Posted by Professor Chaos at c68.112.121.83.stc.mn.charter.com on April 26, 2004 at 12:24:19:
Thought some of you might be interested.
IGN Interviews Tina Fey
We talk one on one with SNL Weekend Update's lead anchor and the writer of the new biting high school social satire, Mean Girls.
April 23, 2004 - Tina Fey has been a writer on Saturday Night Live since 1997. Like many of SNL's writing and performing talents, Fey made her start in Chicago with the renowned Second City comedy troupe. In 1999, Fey became the first female head writer of SNL in the show's 29 years. Two years later, Fey would receive her greatest acclaim as co-anchor of SNL's fake news segment, "Weekend Update."
Fey has become a star with her dry wit and smart-girl good looks. In 2001, along with "Update" co-anchor Jimmy Fallon, Fey was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Entertainers of the Year. Working double duty as continuing head writer on the show, Fey has written such popular sketches as a satire of The View and a skit of particular popularity among New England natives, "Sully and Denise." (Insert Bostonian accent here) Nomaaaaar!!! Fey and the rest of the SNL writing staff took home an Emmy in 2002 and she paired with Rachel Dratch to pen an acclaimed sketch show, Dratch and Fey, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York.
Despite her newfound celebrity status, Fey remains pretty down to Earth. She is married to a guy named Jeff (excellent name choice for a husband) and lives in New York. With Mean Girls, Fey makes her feature film debut.
When I walk into the room to interview Fey, I'm not completely sure what to expect. I am her last interview of the day and sometimes that can mean the subject is a little burnt out. Luckily, the exact opposite is the case. Fey is very friendly and very excited. She promises that, although it will be the last interview of the day for her, she knows it will be the best. I, ahem, have to agree, of course.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IGNFF: Did you have a [Mean Girls' popular girl] Regina George in high school?
TINA FEY: You know, I had girls that were sort of like those Plastics. But, mostly it wasn't even that I, like, talked to them, but they were girls that were just, like, famous within school. You just, for whatever reason, you knew they were better off than you. You just knew everything about them. You knew who they were going out with and you kinda knew, 'Oh, they're wearing a new sweater.' Even though you never talked to them, they were just celebrities within school.
IGNFF: Which category of the queen bees hierarchy were you?
FEY: I think, in terms of the movie, I was somewhere in between the characters of Janice and the mathletes. I was just kind of a, well, not a mathlete, I was sort of an AP nerd and just hung out with my own nerd friends. In terms of, if you look in the book, where she breaks down like queen bee, wannabe, banker, sidekick, I think I was sort of a banker because I was the sort of person where, if there was gossip about someone, I wanted to know all of it in detail and have it, like, at the ready. The one that freely will pass on the gossip if they hear it.
IGNFF: How many of the situations in Mean Girls were based on your own experiences?
FEY: A lot of stuff came from the book, because there are a lot of different anecdotes and real specific things in the book, but a fair amount of it did come from stuff that I remembered and now it's all sort of blended in my brain, but I did have a health teacher that was kind of like the health teacher in the movie. Like, a really poorly informed health teacher. And I had, some of Cady's storyline with Aaron, in terms of her obsessive pursuit of him, was sort of like the fumbling obsessive pursuit that I was trying to do in high school. It never worked out for me. Also, the moment where Regina says to [Cady], 'Oh, you think you're really pretty? Oh, so you agree?' That happened to me once. I got flat out busted when I was a freshman.
IGNFF: Did you base [the character you play in Mean Girls] Ms. Norbury on anyone?
FEY: She's named after one of my favorite teachers in high school, who was my German teacher. This woman, Ms. Norbury, although she wasn't, my character's kind of a mess, going through a divorce. She wasn't anything like that. She was this young kind of very bitter sense of humor teacher and I remember she had the most unusual clothes. She kind of dressed like Charro, actually, because she taught German and she also taught Spanish, so she had a little Spanishy flair.
IGNFF: Are you in touch with her?
FEY: No, I hope she sees it. I hope she's happy about it, because I went back to my old high school recently and I didn't see her. So, I don't know if she wasn't around or maybe she's not at that school anymore. I hope she sees it.
IGNFF: Do you think today's high school kids will "get" the message behind Mean Girls?
