Live From New York - James H. Miller [271]
When I told Lorne, he didn’t seem surprised, but he never really seems surprised about anything. He was fantastic about it, actually. He’s a father; he was very supportive. I think he was afraid I was coming in to say I was sick or something had happened. I think he was glad to hear it was good news. He was really cool about making it clear that it wasn’t going to impact me in a negative way. Then again, he didn’t throw his arms around me, or plant a kiss on me.
My husband and I tried to plan it in such a way that it would work for my career, but you can’t really predict conception. It actually happened exactly as I wanted it to. I got pregnant in September, I showed halfway through the season, and I’m due five weeks after the last show of the season. I think Lorne was pleased that my biology had agreed with the format of the show.
In some ways the denial, not telling people, really helped me, because I just had to kind of plow through. I remember when I first started here thinking, “There is no way I’m going to be able to pull an all-nighter.” And it’s such a routine part of my life now that I think pregnancy fatigue is nothing compared to what we normally go through in a week.
It’s worse in the first trimester, and I managed to get through it. I was very careful. I probably had more caffeine than most pregnant women do — not a lot. In a lot of ways it was nice, because it gave me perspective, it gave me like an outside life. This show means so much to people who work here. It’s a lifestyle, it’s a fraternity, it’s a part of everything that you are, so sometimes that’s dangerous, because you’re in the well and you can’t get out of it. It’s nice to have something that’s also meaningful.
It was really important to me that my work stay consistent. I’m proud that I was able to keep working at the pace that I did. I’m well represented on the show. I have been the entire time I’ve been here. There are weeks I’ve been in a shitty mood and say I wish my thing got picked. But I can always figure out the logic; there’s always something that makes sense as to why things happen. It’s emotional, and I have plenty of moments when I think, “I can’t believe my thing got cut,” but I just feel that Lorne’s predominantly fair with people, and I think he’s handled my pregnancy in kind.
The other people in the cast are all completely cute about it. I feel like they’re practically going to ask me where babies come from, like, “How’s it going to come out?” They’re all so young and it’s just not really in their sphere. A lot of them touch my belly. I had my dukes up about being written out or not being acknowledged, and I remember being pleasantly surprised that a fair number — especially of the male writers — aren’t even really hung up on it. Sometimes I’m pregnant in a sketch, and sometimes I’m not. Sometimes it’s just me in a scene, which is really nice, because they can use it as a joke or they don’t have to. I made that really clear, because I’m not uptight about it. It’s much cuter than I expected.
MAYA RUDOLPH:
My first year here they had a Mother’s Day special. I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with it. I have to say being here during that and hearing everybody have fun with their moms and doing funny bits, I was very jealous because my bit was very somber and serious. But in the end I was very happy to share that with my family, not only with my father but with my stepfather too. Because it isn’t something you see very often on television. I have a Japanese stepmother and my dad is Jewish and I’m mixed. We are like this motley crew.
Molly Shannon and I both lost our moms when we were really little. You’re certainly