‘Loot’ Creators Spill on Guest Stars and Downsizing (Sorta) in Season 2 of Maya Rudolph Comedy

[This story contains spoilers from the Loot season two premiere, “Space for Everyone.”]

While most everyday people struggle to get enough money, Maya Rudolph wrestles with giving all of hers away when she returns as Molly Novak in the season two premiere of Loot, now streaming on AppleTV+.

In the season one finale of the comedy, which aired on Aug. 12, 2022, Molly declared plans to give away every penny of her $120 billion divorce settlement from tech tycoon John Novak (Adam Scott) after a publicly embarrassing business blunder. But even with the personnel issues as head of the Wells Foundation behind her — now that she and executive director Sofia Salinas (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) are on the same page — Molly finds that being a career philanthropist isn’t as easy as it sounds.

“We wanted to let the audience know that, although Molly is giving her money away, she’s still a little bit clueless about how much that means,” executive producer Alan Yang, who co-created the series with Matt Hubbard, tells THR in the conversation below. “[In the first episode of season two] she says, ‘I’m downsizing to this little beach cabana.’ But that house itself is an $80 million Malibu mansion.”

Production on season two, which was delayed due to the 2023 writers strike, moved from the $126 million Bel-Air mega mansion known as “The One,” which served as Molly’s home in season one, to a new beachfront property as part of the character’s somewhat slow path to altruism. Like with her new, not-so-humble abode, the creators didn’t completely peel back the layers of wealth in season two, but rather leaned into other aspects of Rudolph’s character to convey a sense of progression, like her wardrobe.

“Over the course of the series, she starts out in mostly whites and less vibrant outfits, and then as she sort of opens herself up to the world and these other characters, things become a little more floral and open as well,” explains Hubbard.

Below, Yang and Hubbard chat with THR about Molly’s personal and professional journey in season two, reuniting Rudolph with her former SNL co-star Ana Gasteyer, and the romantic pairings audiences will likely never see.

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What about Molly giving away all of her money felt interesting for you to explore in season two?

ALAN YANG It was very dramatic, first of all, because very few people have decided to give away all of their money. The end of season one is almost like a newborn baby opening their eyes and seeing the world for the first time. And in this case, it’s Molly’s character who’s been ensconced in this bubble of wealth and sort of being completely clueless about the rest of the world. So once she makes this declaration, has those eyes opened, we want to explore how difficult it actually is to give that money to the right people. It’s actually a challenge to use that money for good. There are so many obstacles in the way and she’s just at the beginning of that journey. Then, emotionally, she still has a lot to learn about how the real world works, and her personal life is in shambles. So we set up all of these roadblocks in her life to hopefully create some conflict and some comedy.

Production was put on hold due to the strike, how did that effect your overall timeline?

YANG We had eight days remaining in shooting when we paused due to the [WGA and SAG-AFTRA] strikes. I’m so proud of our cast and crew for sticking through it and resuming filming in December, and picking up those eight days almost as if nothing happened. I’m glad that we all banded together and did what we had to do as union workers. I’m proud of what we achieved, but I’m also glad the show was able to finish the season and finish strong. We did the best we could to stay in touch as a cast and crew. We were on text threads, we even took a little trip to Disneyland with a lot of the cast to kept that bonding alive. It’s coming out a few months later than it was originally scheduled to, but we’re really happy with the end result.

Talk about opening up season two with a recreation of Vogue’s 73 Questions.

MATT HUBBARD 73 questions is something that I’m personally obsessed with, and the writers and I all love watching the show. So that was something fun to write that people would recognize that welcomes them to the show. We really do try to latch onto the real world as much as we can. That’s what we did with Hot Ones in season one, and Maya is so great at playing those things. We also really like the idea that Molly thinks she’s in control in that whole sequence. She thinks she’s showing off how far she’s come and how wonderful she is, and obviously, a lot of the things she’s saying are undercutting that. And I think that funny, brash confidence the character of Molly has, while still not totally understanding what the hell is going on, is a really funny thing for Maya to play and one of the things we love about that character. So that’s why we opened the season there. And, we love that house.

How did you pick this new property for Molly’s home?

