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Maya Rudolph<\/strong> became known for her iconic impersonations during her tenure on Saturday Night Live<\/a><\/em>\u2014but she admits there was one celebrity impression that was initially hard for her to nail down. <\/p>\n During a recent appearance on the Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce<\/em> podcast<\/a>, Rudolph opened up about her time on the show and spoke about how she got into character each week, even if it was an impression she had never done before. <\/p>\n \u201cI never started SNL<\/a><\/em> as an impressionist. I think I\u2019m the person that if I\u2019m telling a story about somebody, I mimic their voice but I don\u2019t think of myself as, \u2018Here\u2019s my 50 impressions!’\u201d Rudolph explained during the episode.<\/p>\n \ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong>SIGN UP for Parade\u2019s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\ud83c\udfac\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Looking back, Rudolph admitted that it was actually one of her most memorable impressions that ended up being the most challenging. Rudolph went on to explain that it was her Oprah<\/a> Winfrey<\/strong> impersonation that gave her trouble, particularly because no one else had done it before. <\/p>\n \u201cOprah was hard because it was early on. You know how at this point, everybody kind of knows what the Oprah impression is\u2026but somebody had to do it first,\u201d Rudolph explained. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n She continued, \u201cMy friend wrote an Oprah sketch and she said, \u2018I know you can do it!\u2019 And I really didn\u2019t know how to do it. At that time, Darrell Hammond <\/strong>was our resident impressionist on the show and I went to him and asked him for help.\u201d<\/p>\n Rudolph went on to explain that she also requested tapes of Oprah to watch and decided to hone in on the moment that the talk show host surprised her audience with cars. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat became the thing but I had no idea how to do her [at first],\u201d Rudolph admitted.<\/p>\n Rudolph noted that since she had long been a viewer of Oprah\u2019s show, she had a lot of respect for the television personality and was honored to be the first female actress to ever impersonate her on screen, as it previously had always been men. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t really interested in playing the joke<\/a> of, \u2018Ha ha ha, I\u2019m a guy but I\u2019m playing Oprah!\u2019 I was playing the person, so it was a different thing,\u201d Rudolph said. <\/p>\n You can hear all that Maya Rudolph had to say below.<\/p>\n
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