Tina Fey & Amy Poehler discuss careers, friendship: inspirational or insular?

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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler star together in the upcoming comedy Sisters. The film looks completely silly, borderline stupid, but you know what? I’ll probably see it and enjoy it. Amy and Tina are magical together, and the film is basically being sold on their decades-long friendship and the spark that happens whenever they’re in the same room together. They cover the new issue of Glamour, “the social media issue,” which is weird because Tina in particular is not a social media person at all. You can read their funny interview here – they interview each other, so the piece is basically just a collection of one-liners.

Tina on her “woman-child” Sisters character: “Woman-child, I think, is in reference to the fact that there are many male comedians who play man-childs—man-childs is a word. I do think it’s fun to be able to play a character that’s in no way aspirational and in no way a role model, and the more female characters there are on-screen, there’s less pressure on every character to represent everyone. I love playing people who are flawed.”

Amy on “dressing sexy” in your 40s: “Of course women in their forties can dress sexy. And, you know, the term sexy is very subjective.”

Tina on dressing sexy: “Yeah, I do also think that by the time you are in your forties, what you want to wear and what you think is sexy is not always, like, for another person. It’s what makes you feel good…. Sexy is all relative. As an SNL writer I have seen people who are famously sexy, women famous for being beautiful, come in as hosts. The male writers would be so excited; then a couple days in, they are over it. If you know you have 0.000 shot at the person, your body kind of shuts down—and it’s more about who you actually relate to.”

Amy on Tina’s accomplishments: “I think one of your greatest accomplishments was transitioning from the captain you were at SNL to creating a show [30 Rock]. That is so hard—extricating yourself from a place you were so comfortable and successful, then doing something else so well. That, and the fact that you invented the word flerm.”

Tina on Amy’s accomplishments: “I would say that one of your greatest accomplishments, Amy Poehler, is that you have so successfully used your art and comedy as a source of positivity in the world, by creating Smart Girls [an online community for girls, encouraging them to be their authentic selves], by making [Leslie in] Parks and Rec not only a positive feminist character but creating a good-hearted worldview within that program.”

Tina on the advice she would give herself ahead of her wedding: “If I could give myself advice on my wedding day, it would be, “Hunker down, September 11 is coming.” Because I got married in June of 2001. [Pauses.] Any other advice? I don’t know, maybe for a second I would maybe say, like, “Start having babies earlier so that you could have maybe had one more,” because I do like how they come out. But at the same time, that would have probably made it hard for me to do some things that I wanted to do in that time.”

[From Glamour]

It’s been said before, of course, but I really love the way Amy and Tina are truly each other’s fans. Like, Amy is probably Tina’s favorite comedian and Amy admires Tina so much. It’s more than friendship between them – it’s a model of how two successful and bright women can work together, encourage and challenge each other and still support each other professionally and personally. And these are the same women who got told off by Taylor Swift for “not supporting women.” Seriously.

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Photos courtesy of Glamour, WENN.

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24 Responses to “Tina Fey & Amy Poehler discuss careers, friendship: inspirational or insular?”

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  1. Kitten says:

    I think it’s sweet that they’re so supportive of each other.

    Also, they both look really hot on that cover–dig the darker hair on Amy.

    • Erinn says:

      Amy’s hair is amazing in this shade. It really suits her.

    • Esmom says:

      Yes and yes.

      • joan says:

        I love that they’re both truly funny.
        AND lovely.

        BUT ALSO grown women who nurture their own kids and also have a social consciousness and great values.

        And Tiny is so confident despite being attacked by a stranger with a knife when she was just a little girl and slashed in the face. Something about that really impresses me, because she never sounds afraid or anxious and has so much authority.

  2. Trillion says:

    I am loving the “body kind of shuts down” reference.