FEY: Yeah, I mean... [Laughs] If they're going to want to look and dress like that? I've seen the movie with some test audiences and it seems like, it's funny because, like, 14- [and] 13-year-old girls kind of watch the movie like it's Sophie's Choice or something. They can't believe the drama that is unfolding before them. They're rapt. I think they get because I think it's a little, I think for girls, it's a little close to the bone. It's a little scary, actually.
IGNFF: Do you worry that the film could actually be misinterpreted by teens?
FEY: I wonder. I hope not. I mean, I hope there's enough comedy, first of all, that they'll show up and they'll laugh and then... There's no way of stopping people from thinking that those girls look hot and have cool cars, because they do. But you also sort of see them, you see that they are under this crazy amount of stress. That's one thing in Rosalind Wiseman's book, she talks about how the queen bee girl has a lot to lose. Look at Britney Spears now, where she seems like she's like, 'Aw, I gotta hang on to this. I'm Britney Spears. I've got to stay on top!' It's a lot of pressure to be on top of your game at all times like that. So sometimes the image that they have is larger than the person that they actually are.
IGNFF: How did you first come upon the book ?
FEY: I had read this article about Rosalind in the New York Times magazine and so then I went to Lorne Michaels, but I think between Lorne and Paramount together, we got an advance copy of Rosalind's book and I read it and then I called Rosalind on the phone and I introduced myself and sort of asked for her hand in marriage.
IGNFF: How did she take to the idea?
FEY: She was cool. I mean, we're the same age, and it turned out we actually had some mutual friends and it was a very small world thing. And I said, 'You know, I would like to try to make your book into a movie.' She was reluctant at first because she said she basically wanted me to promise her that I wouldn't take her book and make it into a cheap, dumb, dirty movie; Make fun of it or sell it out. So I promised her that I would try and do a good job.
IGNFF: The film is being compared to Heathers. Was there a concern over going too dark?
FEY: Well, it is, it's sort of a more hopeful Heathers. When I first started working, I watched a whole bunch of teen movies, mostly to make sure I didn't bump into them too hard and inadvertently rip them off by not remembering what was in them. And when I first watched Heathers, I was, like, 'Oh, right. Somebody made this movie already. It was called Heathers.' But Heathers is really dark and stylized and a really great movie, so that made it clear to me that I was like, 'All right. I can't go too dark or stylized, because I'll bump up against Heathers, so the movie's a little more realistic.' I mean, the style of the dialogue is realistic and the tone, as part of my promise to Rosalind, is a little more hopeful.
IGNFF: I heard that [Mean Girls Director] Mark Waters' brother actually wrote Heathers.
FEY: Yeah, isn't that weird. Dan. Yeah, he's a hilarious guy. And I was really psyched [because] he came when we would have table reads, he'd come, because he was [Mark's] brother, and he's basically given us his approval. It meant a lot to me.
IGNFF: Was going for the "R" rating ever considered?
FEY: Well, it's interesting. John Goldman, the guy at Paramount, when I was writing my first draft, he told me, 'Write it the way you want to write it. Don't worry about swearing...' Which is wise, because that first draft, it was so "R" rated. Regina was swearing like a sailor. Just terrible language, and it kind of got it out of my system. Maybe coming from TV, I needed to break free of my chains for a second. And then, by the time we got in the second and third draft, it was like, 'You know, we really do want to try to get a "PG-13" for this movie,' because I wanted girls to be able to see the movie. I wasn't trying to, like, dumb it down necessarily and write it for little girls, but I didn't want them to not be able to see it. Especially with Lindsay in the movie, because Lindsay has a lot of fans and so we went through and cleaned it up. And I sort of felt, 'Yeah, I should be able to, there must be a way to do this without the "F" word.' You're allowed one for a "PG-13" and we ended up going with none.
-© Paramount
IGNFF: Do you think the Regina George type of personality winds up regretful or goes through life with those same blinders on?
