Tina Fey is wicked hot and very funny. Its a deadly combination and something that every guy is looking for. But then of course if you do find a Tina Fey type then you also find out she is insane, thats usually the case. But I didnt find Tina Fey insane at all when I talked to her for the new movie, Mean Girls, which she wrote based on the non-fiction book Queen Bees and Wannabes. Fey also has a supporting role in it.
Its the story of Cady Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan) a girl who was home schooled while traveling through Africa her whole. When she finally goes to normal high school in America she immediately falls in the weird crowd. But the popular girls The Plastics also want to hang out with her. So Cady decides to spy on the Plastics but the pull to the dark side is too strong and she begins to reject those that once supported her.
I got to talk with Tina Fey about being the first female head writer of Saturday Night Live, working with teenagers and grown up mean girls.
See the website for Mean Girls
George Everit: How autobiographical is Mean Girls?
Tina Fey: Its spread out in bits all over the movie. Conversations I remember and people I knew shoved in all different spots.
GE: Is Regina based on anybody?
TF: She is not. One of Reginas big moves in the movie is based on my mom. My mom has this habit of when she sees a lady in a really ugly dress to go I love that dress. I always tell her thats really mean but she says, Clearly she wanted someone to acknowledge the sweatshirt.
GE: Why all the violence in the movie?
TF: The fighting? When I was writing this all that hazing stuff with the girls happened in Oak Park.
GE: Watching Amy Poehler in this movie and on Saturday Night Live just shows that every character she does, she is dedicated to. What was it like working with her on this movie and what did she bring to Saturday Night Live?
TF: Ive known Amy for 12 years because we started in Chicago together at Second City and ImprovOlympic. We kept turning to each other and saying, Can you believe were making a movie? It felt like we were pulling a huge scam. She just commits really hard. For years Ive been trying to get her to come to Saturday Night Live.
GE: She waited until the SNL deals were really tough.
TF: [laughs] Right. The Upright Citizen Brigade show ended and she decided to come aboard. Ive known her and Rachel Dratch for 12 years.
GE: How did you keep this movie from becoming a series of sketches?
TF: That was totally new to me because Ive only written sketches. I just did what everyone does and read Syd Fields book. I tried to make sure there was enough story in it.
GE: Were you looking more for Mark Waters Freaky Friday or Mark Waters The House of Yes?
TF: I was looking for Mark Waters Head Over Heels. [laughs] Hes going to be like Fuck you, why did you say that?
I had seen House of Yes years ago and I knew he could direct a movie because of Freaky Friday but still have a dark side. The weird thing is that his brother is Daniel Waters who wrote Heathers. We met with him and we decided that he was so smart. Like me hes a very hardworking nerd.
GE: What was the meanest thing a girl had ever done to you growing up?
TF: I definitely had girls threaten to kick my ass. The part in the movie where she says Youre really pretty. Thank you, So you agree? That happened to me. Other than that it was the usual nonsense.
GE: Were you in a clique?
TF: I had a group of friends that were all AP students. We were thought we were super cool but we were our own sad little clique. There was always those girls that were so popular, everyone knew everything about them and we would think That one isnt even that cute but she does have Benetton shoes.
GE: Were you the one responsible for bringing Slovin & Allen onto SNL as writers?
TF: Certainly not solely responsible but I was as part of the writing staff.
GE: What was up with Eric Slovin coming out after Weekend Update?
TF: That was Jimmys whim. He wanted someone to take his pencil from him at the end of every report. So he picked Slovin and it was always him in a ridiculous costume.
GE: What connected you to the article that was written in the New York Times about the book Mean Girls is based on?
TF: When I read it, I just immediately thought, Oh, this is something that interests me and this is something I feel like I can write about. I got a hold of an advance copy of the book actually and because it was about girls, but it was also nasty and violent and that appealed to me.
GE: Had you actually spent any time in Africa?
TF: I have never been to Africa. And actually, the weird thing is that the Africa element of the script came from the studio. Originally, Katie was an American home schooled girl. The studio was like, Thats too weird!
GE: So Paramount wanted it like The Wild Thornberrys?
TF: I had never seen The Wild Thornberrys but after I did it, I was like, You tricked me! This is The Wild Thornberrys! But it did, at least, lend itself to using that metaphor which Rosalind Wiseman, the author, said, You should go hang out at the mall fountain. Its like animals at the watering hole.
GE: Has anything youve done performance wise at the UCB theater helped you with creating this or even if you to creating this or even if you think something Martin & Orloff..
TF: I still havent seen Martin & Orloff. They always have screenings but Im never in town when they do. Its reprehensible.
The UCB Theater here in New York is such a great, great theater. Its the home of improvisation in New York. Theres no place else thats like it. Real, long form improvisation, not like Whos Line is it Anyway?
