Maya Rudolph Doesn't Think She's as 'Hip' as Her 'Big Hero 6' Character (Exclusive)

Maya Rudolph is back in the saddle for Big Hero 6!

The 45-year-old actress and mother of four reprises her role from the 2014 movie, Aunt Cass, in Disney’s upcoming animated series -- and only ET has an exclusive sneak peek from the one-hour kick-off TV movie, Baymax Returns.

Rudolph revealed that she and her four young children with longtime love, director Paul Thomas Anderson -- daughters Pearl, Lucille and Minnie,  and son Jack -- have been fans of Big Hero 6 and shared why she has a personal connection to the film.

“My kids were really big fans of the movie,” Rudolph said. “When they first saw it, they instantly wanted to be one of the characters. I love that the series has multiple strong female role models and different interpretations of what girls can do in the world of S.T.E.A.M. It's cool to see more than one version of a female character such as Go Go and Honey Lemon; for me, it was Princess Leia.”

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“We have re-enacted Big Hero 6 in my living room a lot, and I have been Baymax quite a bit,” she added. “It's funny because they know that I'm Aunt Cass, but when they play Big Hero 6, they don't want me to be Aunt Cass, they want me to be Baymax, which is actually a really fun voice to get to do.”

Rudolph called Aunt Cass “the coolest character” she’s ever played, singling out her “bubbling love and warmth” for her nephew, robotics prodigy Hiro. The A Christmas Story star confessed that Cass “is a little bit hipper” than her, though she finds a kinship with the fact that her character is “funny and off, that's probably where our similarities lie.” 

“I don't take myself seriously as a mother and a parent, but I hope my children do,” Rudolph said. “She's way more fun, for me, I just get stressed out.”

“Aunt Cass has this beautiful relationship with Hiro. She's so proud and encouraging of him, and she's his No. 1 fan,” she said. “I like that Aunt Cass and Hiro's family dynamic isn't your typical family, but it's still a really solid family. I think their relationship is a really beautiful element of the show, and you get to see a single parent raising a wonderful, healthy boy. We have so many people in the world that have every kind of version of family that you can imagine, and you see a family in this show that's full of love and it works.”

Big Hero 6: The Series kicks off with a one-hour TV movie, Baymax Returns, on Monday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD and Disney Channel. Big Hero 6: The Series premieres in 2018.

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