This has been quite a week for all of the creatives who were nominated for an award at the 2020 Emmys, with the trophies finally being handed out to everyone. But, it's possible that none of the nominees or winners had a better week than Saturday Night Live alum Maya Rudolph. The actress and comedian made a stir when she was nominated for a whopping three awards just for her work this year, and has now taken home one Emmy each for Big Mouth and SNL, but it's Rudolph's part on The Good Place which now has her talking about how the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg impacted the role.
Maya Rudolph had a banner year where performances and Emmy nominations were concerned, scoring nods for her voice performance in Big Mouth, and on-camera roles both as Kamala Harris on SNL and The Judge on The Good Place. Now the new Emmy winner, who had been nominated three times previously, including twice for The Good Place, has revealed just how the late associate justice of the Supreme Court made an impact on her role as Judge Gen. While being interviewed in the virtual backstage press room (via Deadline) after her second win of the week for SNL, she spoke about the inspiration they took from RBG:
I was actually thinking about The Good Place a lot and about how we modeled her robe after Ruth Bader Ginsberg and how much of that was an homage to an iconic human being. When you think of a judge, when you think of all-knowing, when you think of powerful, when you think of all good, yeah, we modeled her robe after RBG, so that was pretty cool.
Awww. Obviously, Ruth Bader Ginsberg had to have been on Maya Rudolph's mind when she nabbed her Emmy for SNL. Not only was Rudolph nominated against herself in the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series category for her work as Judge Gen on The Good Place, but Bader Ginsberg had just passed away a day before, at the age of 87. So, it makes total sense that Rudolph had both that part on her mind and the inspiration that she and those behind the scenes on the show used the late Supreme Court justice for when designing Gen's costume.
While there might not seem to be much variety to be had when coming up for designs of a judge's robe, they do have some flexibility when it comes to neckwear. The male justices are typically seen with their button down shirt and tie peeking out of the top of their robes, while RBG's fellow female Supreme Court justices usually favored either bare necklines or a slight bit of filmy white material around the top of the robe. But, Ruth Bader Ginsberg was often known to wear a long, lacy neckerchief, much like the one you can see Rudolph wearing in the photo at the top of this article.
Of course, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Gen shared some other similar qualities, with both taking their responsibilities very seriously, asking lots of questions to get to the heart of the matter brought to them, but still keeping hope for good and change alive. Gen might seem to be a totally different being (she was, after all, the immortal Almighty Judge on High of All Beings Living and Dead for All Eternity, with her full name being the Honorable Judge Hydrogen - because that's the only element that had been created when she was born), but it turns out that the TV-obsessed justice actually has a lot in common with RBG.
Maya Rudolph can continue to take away lots of positive thoughts about how Ruth Bader Ginsberg impacted her role on The Good Place, as even though she never won an Emmy for her part on the comedy, she did get nominated for each season she appeared. You can stream The Good Place on Netflix right now, with the fourth and final season set to debut on the streamer on September 26, but if you need more to watch in the coming weeks, check out our guide to fall TV!
