Ordinarily, The Edit’s editorials are some of my favorites of all the fashion magazines, but I kind of hate this Tina Fey photoshoot. The vibe is very “aging socialite in her gilded apartment,” and if it was being done ironically, for humor, it would have been cool. But they just did it as a straight fashion shoot and it doesn’t work. So, I was prepared to not like anything about this, but as it turns out, Tina’s interview is amazing! The thing about Tina Fey is that my default setting is “I love her” but every now and then, I do wonder if it’s possible that Tina is overrated. And then an interview like this comes along and I remember: “Oh, yeah. She’s really cool.” It’s not that she’s the most quotable person or that she’s some amazing truth-teller, but she’s just honest, self-aware, hard-working, and concerned about what values she’s passing on to her daughters. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Beauty versus humor: “For me it was about hitting age 13 and realizing, ‘OK, I’m not going to glide by on looks. I’m a normal-looking person, but that’s not going to be where my bread is buttered.’ The desire to be funny – because you are never actually quite sure if you really are funny – is a coping mechanism, another way of ingratiating yourself. But when you’re 13 and trying to be funny around boys, you end up mocking them and it backfires. You terrify them.”
Her daughters, Alice (10) & Penelope (4): “My daughters will tell you that I’m exceedingly dull – the fourth funniest person in the family. My four-year-old is rivaling my husband for first place at this point. The ability to be very cutting that I have – to size someone up and think, ‘This would hurt you, if I said this’ – she has it already at four. And it’s shocking to me. I secretly regard it as a sign of great intelligence, but it’s something that must be managed.”
The Real Housewives: “Sometimes I like to watch those Real Housewives TV shows, and Alice will be there and I’ll say, ‘See how these ladies have put all this goop in their face, isn’t that funny? That’s silly, right? Why would they do that?’ And that is hopefully going to be the thing that keeps me from doing it.”
Tina was always the Mean Girl: “I was, I admit it openly. That was a disease that had to be conquered. It’s another coping mechanism – it’s a bad coping mechanism – but when you feel less than (in high school, everyone feels less than everyone else for different reasons), in your mind it’s a way of leveling the playing field. Though of course it’s not. Saying something terrible about someone else does not actually level the playing field. If I meet a girl of 14 or 15 today who is that kind of girl, I am secretly, in my body, afraid. Even though I’m 45.”
Famous for nothing: “I try to show Alice and Penelope patience and generosity – patience I fall short on – and that they can be working women and have a family. And yet – I joke about this with my husband – we spend so much time in front of them complaining – ‘I wish I didn’t have to go back to work’; ‘I’m so mad I have to work tonight’ – that I feel like inadvertently they’re going to be layabouts on government assistance. When Alice was small, I would bring her to the 30 Rock set because I wanted to show her why being famous is the least important part of anything; it’s a by-product. The making of a story, creating characters, building sets – these are the really cool parts. Because this society is raising children who want to be famous for nothing, to just have followers.”
Body hair: “Body hair is a constant annoyance. Mostly I just let it be. Until I have to go into a professional situation and then I have to shave from head to toe.”
The internet: “Steer clear of the internet and you’ll live forever. We did an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episode and the internet was in a whirlwind, calling it ‘racist’, but my new goal is not to explain jokes. I feel like we put so much effort into writing and crafting everything, they need to speak for themselves. There’s a real culture of demanding apologies, and I’m opting out of that.”
She also had nice stuff to say about working with Alec Baldwin and what kind of great “old Hollywood” advice he gave to her on the set. She’s also an old-school fan of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and she says Thom Filicia decorated her apartment. That alone would be a show worth watching: Tina Fey and Thom Filicia decorating something together. I would totally watch that. As for everything else… I love that she admits that she was the Mean Girl, and that it was a defense mechanism when she was younger. I love what she says about her daughters and showing them what work looks like. Tina is great!
Photos courtesy of Sebastian Kim/The Edit.
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