Tina Fey and Amy Poehler: Two of a kind?
Frequent collaborators Tina Fey and Amy Poehler once again play opposite each other in new comedy Sisters
While they have built separate careers successfully, the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler twosome have shared a lot of highlights in their resumes, like co-anchoring the news desk on US skit show Saturday Night Live, co-starring roles in the 2008 comedy Baby Mama and their three-time turn as hosts of the Golden Globe Awards.
Like the best-known comedy pairings in the business, they are great by themselves but perfect together, so in sync that they can finish each other's sentences, like sisters from another mother.
So it's hard to interview the US actresses individually without making reference to the other, and we wouldn't even try, especially as their latest project is the new aptly-titled comedy Sisters.
Opening in Singapore tomorrow, they play the Ellis sisters and sort of go against type.
Fey is Kate, the irresponsible single mother with a teenage daughter, while Poehler plays Maura, the more strait-laced one.
When they are summoned home to Orlando by their parents to clean out their rooms before the house is sold, they react with outraged childishness. They then decide to throw themselves a mother of a farewell party with their old high school friends while mum and dad are out of town.
At the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills to promote Sisters, Fey is up first.
While Poehler, 44, has a bigger presence of the two and is more joke-y with her answers, Fey, 45, is quieter in person than you would think.
She doesn't look to be "on" in front of journalists and her humour lies more in her wit and tone of voice.
Q&A WITH TINA FEY
What's the secret behind your relationship with Poehler?
I think we respect each other very much. There was a teacher in Chicago who saw us in two different (improv) classes and said, "I am going to put you two together. I think you are really going to like each other."
I think our relationship that started as teammates continues to this day. We look to support each other and we look to try to make the other one look better at every given moment. So I think it's the basis for a really good friendship.
Do you ever have disagreements?
We so rarely have disagreements.
When we do disagree on, oh, should we do this joke or not do this joke, we have so many strategies and so much language to negotiate with each other that it's very easy.
How are you different?
Amy is actually a bit more extroverted. Amy is sexier and more confident than I am in that universe (laughs).
But I think we have so much in common that there are many times that we will have a conversation or we will text each other and we will say, "I have a question and you are literally the only other person in the world who I can ask."
Which is this person that works the same amount and has children the same age and came from this same kind of background.
What are the pros and cons of working with a friend?
The huge pro is that you know each other already, and especially in movies where you come together with someone for eight to 12 weeks, you spend so much time figuring each other out and being like 'oh, how do you like to work, do you like to shoot your side first and are you grouchy in the trailer in the morning?'
We don't have to waste that energy and time because we already know each other and we know how we like to work.
The cons? I would have to make them up, I don't think there are any cons really.
What do you admire most about Poehler?
How important it is for her to be a positive influence in the world and the work that she does outside of comedy with (online women's community) Smart Girls and with Worldwide Orphans Foundation.
She has taken the spirit of being part of the solution and really shaped an entire life and career for herself based on that.
That's why it's so beautiful and perfect that she is the voice of Joy in (2015 animated film) Inside Out, because to me it's the essence of her being that she is brought on this Earth to bring joy and to spread positivity.
Also, my four-year-old is really obsessed with Joy and I love that I get to tell her that Joy is a friend of mine.
What were you like as a girl?
Oh my God, I was so lame.
I have a brother who is eight years older than me. So I almost have somewhere between a younger child and an only child personality.
And it's funny because Amy and I have been doing these interviews together and Amy would say like, "Oh we were both the same and I threw some parties and there was a guy who smashed my door and broke something." and in my head I am like "Oh no, you are way cooler than me, way cooler".
I would sometimes have gay boys over to play board games and that was the extent of it. I never drank and never did anything.
So that's why it was like a fun departure for me to even pretend for a second in this movie that I lived that life.
Q&A WITH AMY POEHLER
(Tina) Fey says you're the sexy, confident one.
She's a genius. I've always said Tina's a genius.
Can you describe your working relationship with Tina Fey?
We've known each other for such a long time. Good friends know what the other one does well.
We just collaborate and support each other. It's what we learnt when we were learning how to improvise and do comedy and also just really tease each other as well.
