Tina Fey talks about her new TV show after ‘30 Rock’

FEY. Portrays feisty Russian guard in “Muppets Most Wanted.” RUBEN V. NEPALES

LOS ANGELES—“It’s been a very restorative, slowly paced year,” Tina Fey said, looking relaxed indeed one recent Sunday afternoon. “It’s been a little over a year since we stopped ‘30 Rock.’ I did these movies for a few weeks at a time. Then, we started developing the show for Ellie (Kemper). Now, we’re actually about to shoot the pilot.”

That show is “Tooken,” a comedy series being written by Tina and Robert Carlock. The duo, with David Miner, are also producing “Tooken,” where Ellie (Erin in “The Office”) stars as Kimmy, an escapee from a doomsday cult who begins life all over again in New York. Tituss Burgess, who portrayed D’Fwan, a recurring role in “30 Rock,” will essay a gay singer who dreams of starring on Broadway but, in the meantime, is performing as a robot in Times Square. He and Kimmy meet and become friends.

“We’re slowly creeping back into a real work schedule again,” Tina added about her return to NBC, where “30 Rock” ran for seven seasons. “It’s a little daunting this time. The first time is like giving birth—I didn’t know what it was going to be. Now, I kind of know what doing a show entails.”

“Robert and I have written the pilot,” the multihyphenated Tina said. “We have an order of 13 episodes. We’ll certainly supervise and write as much as we can.”
“This new show that we’re writing takes place in New York, partly because we want to continue to live there,” she explained. “It’s a place where you can point a camera anywhere and it’s interesting. People are from every race and class. You can’t really live an isolated life in New York City.”

Asked if she plans to direct, Tina answered, “No, I am not really a director.” She quipped with a grin, “I prefer to be like a presence on the set who can annoy the director, but not have all the responsibilities of one.”

While she’s not in the cast of “Tooken,” Tina welcomes acting jobs as a relief from writing. “Acting feels like a reward that you get for doing the boring, tedious part of writing, because performing is fun—and it’s playtime. Writing is fun when it’s done. It’s not always fun when it’s happening.”

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the hit “Mean Girls,” Tina’s feature film writing debut, where she also acted with Amanda Seyfried, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Amy Poehler. “The movie was inspired by a nonfiction book (‘Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence’) by Rosalind Wiseman,” Tina said.

On how she plans to have a conversation with her older daughter, Alice, 8, someday about the “realities of adolescence,” especially mean girls, Tina replied, “Hopefully, I would use some of those principles that are also in the movie. People say mean things to each other. It’s about them. It’s not really a reflection on you. You have to know who you are. I know that the window of time is coming, and I dread it.” She has another daughter, Penelope, 2, with her husband, Jeff Richmond.

Winking charm

In “Muppets Most Wanted,” Tina plays Nadya, “the feistiest prison guard in Siberia,” with winking charm and a Russian accent. “I weirdly did stuff like that when I was a little kid,” Tina remarked about speaking with an accent. “My first memory of seeing any Muppets was probably seeing Kermit on ‘Sesame Street.’ ‘The Muppet Show’ on TV was a huge deal in my family. It was probably my first exposure to a sketch comedy-variety show.”

Tina’s Nadya, despite the tough exterior, has a secret crush on Kermit. Asked if she has eaten frog’s legs, Tina riposted, “Thank God, I never have—or how would I face Kermit?”

Tina volunteered an anecdote about Kermit. “One of my favorite off-camera moments was with Kermit. We were shooting in Oxfordshire (England). It was very cold outside. It was between set-ups. I looked down on Kermit. With no one watching him, he was going like this (she demonstrated Kermit shivering and rubbing his palms together to keep them warm). I thought that was maybe the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

As for Miss Piggy, Tina’s glamorous diva costar and her character’s rival for Kermit’s heart, Tina dished that she was told which designer she was not allowed to wear to the premiere night. Miss Piggy wanted a certain designer to be exclusive to her. “That’s not even a joke,” Tina said. “That’s true! It’s a very high-end designer I have worn in the past.”

But, Tina conceded that her porcine costar has the edge, style- and fashion-wise. “Even as a kid, I knew I was not as glamorous as Miss Piggy. I knew not even to pretend like I was Miss Piggy.”

For Tina, acting with hand-operated figures felt very natural. She pointed out, “I don’t find it weird at all because moviemaking is already so weird and artificial that you can be in a scene where you are having an intimate conversation in a bed and there’s a guy hanging over you with a camera. It’s not any weirder for the person to be a puppet.”

We especially loved Tina in her song, “The Big House,” because she gamely and charmingly hams it up with Danny Trejo and company, and Josh Groban makes a cameo appearance.

Ricky Gervais, who hosted the Golden Globe Awards until Tina and Amy Poehler came along, is also in the cast as Dominic, Number Two to Constantine, the Number One Criminal and a dead ringer for Kermit.

What did Tina think of Ellen DeGeneres as the host of the recent Oscars? “I thought Ellen was amazing,” Tina said. “The reason that Ellen is such a great Oscars host is because she is so relaxed and comfortable in that room, which is probably the key. When you look at people who are not intimidated by the stars, it makes for a better evening for everyone.”

If the Academy invites her to host the Oscars, will Tina say yes? Tina replied with a smile, “No, I feel like the Academy is going to be like, ‘By the way,’ we’re not asking you.’ That’s like saying if George Clooney wants to marry you, I would be like, ‘I would not.’ But, he’s not asking. But, no, Amy and I have really found our perfect gig!”

E-mail [email protected]. Follow twitter.com/nepalesruben.