Most "Saturday Night Live" alums making their big-screen lead role debuts stick to the wacky -- think "Wayne's World" or "Billy Madison." But Maya Rudolph has always been different.
She and John Krasinski (of "The Office") play Verona and Burt, an unconventional, expectant couple crisscrossing the continent in search of the perfect place to start their family in "Away We Go."
It's a quirky comedy but it's also a heady drama by respected writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes. The film and Rudolph's role are complex and emotionally demanding, but the relatively untested actress felt driven to pursue the project.
"There's a part of me that believes I can do anything, which is why I put myself in these strange positions in the first place. 'I can be a lead in a movie, no problem,' " Rudolph said by phone from New York. "And then I get there and I'm like, 'Holy . . ., what was I thinking?' There's a lot of pressure that goes with this. There's a lot of people waiting for me to get it right."
Her confidence that she could not only land the part but carry it off was kept afloat by one key piece of information: "I heard that it was written with me in mind, but I didn't know Dave and Vendela, so I couldn't ask them. I managed to track them down and introduce myself in the Bay Area. It was pretty thrilling to see that these two incredible writers wrote this beautiful thing with you in mind."
The actress instantly found parallels with the character, apart from her experience with pregnancy.
"There was something very different about Verona that I could relate to. It's not that she's off, it's just that she does her own thing. When I saw in the description that she was mixed and has what she calls 'problem hair,' I thought, 'Do they know me really well?' " said Rudolph, who has discussed in interviews the sometimes-alienating effects of growing up mixed-race and with only one parent (her mother, singer Minnie Riperton, died of cancer when Rudolph was 6).
"Verona doesn't have parents anymore; in a lot of ways Burt is her reality. John felt that Burt doesn't exist to other people without Verona. He's almost like her imaginary friend or something; he only feels real because she thinks he's real."
That closed circuit between the two, an artistic depiction of a rare, real love, fascinated Rudolph.