GE: How is Lorne Michaels, the producer of SNL, different from Lorne Michaels, the producer of Mean Girls?
TF: He was a great liaison between the studio and me. I really felt protected. If I had been a screenwriter, just somebody off the street, I would not have been treated as wonderfully as I was. I mean, I got to be included in the casting process, just really well treated and thats because I had him with me. He really liked making movies. He has a lot of fun and gets very excited and into the Hollywood show business stuff. We both said, This is a fun thing that were doing on the side because we have our other gig.
GE: How was it working with teenagers?
TF: Its good. Even though theyre teenagers, they all had way more acting experience than I did in film. So I was actually trying to learn from Lindsay how to act in a film.
GE: How involved were you in the casting process?
TF: A lot. They sent me tapes. I went to some casting agencies in LA but they sent me tapes all the time. They really let me have a lot of input. Lorne is a producer and I would go to him and say, I like her. Especially the part of Damian, which was cast at the very last second because I kept saying, Theyre great but theyre not quite right. He was so clear in my head, then we found Danny, and I said, Perfect.
GE: What do you credit to your success of becoming the first ever head female writer of SNL?
TF: Well I will say that in twenty years, there hasnt been that many head writers. For a while, there wasnt anybody and then a few would do it for a couple of years. There have only been four or five but I think part of it is that if youre a writer on the show, and theyre looking for a new head writer and are you a successful writer on the show. But another part of it is, Do you have a temperament so that you could be a liaison for other people because you can be a super genius of a comedy writer but be way too much of a nut bird to be a go-between for people.
GE: Max Brooks said that he felt like he didnt fit in anywhere and felt like a nerd.
TF: Max is a nerd. [Laughs] But Ive had a lot of very dear friends to me that didnt fit. I hired a very good friend of mine who I know is a brilliantly funny guy. Part of it is a personality fit and my friend Mike McCullers, who wrote all the Austin Powers movies. Clearly a successful writer. He and I started at the same time. It didnt gel for him. He didnt like it. He left after his first year. Its not for everyone.
Also, when you come in, everyone there is either from Second City, Groundlings, theyre from standup, or theyre from Harvard. If youre not from one of those things, then its hard for you to know where to land. A new Second City person comes, they know all the other Second City people. A new standup comes, they bond over the clubs that they worked. When Mike McCullers came, not only was he not from Harvard; he was from Yale.
GE: How do you rewrite Robert Smigel?
TF: You dont. Hes a maniac. Cant rewrite him at all.
GE: Are there ghost writers on the show?
TF: We have people fax in jokes for Weekend Update and if we use it then we pay them a hundred dollars.
GE: How long do you anticipate staying with the show?
TF: Thirty more years? I dont really know. I dont quite know.
GE: Whos responsible for casting in that Jonathan Bennett looks a lot like Jimmy Fallon?
TF: He does look like a cute Jimmy Fallon! We saw him and then he was another very last minute casting choice. Maybe I just gravitated to him because he looks like Jimmy. Hes foxy.
GE: Therefore Jimmy is foxy?
TF: Jimmys foxy. Of course!
GE: Will Ferrell described SNL as a comedy boot camp. How difficult is it to come up with something new every week without driving yourself crazy?
TF: Its hard. Sometimes, after work, we just finished our 17th show out of 20 for this year, but sometimes if you have an off week when you have nothing, someone will step up because there are 15-20 writers on the show. You dont have to win every week. Its also the more you do it, its like a muscle you build. The more youre writing sketches every time, the easier it gets to do.
GE: Recently, episodes on SNL were really good like Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera
TF: A lot of these young, pop star hosts have worked out really good for us this year. Its all these Mousketeer kids because they did this when they were 4. Ben Affleck, hes like the next Alec Baldwin for us. Hes going to be like Great, have him come back whenever he wants. Weve had some good shows this year.
GE: Did it take you a while to get comfortable in front of the camera?
TF: Probably, a little bit. I just sort of pretend there is no camera and play the live audience because Im not afraid to be on a stage. So I just pretend like Im on stage.
GE: Will there be always be mean girls? Do you think there will be a positive outcome from this?
TF: Id like to think that this film will change the world through DVD rentals. [laughs] But I think its an innate part of women that flares up at different times in their lives. Between this film and what Rosalyn has dedicated her whole to, girls will be able to survive it more easily.
GE: Are you working on another screenplay or are you taking a break?
TF: Im taking a break, Im not working on anything yet. I do want to do another one sometime and Im also going to try to do something for NBC.
GE: Do you know any mean girls now? They do grow up.
TF: Some people definitely dont shake it off. I definitely, in my adult life, have found some but I would have to say that I feel very lucky right now. My lady friends for 12 years all work in the same place.
