“Amy Poehler’s Having Tina Fey’s Child” reads like a headline of a story the two funny ladies would have dished on during their old Weekend Update segments on Saturday Night Live. But it’s actually the plot of the female-driven comedy film Baby Mama from Universal Pictures. Fey stars as a career-obsessed woman ready but unable to be a mother. Poehler plays the gum-chewing, party-going, Wii-loving slacker who’s willing to endure nine months of pregnancy for a price.
Poehler and Fey have known each other since 1993, and Poehler says being able to do this movie together was pretty much a dream come true. “We just kept kind of looking at each other like, ‘Wow, I can't believe they're letting us do that,'" said Poehler, laughing. “We got away with it. We fooled them. We fooled them all!”
Interview with Amy Poehler
How unusual is it to get a script that’s centered around two strong female characters who aren’t just the wives or girlfriends or best friends?
“You know, it is unusual and it was great. It felt like such a gift frankly, the combination of being able to do it with Tina and then also having two really juicy characters. You get used to on SNL having to generate material for yourself and what's nice about that is that you do always feel like in some ways you can generate parts for yourself. But in the feature world, it's a little different. Unless you're writing screenplays all the time for yourself, you're at the mercy sometimes of other people's stuff. And although I have to say I'm really happy to have gotten to do it, it was really great to find a role where the women were active rather than reactive.”
Did you and Tina work closely with writer/director Michael McCullers on the script?
“Yes. Michael had approached us about how he wanted basically to write a film for us. We were kind of throwing around ideas and this idea came up. We were all getting really excited about it and then he kind of went away and wrote the script and brought it back and did a lot of the heavy lifting. Then Tina and I kind of massaged the stuff with us together, the stuff between us and the stuff that kind of involved us going a little deeper.”
Michael McCullers has a wife and kids, but it must have been hard for him to write this from a female point of view.
“I will say, to his credit, he did a really - I have to say - an amazing job of. He'll probably roll his eyes at me, at me saying he's a sensitive guy but, you know, I think he did a really good job of that in a way that frankly I haven't seen a lot in other instances. But he did depend on us and kind of encourage us a lot on set to find ways to play around. I think that some energy that's nice in the film is that there were a lot of moments Tina and I got to kind of improvise and play around.”
Did a lot of your improvisation make it into the final cut?
“Yeah, there were moments like when she was giving me the vitamin that was in the script, but the way we did it was we just kind of improvised that until we got it. Our argument about Tom & Jerry in the film was improvised. When we went to the club, when we were in the dance club we just kind of made up stuff in there that we decided we would do. So there was some room for that.”
Was it easier because you and Tina Fey have a shorthand when working together after all those years on SNL?
“I'd say any good set or any comedy that I've worked on, that's worked, has been comedians pitching ideas back and forth to each other. A lot of like, ‘What if you say this? What about this?’ So Tina and I are really comfortable doing that because we've worked together for so long. And also we're very comfortable about being honest and asking, ‘Was that good? Can that work?’ The other person can be like, ‘I like the other one better,’ so we knew we kind of had each other's best interest.
When we're working together, we're pretty fiercely honest with each other. A lot of like, ‘I don't like that idea…’ A lot of like, ‘What's the best joke?’ rather than like, ‘Wait, but that's my idea,’ or ‘Wait, that's my bit.’ I think you learn really quick at SNL you can't be too precious about your idea, so you kind of try to go for the best version.”
Because the two of you have known each other so long and you're so close, how tough was it to play strangers?
“You know, it was funny. It's funny you say that actually because in the beginning when we were shooting Michael had to keep reminding us like, ‘You guys don't like each other yet.’ But the characters themselves were really kind of… I think, at least for me, I started to get really protective of Angie as the film went on. When Kate would kind of attack her, or anyone else would, I would feel a very natural sense of wanting to protect her. So it got a little easier when we had to argue as the film went on.”
In reality, who's actually closer to the character they’re playing - you or Tina Fey?
“Well I would say that Tina and I are probably both closer to Kate in real life. But it’s like Tina in real life, Tina's not as uptight as that and in real life, I'm not as reckless as that. I think we're kind of both somewhere in between.”
But you always get tapped to play the goofball roles.
“I have to say I enjoy physical comedy and I've always loved to kind of take risks. I don't like worrying too much about how I look or how I come across, so that can sometimes… You know, I like to play those kinds of deluded but fun characters.”
So will we ever see you in a serious period drama?
“I would love to do a serious period drama. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you'll find most comedians want to do more serious stuff, most musicians want to be comedians, and most serious actors want to be musicians.”
It's all one big circle of life.
[Laughing] “Everyone wants what they don't have.”
Page 2: On the Pregnancy Tummy, Sigourney Weaver, and The Mighty B
