So is Tina Fey, she of Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock, Mean Girls, Baby Mama and Date Night fame, one of those comedians who is quiet, serious and perhaps even a little boring when she’s at home with the family? “Yes, ma’am,” she replies quickly. “They are usually telling me to speak up. I’m a low talker and neither my husband [producer Jeff Richmond] nor my daughter can ever understand me. They are like: ‘What, what?’”
Somehow I find that hard to believe. Fey is on the line from New York, after a long day on the set of 30 Rock, the highly successful television comedy she created, writes and stars in, and her unmistakable wit crackles down the telephone line. It’s also very much in evidence in her autobiography Bossypants (Sphere), out this month.
Autobiography sounds far too dusty a word for what is a laugh-out-loud collection of Tina-meets-world tales, told in her inimitable chatty style. “I tried to think of it as catching up with a friend I haven’t seen in a while,” says its author, “just trying to be honest about anything that was going on.” And it’s honest: about everything from becoming a woman with the help of a zip-up white denim suit and how her cruise-ship honeymoon almost ended Titanic style, to asking Sylvester Stallone to enunciate his words more clearly on SNL and being scolded by her mother for one too many Sarah Palin sketches. And it comes complete with the humiliating photographic evidence.
“People who get into improv comedy,
they are kind of missing a gene.”
Fey decided she wanted to be a comedian when she was about 12. “[I remember] knowing that I wanted to make people laugh and knowing that if I ever did make people laugh that it made me feel comfortable and confident with them.” To this day, she likes to understand the sense of humour of those around her. “Whenever I’m in a new environment, I’m not comfortable until I’ve figured out what the people in that world find funny, whether that comes from me or not.”
After studying drama and then doing a spell at Chicago’s legendary improvisation theatre The Second City, she fulfilled a much-cherished childhood dream to write for the legendary sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live. Her number one tip for successful comedy is fearlessness. “People who get into improv comedy, they are kind of missing a gene,” she explains.“They should be more afraid of public speaking but they are missing that gene. In the same way I could not jump off something high, other people could.”
In 1999, she became the first female head writer at SNL. In Bossypants she is candid about the show’s perceived male domination. “People always wanted to know: ‘Was it really hard there, was it awful?’ And it wasn’t awful, it was the most fun I ever had.” However, there were moments when the differences between the sexes were all too apparent. “No-one is really coming at it with the point of view that we’ve got to keep these women down, but there are some times where men and women see things differently, creatively, in the workplace,” she says. “The more gender equality you have in the whole office, the better it is for everyone.”
Once there were more females around the comedy table, there was more female humour. “Once there were more women in the room laughing at what they thought was funny, then things went better for the female performers and the female writers were getting more up because it was easier to prove what would work.”
After nine years at SNL, Fey came up with the concept for 30 Rock. For the uninitiated, our heroine is the luckless Liz Lemon (Fey), head writer on a comedy sketch show, and the series tells of her travails with an overbearing boss, played by Alec Baldwin in Golden Globe-winning form, egotistical stars courtesy of the inimitable Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski, and a ragtag ensemble of out-of-control writers. The show has been critically acclaimed since its 2006 debut and the whole team has picked up countless awards along the way.
Fey says her personal success is beyond what she ever envisaged. “It’s the greatest blessing to be able to be on TV but also to be in control of what I am doing. I think it’s a hard life if you are a straight-up actor – you are always at someone else’s mercy to let you perform and the kind of roles you are going to get come from someone else, so to be able to be a writer and a performer is beyond a dream come true.”
“I have the proof
that I was a real goon for a long time,
so if I can inspire anyone
who is currently in their goon phase, by all means.”
But she also enjoys handing over the laughs. “It’s more satisfying in a way to contribute to the writing of something and you take pleasure in watching other people’s characters get the laughs and other jokes work, even if you are not the one saying it, because you contributed to make the little world that the show is.”
She laughs as I run through the many accolades she has scored, including being among People magazine’s 50 most beautiful and Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. “Every one of those, completely true,” she says. “Not one of those is a PR exaggeration.” For her, the most significant was last year’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. “That was crazy for me because past recipients include Steve Martin and George Carlin, all these people who I really idolise, so that was a very surreal moment to be inducted in among them. That was the ultimate of anything that has happened to me. She was also the youngest ever recipient, so where to now? “I don’t know, I think I’m done,” she deadpans. “It’s all margaritas from here on out.”
With her librarian chic look, Fey is often held up as a heroine for geeky girls everywhere, which she doesn’t mind at all. “A lot of actresses like to say: ‘I was so gawky and I was so awkward when I was young’, and it’s in their imagination,” she says. “I have the proof that I was a real goon for a long time, so if I can inspire anyone who is currently in their goon phase, by all means.”
In the book, Fey is candid about being “very, very skinny”, “a little bit fat” and now happily in between. “I’ve been a bunch of sizes and I feel like I can usually find the good in whatever size I am. When you are a size 12 [Australian size 16] and you’ve got more bust, you work with that and enjoy that,” she says. “And there was one brief period when I was a size 2 [Australian size 6] for about six months – and there is a wonderful feeling of superiority with that,” she says and laughs, adding: “I feel I’m pretty forgiving of myself both times.”
The 30 Rock team recently celebrated its 100th episode, a milestone Fey says is bittersweet. “I think it means we are almost done in a way,” she says wistfully. “It’s like becoming a senior in high school.” But it is also rewarding because she didn’t think it would survive for as long as it has.
There is another movie in the works, something intriguingly entitled Mommy & Me opposite Meryl Streep and directed by Stanley Tucci, which she is hoping to film soon. “I would certainly love to do anything with Meryl Streep.” But she would very much like to write more movies herself like Mean Girls. “I’ve only written the one and I miss having that relationship with something. It’s a long process but it’s a fun and rewarding process to write a movie.”
There has been some online chatter about Fey as a potential host of the Academy Awards, but she demurs. “Boy, it’s a really hard job. The people who do the best at it are the people who are really peers in that room, people like Steve Martin, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg, people who are comfortable being in that room full of movie stars. I don’t know if I’d be that person.” Does that mean she’s not that comfortable in that room? “It’s really fun, but you don’t want to poke fun at people. I don’t know if I’d have the balls to do that.”
With her own show, a beautiful family, and nothing but excitement on the horizon, does Tina Fey feel like she has it all? “You know I do,” she says, sobering for a minute. “I feel like I have absolutely nothing to complain about in the world and I’m just the luckiest person.” So how does she treat herself? “Like Liz Lemon, I really do eat a lot,” she says. “Right now I’m on a real sweet tear. Since the last time I had to be in a gown, which was January, there has been a lot of scones and cupcakes and baking at home, so that’s probably the main indulgence.” She pauses for a beat: “Also, I take horse tranquillisers.” Ba-dum-bum-tish!
Published in Vogue Australia June 2011
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