down roots before the arrival of their first child, the screenplay is the first by celebrated novelist Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) and his wife, Vendela Vida. As the onscreen pair tool around North America in search of a place to call home, they meet up with a motley assortment of damaged friends and relatives played by indie notables including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Catherine O’Hara, Allison Janney, and Jim Gaffigan. Adding to its bona-fides, Away We Go is directed by none other than the master of the quiet, intricate relationship movie, Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road).

So, how did a sketch comic known for impersonating Whitney Houston and Michelle Obama snag such a strong, centered role in an industry where typecasting is second nature? As her former SNL castmate Amy Poehler recently revealed in an interview, Rudolph also harboured childhood dreams of one day being a “serious” actress.

“I always weirdly fantasized that I would get to do something special like this one day,” Rudolph says, on the phone from a Los Angeles hotel suite. “I thought, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great if I could actually have a career as an actress, and get to do great movies with great people and great writing and interesting characters?’”

When she first read the script for Away We Go, she couldn’t believe how perfectly the low-key role of pregnant, parentless Verona fit into her youthful fantasy. “There was something about her that, when I read the script, felt so perfectly smooth, like this is that thing that I always imagined could be special, be the one.”

While Rudolph may have felt the role itself was smooth, snagging it turned out to be less so. “No one was even making it,” Rudolph says, intimating that the script had been kicking around Hollywood for some time before it got the green light. “I tried to stalk Dave and Vendela to get the message to them that I loved [the screenplay] and really wanted to be a part of [the film]. When we met, I was like, ‘Gosh, let me know if there’s any way I can help out’ — like a concerned neighbour.”

Rudolph then waited — and waited, and waited — until she heard the news that Mendes had attached himself to the project.

“When Sam came on, I knew this was going to happen, and I had to get in there somehow. I tried and tried to get an audition, which I eventually got to do. And the rest [in a mock theatrical voice] is history!”

Old habits die hard, old comedy reflexes even more so. On the set, Rudolph, a self-confessed “hambone,” admits to the occasional twinge of jealousy as her co-stars went for the laughs and she played the straight woman. “Sometimes it was hard, because I was, ‘I want to do that! That looks fun!’ But I thoroughly enjoyed what was written so much, and was such a fan of all the characters and all the weird lines throughout the movie, that I was looking forward to watching it come to life.”

As for the character of Verona, Rudolph wasn’t intimidated by the unfamiliar dramatic turns she was required to take. “I really understood who she was and what she was struggling with. I just wanted to bring her to life from every angle and paint a beautiful picture. I didn’t ever feel like, ‘Uh-oh, I don’t know how to do this part.’”

Whether by design or by accident, Rudolph and Verona share two very important and somewhat uncommon traits: Both are of mixed race (Rudolph is Jewish on her father’s side and African-American on her mother’s) and both have lost parents (Rudolph’s mother, soul singer Minnie Ripperton, died when Maya was seven years old).

As for whether these similarities helped her flesh out her character, Rudolph is of two minds. “I think coming across [the script] for the first time and reading it, I was so fascinated by some of the things [Verona] went through that I could relate to, sure. But she’s totally her own character. I was really mesmerized by the way that she is. She kind of takes charge in the relationship [with partner Burt] and in their life together. It’s that very simple push-and-pull of any good relationship where everybody knows, ‘Okay, I’m driving.’ And you notice she does all the driving [and she’s] pregnant. Burt never drives, which I find hilarious.”

Other things that make her laugh? Reality television. Or, more specifically, the Japanese-style game show Wipeout, in which contestants trudge through mud and bounce around on giant animatronic balls in hopes of winning money. “It’s awesome! And not only because I’m always up for a good ball joke,” she quips.

While she would never want to be a contestant on her favourite show (or her second favourite, Celebrity Rehab), Rudolph hasn’t pushed TV aside for a movie career. Indeed, TV has been very good to her female SNL cohorts, Poehler and Tina Fey. “I’m not a vegetarian in terms of TV or movies,” she jokes, her recent appearance on the SNL season finale (in which she single-handedly saved a sketch that was bombing) backing up the statement.

All of which leads to the question of what’s next for Rudolph. Top of mind, certainly, is the recent announcement of her second child with her husband, Oscar-nominated director Paul Thomas Anderson. Beyond that, she’s taking things as they come. “I dunno. I haven’t really planned it out yet. [Away We Go] is such a unique thing to be a part of. I’m still figuring this whole thing out.”