  3. aims says:

    Yeah, these two powerful, brilliant women are role models on how grown ass women behave. It’s absurd to not consider them as feminist icons. They’re both the boss in their lives, in every way. Amy has been a advocate towards girls and empowerment. Tina was and is a trailblazer. So there’s no contest about who is the most positive in regards to women helping women. As theirs is a genuine love and friendship, not publicity or how one can benefit the other.

  4. KB says:

    I’m obsessed with 30 Rock. I’m obsessed with Parks and Rec. Those two and Arrested Development are my favorites. I’m terrible at correctly quoting films and tv shows, but I’ve seen every episode of those three so many times I can actually quote them. I’m always re-watching one of them (30 Rock now) and they still make me laugh out loud!

  5. Locke Lamora says:

    I like Tina and Amy, but their movie doesn’t sound interesting at all. Then again, I rarely find goofy movies funny. I like humour that’s a bit darker.

    I do think they are insular, to some degree at least.

    • Esmom says:

      I was initially thinking that they are pretty insular but the more I think about it I’m not sure how that’s avoidable at this point in their careers and at their level of fame. And I think the term insular is a bit harsh, because I think it implies they might be preventing other women from achieving the same opportunities and I don’t think that’s the case. I think they are using their combined forces for good vs evil, for lack of a better description.

    • FuefinaWG says:

      The problem that a lot of comedians have is that they get to a point where they think everything they do is funny. Once they believe that they are funny things start to go downhill.
      It’s usually the funniest people who believe they are not funny who continue to learn/polish their craft in order to get better. They finish a show and are the first to tell you they sucked while the “brown nosers” continue to tell them how great they were.
      The last awards show that Fey/Poehler hosted together had very bad material. The movie looks very bad.
      These two have great comedic timing but they are at a point where someone else needs to write material for them.

      • Rae says:

        I agree with you. The movie does not look promising at all. Man/women-child comedy shtick is usually scrapping the barrel.

  6. tacos and tv says:

    I love their relationship. They are strong women and really supporting each other and I love their dynamic. They seem to be around too. But! This movie looks really bad 🙁 I saw a trailer and just no! I love that Amy is playing the straight character this time and Tina is the wild card, but I really just don’t think the movie looks good at all…

  7. Milena says:

    I like them so much. Not trying to pit women against each other (kind of against the theme of this post), but Amy’s humor has always appealed more, just because Tina’s stuff tends to have some weird racial stuff, like a bit of a race blindspot. I stopped watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt after the first episode because of the Latina maid who was locked up with Kimmy and the other women, but never learned English after all those years. Ha, ha -_- I know that Kimmy had a Vietnamese boyfriend and the show played with some racial tropes, but anyone have anything to chime in? Haven’t watched the show.

    Their old Weekend Updates on SNL are golden, though!

    • pixiestyx says:

      I don’t want to spoil anything but the show does go into more detail with Donna Maria’s character in a great way. It took a couple episodes of the show for me to really get into the groove of the show..

    • Amelie says:

      It was revealed the Latina woman could speak English, she only pretended not to because the other mole wives annoyed her.

      One thing about that show that was racially odd was giving Jane Krakowski a Native American backstory when she is a white blonde woman who clearly has no NA ancestry in real life. There are a few flashbacks of Jane and her Native American parents and I guess it was supposed to be funny but came across as awkward. But I loved everything else about the show.

      • ichsi says:

        Yeah, that was the part that I didn’t like either but everything else was perfectly OK in my opinion. Funny, quirky show with over-the-top but still entertaining characters.

    • Betsy says:

      I agree with PixieStyx. You’ll really want to watch it in its entirety before judging – Donna Maria is not the one dimensional simpleton it’s implied she is in the first episode. Dong was also a very sweet, well developed character (well, as well developed as characters get on a goofball show like Kimmy).

      I found the show not very funny on the first watch, but the second time I watched it I realized how much I had missed the first go around and it is hysterical.

  8. Lisa says:

    I’m kind of over Amy, and I’ve never been a fan of Tina. But I do like what she says about how quickly the beauty brouhaha blows over (that got alliterative quickly…).