Just a Minute: Tina Fey says she's not political
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - U.S. comic writer and actress Tina Fey was criticized after segments on the television show "Saturday Night Live" were seen as favoring Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
But the creator and star of the award-winning sitcom "30 Rock" said that although she does not think of herself as political, she wondered if her political humor on "Saturday Night Live" had caused her any damage.
Fey, 37, who stars in her first major film role in "Baby Mama," which opens in the United States on Friday, talked to Reuters about surrogacy, sperm banks and comedy.
Q: People are talking about your rising star and how huge you are at the moment.
A: "Especially from behind."
Q: Your new film addresses surrogate mothers. Would you ever consider this?
A: "It is incredibly generous and I don't know if I would have it in me. Also nobody would want me. I am high risk. I am 37."
Q: What about sperm banks? If you were not married with a two-year-old daughter but single or having trouble getting pregnant, would you consider that?
A: "I don't know. Sperm bank or just bother some of your gay friends. I don't know what the best way would be."
Q: Hillary Clinton recently cited "Saturday Night Live" in a presidential debate and you have received criticism for being pro-Hillary on that show, how do you react to that?
A: "That was a campaign that anything that even resembled good news, at that time, they were going to embrace it. All weekend we have been asked, do you think comedy shows influence the election?"
"The best example I can give of how we don't -- I don't think we actually change anybody's mind going into a voting booth -- is that I would say this past year there has been no one more charming and funny and who has great timing on all these kind of comedy talk shows than Mike Huckabee. When you see that guy you're like, I like that guy, I'm not going to vote for him, but I like him. He was really funny, he has got great timing, but he was not going to be president. People know the difference."
Q: So you are not a politically conscious entertainer. You are not like, say, George Clooney?
A: "I wish I was, in so many ways."
Q: But are you political at all?
A: "No."
Q: Is it just for the purposes of comedy then?
A: "Yeah I think it is, because I came up in Chicago in improv comedy where you are sort of taught to start with what is going on in the world and work from there to develop material. I think I am more interested in the sociopolitical than the actual."
Q: Who is funnier, Americans or Brits?
A: "There are certain pockets of people that are very funny. Native New Yorkers, the English, expat Canadians, Canadians that have left the country. Germans. Ah no, not Germans."
Q: What would your trademark be if it wasn't your glasses?
A: "If I didn't wear these glasses as a trademark, people would notice my trademark mustache. They are designed to draw the eye up away from my trademark mustache."
Q: How would you describe yourself these days?
A: "Tired. Always a little tired. Weirdly I would say the word obedient comes to mind. Conscientious obedience."
Q: In what way?
A: "In whatever way, whoever is my boss I want to please them. Whatever the rules are I embrace them. I enforce them."
(Editing by Patricia Reaney)
