This whole time, I thought Tina Fey’s latest project was just a Netflix film, not a series. But Four Seasons is a series and they really don’t want it to be a one-and-done season. Tina covers the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter to promote the series, which she stars in alongside Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Steve Carell and more. Fey co-created the show (based on an Alan Alda movie) with her 30 Rock writer/producer team Land Fisher and Tracey Wigfield. The three co-showrun, write and executive-produce the show. Tina knows it’s a weird moment for her to return to the small screen in any kind of regular way, but she’s having fun with it and I loved this interview. Some highlights:

She stayed up past midnight for SNL’s 50th anniversary party: “I’ve never been able to get over the fact that I left the 40th afterparty before Prince’s surprise set. So the whole week leading up to the 50th, I drank water, I went to bed early, I saved it all up. But when I got to the afterparty, I couldn’t find any of my friends, and obviously there was no chance of Prince, so I thought, ‘Actually, I’m out.’ “

On love languages: “While we’re on nonsense, there’s all that talk about love languages. I give acts of service. If I like you, my way of showing that is to be like, ‘I wrote this for you.’ I try to help you fix the thing you’re doing. And if I don’t like you, I’m going to write you something so good that you’re going to be ashamed. Either way, I’m always out here hustling.”

She has an assessment period for judging strangers: “Parenthood makes you push through because you have to demonstrate for your kids how not to be shy, so I’m better than I used to be. Steve Carell and I made a whole movie together without ever breaking through to the other side because we’re both very shy. Without anyone to make us talk, he and I would both sit in polite silence. After working with this big group, I feel like Steve and I are actually all-the-way friends now.”

She’s a workaholic, but also a crafter: [Workholism] does not hold for somebody who actively seeks out time to improve her watercolor portraiture and cooking skills, two of Fey’s joys. She’ll watch every chickpea recipe on TikTok. That’s the only social media platform where she lurks these days, having deleted a burner Instagram after she found it made her dislike some of the people she knew in real life. (No, she won’t name names.) She’s trying to read one book a month and jokes that having a daughter in middle school is the only thing keeping her from crafting full time. She suspects she and her husband are New York City lifers, even if, come summer, her personality is Fire Island. “The dumpy side,” she clarifies, “not the business side with the boys.”

She lost her mom last year: “This sandwich generation stuff, having your kids and an aging parent in the same house, it’s wonderful … but it also really takes a lot out of you. My mom passed away in the summer, my older daughter went to college in August and my husband [Richmond is also a producer and director] and I went to work on The Four Seasons in the fall. That kept me in the world. It saved me from just shrinking up like a little granny apple head.”

Lorne Michaels always encouraged her to think commercially: “Very early in writing the first Mean Girls movie, I told Lorne, ‘It’s going to be about relational aggression among girls,’ ” she says. “He was like, ‘Right, right, but they can have nice outfits and cool cars, too.’ I’ve learned that you can make your thing as smart or true as you want and still try to make it commercial.”

The idea of taking over SNL from Lorne: “It was nice of him to say that, and I love him very much.” She has no response to the suggestion of ever taking the job herself. “He’s irreplaceable,” she says. “His set of gifts and skills are entirely unique. His eye for talent! He’s one of the last three people in show business who actually understand everything. I’ll leave it at that.”

New voices are needed: “The impulse to hide and retire is very strong because I do think it’s time to help new voices get in the mix. It’s something I’m already doing, but I want to do more. Even on the walk over here I was like, ‘I am so tired of hearing from me. Surely everyone else is tired of hearing from the same people over and over again.’ “

The need for more sitcoms: “You can’t program comedy only 13 weeks a year and expect people to come to you for comedy,” she says, noting there’s no quick fix. “They have to reclaim that space. And it’s going to be a little bit like these tariffs. You’re just going to have to suffer for 10 years.” Lowering her face within a few inches of the table, Fey speaks directly into the iPhone recording our conversation: “She didn’t say ‘tariffs.’ She didn’t bring up anything about tariffs. She does not understand tariffs.”

[From THR]

I totally get the “new voices are needed in comedy” argument and I agree, but I don’t think it’s either/or, especially with Tina Fey. Fey is one of one. By that I mean, I don’t always agree with her and I would never say that every single one of her jokes land, but she’s such a unique voice and a unique writer/comedienne at any given time. Plus, she’s added to her own mythology by not being in people’s faces 24-7 – she has an elusive quality which is really nice. She’s not needy – she comes across as someone has been quietly judging everyone for years and waiting to say something incredibly incisive and bitchy. And yes, she should take over SNL when Lorne retires.

Cover courtesy of THR, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.