Tina Fey’s next
dream project? “A movie about Stonewall where I play all the people,”
she deadpans. Until then, the Emmy-winning 30 Rock creator-star will keep making the Netflix streaming series Unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt, which returns this spring. Reteaming with comedy cohort Amy Poehler for Sisters, in theaters December 18, the Saturday Night Live alum talks toThe Advocate about her womance with Poehler, Tituss Burgess’s Kimmy Schmidtcharacter, and her ability to sexually confuse straight women.
On her womance with Amy Poehler:
With a w? I like that. Yes, and what makes it work is that from the moment we met each other in Chicago in 1992, we’ve had tremendous respect for each other. We started on the same improv team, and we were put together like two beautiful baby lions in a cage who miraculously did not have the impulse to eat each other. What makes it great now is that the only time we see each other is when we work on things — hosting the Golden Globes, doing Sisters — so those experiences are exciting and fun. We’re both thrilled to be there, and hopefully that’s reflected in the work. She and I haven’t really talked about this, but I don’t know if we could ever do a series together. We’re both alphas who like to do our own thing and then meet up occasionally.
With a w? I like that. Yes, and what makes it work is that from the moment we met each other in Chicago in 1992, we’ve had tremendous respect for each other. We started on the same improv team, and we were put together like two beautiful baby lions in a cage who miraculously did not have the impulse to eat each other. What makes it great now is that the only time we see each other is when we work on things — hosting the Golden Globes, doing Sisters — so those experiences are exciting and fun. We’re both thrilled to be there, and hopefully that’s reflected in the work. She and I haven’t really talked about this, but I don’t know if we could ever do a series together. We’re both alphas who like to do our own thing and then meet up occasionally.
On an Amy-Tina love story:
Ooh, maybe we could do a lesbian period piece like a comedic version of Carol, that movie with Cate Blanchett. Really, we should just do a movie with all the women of SNL and set it on the Isle of Lesbos.
Ooh, maybe we could do a lesbian period piece like a comedic version of Carol, that movie with Cate Blanchett. Really, we should just do a movie with all the women of SNL and set it on the Isle of Lesbos.
On whether Tituss Burgess’s
Kimmy Schmidt character is too stereotypical:
I know people like Titus. If a person exists, it’s fair game. Titus makes Barbie clothes, for example, and that’s based on an old gay friend of mine who worked as a cater-waiter when he first moved to New York. He was too broke to go out, so he’d literally sit inside and sew Barbie clothes to kill time. I try to base everything in some kind of truth. I don’t worry about what the Internet says. Getting in trouble with the Internet is not real. The Internet is not a force you have to obey.
I know people like Titus. If a person exists, it’s fair game. Titus makes Barbie clothes, for example, and that’s based on an old gay friend of mine who worked as a cater-waiter when he first moved to New York. He was too broke to go out, so he’d literally sit inside and sew Barbie clothes to kill time. I try to base everything in some kind of truth. I don’t worry about what the Internet says. Getting in trouble with the Internet is not real. The Internet is not a force you have to obey.
I think I might’ve lost it. Maybe because it looks like I’m halfway there? I’ve also been a stepping-stone to help a lot of men realize that they’re gay, so I may just be a transitional person. I’m like human transition lenses.
