Maya Rudolph has been reflecting on her upbringing in the entertainment business since the public learned about her mother’s identity.

The 51-year-old Bridesmaids actress spoke with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, April 22, about her mother, the late singer-songwriter Minnie Riperton, who is best remembered for her 1974 hit song “Lovin’ You.” goes. and his father, American songwriter and composer Richard Rudolph, who was 77.

The actress admitted in the interview with Shepard, 49, that having famous parents isn’t always as beneficial as people assume.

“They were musicians,” she said. “They weren’t actors.”

Rudolph explained, “My trajectory was, I wanted to go to New York, and I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live.”

She added, “I think the drive should be somewhere else – moving to a new city and making your own path. But this is a huge undertaking. I wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my dad writes songs, this will make me a comedian.’ There was no straight line. I knew I had to get there myself.”

Rudolph thought about her mother’s fame at the time, although she was not sure how many of her contemporaries were aware of her accomplishments.

“It’s interesting because my mother was a singer and not all my friends knew about it at the time,” she said.

According to Rudolph, many people did not realize this connection until years later.

“Now anyone who knows who I am, knows that she is my mother. But growing up, I didn’t feel like he was a household name. I felt like she was special, yes,” she said as Shepard agreed.