FEY: I think it depends on the person. Some people definitely carry that behavior into adult life. It's almost like, someone was saying, what's that saying of, like, 'If you're playing poker and you're trying to figure out who the sucker is in the poker game and you can't find him, it might be you?' So, if you're trying to figure out who the bitch is in the room and you can't find her, it might be you. Because, yeah, I think a lot of people can do that kind of behavior and then you kind of justify it. 'No, I'm in the right because they were nothing [without] me.' And yeah, a lot of people probably never know that that was them. We used to actually have a line in the movie, that will be in the DVD, because it's a deleted scene, where Regina, at the end of the movie, says, 'It is exhausting being me. I'm so tired.'
IGNFF: What else can you tell us about the DVD?
FEY: It's gonna have some really good deleted scenes, because there were a few. Having watched a few DVDs lately, a lot of times the deleted scenes are kind of nothing and there's some good ones on there. Yeah, Mark Waters and Lorne Michaels and I did a commentary the other day. And there's an interview with Rosalind Wiseman and I don't know what else. We shot a bunch of these interstitials for MTV, these commercials for the movie. Hopefully, that will be on there.
IGNFF: How close was Lindsay Lohan to the Cady you envisioned in writing the script?
FEY: She's near about perfect in that I always sort of had this vision of Cady that she had to be this girl that was really beautiful, but kind of didn't know it. And Lindsay's beauty is she's so naturally beautiful that, in that way, she fit it perfectly. And she has a real vulnerability in the movie, but she also seems resilient and strong because, on one hand, you don't want a girl that seemed too fragile, or you'd be worried about her the whole time. And, at the same time, because she's so likable, she can go all the way to being this kind of horrible beeyotch, like, three quarters of the way through the movie, but you still, you just sort of feel like, 'This is this character that I like that's making a mistake right now,' as opposed to turning on her.
IGNFF: Do you plan to write more features?
FEY: I would like to at some point, absolutely. The next thing up on my plate is I owe NBC a pilot and they've been really patient with me, God bless, while I've been finishing up this movie. So that's the next thing I'm going to do.
IGNFF: How much has your life changed since taking over "Weekend Update" on SNL?
FEY: It's been great. I feel like I live every writer's fantasy of being mostly a writer, but getting to be on TV just a little bit to get acknowledgment for being a writer. When I was writing for the show the first four years and I was just so exhausted all the time and would never sleep, I remember the other female writers and myself, we would see the actresses, we would be at the re-write table, and we would see the actresses all dolled up to go to some premiere or something. We'd just be there, like, Cinderella, like toiling away, and just thought, like, 'Oh my God, if I could just have, like...' Every Saturday before the party, the cast members get to have their hair and make-up done for the show. 'If I could just have my hair and make-up done, I'd be so happy. If I could just have my same job, but get free shoes and have my hair done.' It's really great.
-© Paramount
Tim Meadows and Tina Fey in Mean Girls
IGNFF: How much say did Lorne Michaels have in the project?
FEY: He was great. He was a great, sort of, buffer between me and the studio because I really trust him and Paramount really trusts him so, if we'd get studio notes, I could look to him and he would sort of say, 'Yeah, I think this one, they're right, or, no, this one, it's more about a joke, comedy thing, so we'll kind of hold our ground. And he was great in the casting. Because I think casting is one thing that he is very good at as a producer. He kind of finds, myself excluded, he finds stars. The first time he saw Lindsay, we'd watch dailies all the time, he'd be like, 'She's a movie star. She's such a movie star.' Amanda Seyfried had actually come very close to getting the part of Regina. It came down between Rachel and Amanda and Rachel, I think, by virtue of just [looking] more intimidating, and it was Lorne's idea. He's like, 'Well, she's a really good actress and she's really interesting looking. I bet she can handle being Karen.'
IGNFF: Lindsay is hosting SNL on May 1st. Have you guys talked about that at all or do you have any ideas so far?
FEY: She said, she's like, 'What have you written for me?' I'm like, 'Nothing. We do it that week.' There's nothing to tell. She can't believe that we do it on the Tuesday of the week that she's there. I don't know, I was trying to think of some sort of Parent Trap idea, something where she plays twins. I'm sure my friend James is going to want to dress her up like Anne Margaret just for his own fantasy to film it. I think I'm going to probably be on hard-core perv patrol that week with the writers. I'm gonna be walking around going, '17. This lady is 17. Please keep it down. Keep it cool everybody.'