YANG We wanted to let the audience know that, although Molly is giving her money away, she’s still a little bit clueless about how much that means. Because, as she says, “I’m downsizing to this little beach cabana,” but that house itself is an $80 million Malibu mansion. We have great location scouts and what’s fascinating about this house is that it’s on the beach, and we spent many days shooting there, but we also recreated and augmented the house with all the rooms that were built on stage. So eagle-eyed viewers can take a look and see what they think is on stage and what isn’t, but I think they might be wrong sometimes because our production designer, Jennifer Dehghan, did an amazing job.

Did you play with the idea of downplaying the luxury aspect of the show as Molly transforms into the ultimate philanthropist?

HUBBARD We talked about it a little bit. But at the end of the day, we’re sort of trying to have our cake and eat it too, which is to definitely point the finger at this wealthy person stuff and ask, “Is this cool, should we be doing this, is this what our society should value?” While also seeing that stuff, which can be awesome and is beautiful. We felt that if someone says they’re going to give away all of their money, they can’t snap their fingers and do that. That is a journey in itself. Maybe in the series finale in 2056, we’ll see her downsize to a two-bedroom condo.

There’s a bit of a romantic cliffhanger at the end of season one where Molly and John (Adam Scott) have a drunken night together. Is there a world where they reunite?

HUBBARD The character of John is an absolute monster. I would certainly not want Molly to get back together with him. But what I like about the storyline is that it’s something that people do. Molly has every indication that she should not do it, but she does it anyway. And we try to find moments like that, where Molly can display her flaws and her humanity, because the character is a billionaire, so there are aspects of her life that people would never experience. But screwing up and sleeping with your ex is something that many, many people have done. So we thought that was a fun problem to throw Molly into. And then moving forward in season two we were like, “Oh my God, what if your ex still wants to get with you, but the problem is that he is the wealthiest man in the world?” That would be a terrible problem to have, and we thought that was fun.

Molly and Arthur (Nat Faxon) also have this this will-they-won’t-they dynamic. Are there any other coworkers in the Wells Foundation that you could see having an office romance?

YANG Well, Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster) and Howard (Ron Funches) have an office bromance that will never die. That might be the longest lasting relationship in the show. It’s a real opposite’s attract situation there. I haven’t thought about putting other couples together, but what’s really fun this season is that you get to see different pockets of people interact in a way you haven’t before. We did a Howard and Sophia (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez) story, and we do some Howard and Arthur (Faxon) stuff, and different pairings. Part of the joy and the wonder of doing an ensemble workplace piece is you get to see these different comedic pairings, and there’s still more to be done in future seasons, so hopefully we’ll get to do that.

The guest star list is stacked this season. Who did you have the most fun with bringing into this world?

HUBBARD Oh my God, they were all fun. Two highlights were Benjamin Bratt and Ana Gasteyer. We really liked this idea of Molly with an actor out in the world who is really attracted to her. We’d been talking about that for a long time, and Natasha Lyonne, who’s one of the EPs on our show, suggested Benjamin Bratt, who she had worked with on Poker Face, and she said he was just an incredible guy, and an incredible actor. I loved that story between them because they had such fun chemistry.

YANG Maya and Ana have known each other for so long since SNL, and she just comes in and it’s like having a ringer, right? It’s like someone just comes in off the bench who isn’t in the regular cast of the show, but is so funny and effortlessly grounded, and we thought her character was a great counterpoint to Molly. It’s almost like the road not taken. When we meet her, she’s having a total meltdown, she’s dating a DJ who wears a panda head, it’s comedic gold.

Rhonda (Meagen Fay) and Ainsley (Stephanie Styles) add such color to the office dynamic, I find myself wanting to know more about their backstories . Is that something you might explore?

HUBBARD I think Rhonda just woke up there one day and never left. She doesn’t have a salary or anything. I don’t think anyone ever hired her. I think she just woke up in the conference room one day (laughs). Meagen Fay and Stephanie Styles are both incredible actresses, and we are so happy to have them. I love having characters like that, who can swoop in for these one or two big jokes. We really endeavored to give them a little bit more this year because they’re both so great. I’m all for more.

Loot releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+.