Both those things are, I think, the key to a successful comedic marriage.
What surprised you about her while doing Sisters?
It's funny after so many years there are still things that I learn.
We were doing an interview the other day and I asked her if she'd ever seen a ghost, which she said she had, so I heard that new story.
But as far as working together, it's really nice to know each other's rhythms so there was nothing particularly surprising.
However, as an actor working with another actor, it was really wonderful to just be in emotional scenes together and play those scenes together which we don't really ever get a chance to do.
Anything you disagree about?
We disagree on what is the best sandwich in Chicago. She says Jimmy John's, which is ridiculous, and I say Potbelly, which is the right answer.
Sisters is a departure from your usual projects in that it's quite raunchy.
What was fun is getting to do a really raunchy, physical romp that we have not done ever on screen because we both came from broadcast TV.
I think that me and 17 year-old boys are not that different as to what we like.
What was the best part of the shoot?
I liked a lot of the physical stuff. The breaking through the ceilings, jumping into the sinkhole, the running and chasing each other, the mud fight.
I don't get a chance to do that as much as I'd like, and it helps me train for my eventual The Bourne Identity franchise that I'm going to take over, where I just walk from beautiful European street to beautiful European street with very little to say. I'm looking forward to that being my next project.
It seems like you were the opposite of your Sisters characters growing up.
I've discovered that I had a few more crazy parties than Tina did, yeah. Some property was destroyed (laughs).
So what was the worst thing you did as a teenager?
I was still a pretty good kid. I remember some towel racks being pulled down and someone throwing a basketball into a wooden door, hiding beers in the washer and dryer. It feels pretty benign. Nothing too major.
Why aren't you blonde anymore?
Oh, just changed. Life and change and really goodbye to (blonde TV comedy series Parks And Recreation's protagonist) Leslie Knope, whom I miss very much.
- Meher Tatna
Q&A WITH AMY POEHLER
(Tina) Fey says you're the sexy, confident one.
She's a genius. I've always said Tina's a genius.
Can you describe your working relationship with Tina Fey?
We've known each other for such a long time. Good friends know what the other one does well.
We just collaborate and support each other. It's what we learnt when we were learning how to improvise and do comedy and also just really tease each other as well.
Both those things are, I think, the key to a successful comedic marriage.
What surprised you about her while doing Sisters?
It's funny after so many years there are still things that I learn.
We were doing an interview the other day and I asked her if she'd ever seen a ghost, which she said she had, so I heard that new story.
But as far as working together, it's really nice to know each other's rhythms so there was nothing particularly surprising.
However, as an actor working with another actor, it was really wonderful to just be in emotional scenes together and play those scenes together which we don't really ever get a chance to do.
Anything you disagree about?
We disagree on what is the best sandwich in Chicago. She says Jimmy John's, which is ridiculous, and I say Potbelly, which is the right answer.
Sisters is a departure from your usual projects in that it's quite raunchy.
What was fun is getting to do a really raunchy, physical romp that we have not done ever on screen because we both came from broadcast TV.
I think that me and 17 year-old boys are not that different as to what we like.
What was the best part of the shoot?
I liked a lot of the physical stuff. The breaking through the ceilings, jumping into the sinkhole, the running and chasing each other, the mud fight.
I don't get a chance to do that as much as I'd like, and it helps me train for my eventual The Bourne Identity franchise that I'm going to take over, where I just walk from beautiful European street to beautiful European street with very little to say. I'm looking forward to that being my next project.
It seems like you were the opposite of your Sisters characters growing up.
I've discovered that I had a few more crazy parties than Tina did, yeah. Some property was destroyed (laughs).
So what was the worst thing you did as a teenager?
I was still a pretty good kid. I remember some towel racks being pulled down and someone throwing a basketball into a wooden door, hiding beers in the washer and dryer. It feels pretty benign. Nothing too major.
Why aren't you blonde anymore?
Oh, just changed. Life and change and really goodbye to (blonde TV comedy series Parks And Recreation's protagonist) Leslie Knope, whom I miss very much.
- Meher Tatna
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