Maya Rudolph didn’t get her Kamala Harris lines ‘until air’ on SNL’s 46th season premiere

Two-time Emmy winner Maya Rudolph might have stolen the Saturday Night Live spotlight with her impersonation of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, but everyone was scrambling moments before the cameras rolled.

‘SNL is such an amazing place and the people that run it – I can’t believe what they were able to accomplish on Saturday,’ the Florida-born 47-year-old marveled on Tuesday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live.

‘And it was really difficult, [largely] because of the COVID protocols. So believe it or not, everything was slower. It was harder to get things to cards, like, I didn’t really get my lines until air. So I had never run that sketch until we did it live.’  

Maya managed to outshine both Alec Baldwin and Jim Carrey with her maternal cameo as the 55-year-old California Senator quoting Cardi B’s hit song WAP.

‘I think if there’s one thing we learned tonight, it’s that America needs a WAP: Woman as President,’ Rudolph joked to large applause.

‘But for now, I’ll settle for HVPIC: Hot Vice President in Charge.’

The NBC sketch show series’ 46th season cold open was further challenged when President Donald Trump tweeted that he tested positive for the coronavirus last Friday night at 12:54am. 

‘You knew that b**** had it before that,’ noted the biracial triple-threat, wearing a chic puff-sleeved top selected by stylist Rebecca Grice.

‘Wow, that COVID diagnosis on good ol’ boy was a real fascinating time. Normally, in my post-castmember-of-SNL life, you always think, “Wouldn’t it be great to be on the show right now!” It’s so insane. 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…So it was pretty wild.’

Maya gave the 58-year-old Golden Globe winner a shout-out for his portrayal of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

‘Bless Jim Carrey’s heart, because he just jumped right in,’ Rudolph said on Andy Cohen’s Bravo talk show.

‘And even Alec is basically a castmember at this point. It was really a lot. These times are nuts, man, they’re nuts!’

The Princess singer – who was an SNL castmember from 2000-2007 – won an Emmy last month for outstanding guest actress in a comedy for her portrayal of Kamala in the December 21 episode. 

But Maya got the seal of approval from Harris a year ago when she tweeted: ‘That girl being played by @MayaRudolph on @nbcsnl? That girl was me.’

Rudolph replied: ‘YESSSSSSSSSSENATOR! An honor to attempt to be as cool as you.’

The former California attorney general will face off against Vice President Mike Pence (12ft apart between plexiglass) this Wednesday night during the commercial-free, 90-minute debate at the University of Utah.

The Big Mouth actress will next play Mrs. Hennesy in Steven Brill’s spooky Adam Sandler comedy Hubie Halloween, which starts streaming this Wednesday on Netflix.

And if that’s not enough on her plate, Maya will also narrate the seven-episode food-and-travel series Eater’s Guide to the World premiering November 11 on Hulu.

Rudolph has four children – daughter Pearl, nearly 15; daughter Lucille, 10; son Jackson, 9; and daughter Minnie, 7 – from her 19-year relationship with eight-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.