GE: What do you find funny?
TF: The longer you work in comedy, the less you find funny. You dont find actual prepared comedy that funny very often. You laugh at actual human behavior more.
Its the story of Cady Heron (played by Lindsay Lohan) a girl who was home schooled while traveling through Africa her whole. When she finally goes to normal high school in America she immediately falls in the weird crowd. But the popular girls The Plastics also want to hang out with her. So Cady decides to spy on the Plastics but the pull to the dark side is too strong and she begins to reject those that once supported her.
I got to talk with Tina Fey about being the first female head writer of Saturday Night Live, working with teenagers and grown up mean girls.
See the website for Mean Girls
George Everit: How autobiographical is Mean Girls?
Tina Fey: Its spread out in bits all over the movie. Conversations I remember and people I knew shoved in all different spots.
GE: Is Regina based on anybody?
TF: She is not. One of Reginas big moves in the movie is based on my mom. My mom has this habit of when she sees a lady in a really ugly dress to go I love that dress. I always tell her thats really mean but she says, Clearly she wanted someone to acknowledge the sweatshirt.
GE: Why all the violence in the movie?
TF: The fighting? When I was writing this all that hazing stuff with the girls happened in Oak Park.
GE: Watching Amy Poehler in this movie and on Saturday Night Live just shows that every character she does, she is dedicated to. What was it like working with her on this movie and what did she bring to Saturday Night Live?
TF: Ive known Amy for 12 years because we started in Chicago together at Second City and ImprovOlympic. We kept turning to each other and saying, Can you believe were making a movie? It felt like we were pulling a huge scam. She just commits really hard. For years Ive been trying to get her to come to Saturday Night Live.
GE: She waited until the SNL deals were really tough.
TF: [laughs] Right. The Upright Citizen Brigade show ended and she decided to come aboard. Ive known her and Rachel Dratch for 12 years.
GE: How did you keep this movie from becoming a series of sketches?
TF: That was totally new to me because Ive only written sketches. I just did what everyone does and read Syd Fields book. I tried to make sure there was enough story in it.
GE: Were you looking more for Mark Waters Freaky Friday or Mark Waters The House of Yes?
TF: I was looking for Mark Waters Head Over Heels. [laughs] Hes going to be like Fuck you, why did you say that?
I had seen House of Yes years ago and I knew he could direct a movie because of Freaky Friday but still have a dark side. The weird thing is that his brother is Daniel Waters who wrote Heathers. We met with him and we decided that he was so smart. Like me hes a very hardworking nerd.
GE: What was the meanest thing a girl had ever done to you growing up?
TF: I definitely had girls threaten to kick my ass. The part in the movie where she says Youre really pretty. Thank you, So you agree? That happened to me. Other than that it was the usual nonsense.
GE: Were you in a clique?
TF: I had a group of friends that were all AP students. We were thought we were super cool but we were our own sad little clique. There was always those girls that were so popular, everyone knew everything about them and we would think That one isnt even that cute but she does have Benetton shoes.
GE: Were you the one responsible for bringing Slovin & Allen onto SNL as writers?
TF: Certainly not solely responsible but I was as part of the writing staff.
GE: What was up with Eric Slovin coming out after Weekend Update?
TF: That was Jimmys whim. He wanted someone to take his pencil from him at the end of every report. So he picked Slovin and it was always him in a ridiculous costume.
GE: What connected you to the article that was written in the New York Times about the book Mean Girls is based on?
TF: When I read it, I just immediately thought, Oh, this is something that interests me and this is something I feel like I can write about. I got a hold of an advance copy of the book actually and because it was about girls, but it was also nasty and violent and that appealed to me.
GE: Had you actually spent any time in Africa?
TF: I have never been to Africa. And actually, the weird thing is that the Africa element of the script came from the studio. Originally, Katie was an American home schooled girl. The studio was like, Thats too weird!
GE: So Paramount wanted it like The Wild Thornberrys?
TF: I had never seen The Wild Thornberrys but after I did it, I was like, You tricked me! This is The Wild Thornberrys! But it did, at least, lend itself to using that metaphor which Rosalind Wiseman, the author, said, You should go hang out at the mall fountain. Its like animals at the watering hole.
GE: Has anything youve done performance wise at the UCB theater helped you with creating this or even if you to creating this or even if you think something Martin & Orloff..
TF: I still havent seen Martin & Orloff. They always have screenings but Im never in town when they do. Its reprehensible.
The UCB Theater here in New York is such a great, great theater. Its the home of improvisation in New York. Theres no place else thats like it. Real, long form improvisation, not like Whos Line is it Anyway?
GE: How is Lorne Michaels, the producer of SNL, different from Lorne Michaels, the producer of Mean Girls?
