Saturday Night Live returns for its 50th season on September 28. The series has lost some cast members and added a few new ones since its last broadcast, but the upcoming series of episodes will feature the greatest news: Maya Rudolph is reviving her fictionalized version of Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m thrilled to be associated with this,” said the actress diversity in a new interview. “And I’m also glad that I played her and everyone is OK with it. She likes it.”

SNL doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to election seasons — particularly the not-so-funny-in-hindsight decision to invite Donald Trump to host the show in 2015 during his first presidential campaign. Since then, he’s spent four years in the White House, lost his second campaign to President Joe Biden and amassed 34 felony convictions. As this new season begins, Rudolph is mindful that the stakes in the 2024 election — pitting Trump against Harris — go far beyond cold opens and unsuccessful comedy sketches.

“This is so much bigger than me and it’s about something very important,” she said. Rudolph has stressed that when she steps into the shoes of a real person, be it Harris or Beyoncé, she sees it as a fictional character, rather than an exact imitation.

“And so the fictional Kamala that we created took advantage of her fun,” Rudolph explained. “And then (SNL (Producer) Steve Higgins told me that his wife called her a “funny aunt,” and we laughed about how much that sounds like “funny.” We just kept going. That was the moment when you realized, “Oh, now I know how to do this.”

She has also turned to Harris’ Bay Area roots, drawing inspiration from her friends in Oakland and Berkeley. “I see the Bay Area alive and well in her, in certain elements of the way she speaks,” she said. “But I also see the wildness in her wisdom and her experience and all the work she’s done.”

Rudolph’s role will be essential for Saturday Night Live in the run-up to the election, but also in the months that follow as Inauguration Day approaches. Rudolph is preparing accordingly, preparing to spend more time in New York than usual. “It will definitely impact my fall,” she said. “I’ve already heard from a lot of real estate agents in New York. I think the day she announced her candidacy, a woman yelled at me across the parking lot, ‘Are you getting ready for New York?!'”