TF: He was a great liaison between the studio and me. I really felt protected. If I had been a screenwriter, just somebody off the street, I would not have been treated as wonderfully as I was. I mean, I got to be included in the casting process, just really well treated and thats because I had him with me. He really liked making movies. He has a lot of fun and gets very excited and into the Hollywood show business stuff. We both said, This is a fun thing that were doing on the side because we have our other gig.
GE: How was it working with teenagers?
TF: Its good. Even though theyre teenagers, they all had way more acting experience than I did in film. So I was actually trying to learn from Lindsay how to act in a film.
GE: How involved were you in the casting process?
TF: A lot. They sent me tapes. I went to some casting agencies in LA but they sent me tapes all the time. They really let me have a lot of input. Lorne is a producer and I would go to him and say, I like her. Especially the part of Damian, which was cast at the very last second because I kept saying, Theyre great but theyre not quite right. He was so clear in my head, then we found Danny, and I said, Perfect.
GE: What do you credit to your success of becoming the first ever head female writer of SNL?
TF: Well I will say that in twenty years, there hasnt been that many head writers. For a while, there wasnt anybody and then a few would do it for a couple of years. There have only been four or five but I think part of it is that if youre a writer on the show, and theyre looking for a new head writer and are you a successful writer on the show. But another part of it is, Do you have a temperament so that you could be a liaison for other people because you can be a super genius of a comedy writer but be way too much of a nut bird to be a go-between for people.
GE: Max Brooks said that he felt like he didnt fit in anywhere and felt like a nerd.
TF: Max is a nerd. [Laughs] But Ive had a lot of very dear friends to me that didnt fit. I hired a very good friend of mine who I know is a brilliantly funny guy. Part of it is a personality fit and my friend Mike McCullers, who wrote all the Austin Powers movies. Clearly a successful writer. He and I started at the same time. It didnt gel for him. He didnt like it. He left after his first year. Its not for everyone.
Also, when you come in, everyone there is either from Second City, Groundlings, theyre from standup, or theyre from Harvard. If youre not from one of those things, then its hard for you to know where to land. A new Second City person comes, they know all the other Second City people. A new standup comes, they bond over the clubs that they worked. When Mike McCullers came, not only was he not from Harvard; he was from Yale.
GE: How do you rewrite Robert Smigel?
TF: You dont. Hes a maniac. Cant rewrite him at all.
GE: Are there ghost writers on the show?
TF: We have people fax in jokes for Weekend Update and if we use it then we pay them a hundred dollars.
GE: How long do you anticipate staying with the show?
TF: Thirty more years? I dont really know. I dont quite know.
GE: Whos responsible for casting in that Jonathan Bennett looks a lot like Jimmy Fallon?
TF: He does look like a cute Jimmy Fallon! We saw him and then he was another very last minute casting choice. Maybe I just gravitated to him because he looks like Jimmy. Hes foxy.
GE: Therefore Jimmy is foxy?
TF: Jimmys foxy. Of course!
GE: Will Ferrell described SNL as a comedy boot camp. How difficult is it to come up with something new every week without driving yourself crazy?
TF: Its hard. Sometimes, after work, we just finished our 17th show out of 20 for this year, but sometimes if you have an off week when you have nothing, someone will step up because there are 15-20 writers on the show. You dont have to win every week. Its also the more you do it, its like a muscle you build. The more youre writing sketches every time, the easier it gets to do.
GE: Recently, episodes on SNL were really good like Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera
TF: A lot of these young, pop star hosts have worked out really good for us this year. Its all these Mousketeer kids because they did this when they were 4. Ben Affleck, hes like the next Alec Baldwin for us. Hes going to be like Great, have him come back whenever he wants. Weve had some good shows this year.
GE: Did it take you a while to get comfortable in front of the camera?
TF: Probably, a little bit. I just sort of pretend there is no camera and play the live audience because Im not afraid to be on a stage. So I just pretend like Im on stage.
GE: Will there be always be mean girls? Do you think there will be a positive outcome from this?
TF: Id like to think that this film will change the world through DVD rentals. [laughs] But I think its an innate part of women that flares up at different times in their lives. Between this film and what Rosalyn has dedicated her whole to, girls will be able to survive it more easily.
GE: Are you working on another screenplay or are you taking a break?
TF: Im taking a break, Im not working on anything yet. I do want to do another one sometime and Im also going to try to do something for NBC.
GE: Do you know any mean girls now? They do grow up.
TF: Some people definitely dont shake it off. I definitely, in my adult life, have found some but I would have to say that I feel very lucky right now. My lady friends for 12 years all work in the same place.
GE: What do you find funny?
TF: The longer you work in comedy, the less you find funny. You dont find actual prepared comedy that funny very often. You laugh at actual human behavior more.
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...and television would probably be funnier.