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Baby Mama Interview: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

LilSugar — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:00:35 -0700

Baby Mama takes a comedic approach to fertility.

Tina Fey plays a successful businesswoman yearning to have a child. After learning she has a million in one chance of getting pregnant, she finds a surrogacy center and begins the process of finding a baby mama, played by Amy Poehler.

When asked about the research they conducted into birthing centers and natural birth methods, the actresses discussed the experts they had on set:

Tina Fey: We had some experts on set who were wonderful, like very earthy women who came up to me and were like (in a breathy voice), "Are you thinking about having another child now?" and I was like "No," and she was like "You should consider a water birth" and I’m like, "Didn’t you hear the part where I said no!"
Amy Poehler: The same woman was telling pregnant people in like their 9th month . . .
TF: Because a lot of the other women in the class were very, very pregnant . . .
AP: And she was explaining nice ways to make love and the women were like, "Uh, no."
TF: But by the end of it, I did want to have a water birth.
AP: You don't need to have a baby to have a water birth.

To read the rest of the interview, read more.
They were also asked about the stress that new parents face today and the differences that go into raising a city child:

TF: My daughter starts preschool next year so I just went through the process of taking her to her preschool interviews and you are just hoping "Please don’t poop yourself during that time."
AP: Did she wear a little power suit?
TF: Yeah, she had a little power suit!
AP: And did she have a teeny tiny brief case?
TF: She had little teeny tiny resumes.
AP: Made of candy!
TF: Yeah, she ate it. That you don’t find in the suburbs.
AP: Yeah I like that moment [in the film] where they say Wingspan and Banjo do you want to play with Groovy and Cheyenne?

Given Fey’s decision to give her daughter a traditional name Alice, we asked the women about Hollywood’s penchant for giving their children odd names:

TF: I like interesting names. My daughter’s middle name is sort of unusual, but they are all family names. I think that when you have a kid you have to try to think that when this child is an adult, how is this name going to suit the person. I like the name Apple.
AP: I’m just gonna name my kids numbers. New Dude, Little Dude, and eight George Foremans.

With Knocked Up and Juno having already covered pregnancy over the past year, the women were also asked why Hollywood is giving pregnancy so much attention:

TF: I think it is a universal experience and there may be a generation of comedy writers that are hitting that age where they all have kids and the guys would have written their dating fantasy comedies 15 years ago. People write what they know and it might be a generational thing.
AP: I think that Juno is very different from Knocked Up and our film is very different from that too. They’re all kind of different. Although they all tend to deal with a similar topic that’s really where it ends. But I think that our film is in the same way as Knocked Up it's just kind of straight up . . . with jokes.

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Pop Preview: Baby Mama

PopSugarUK — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0700

First things first, Baby Mama ain't rocket science. And why should it be? It's a likeable, smile-inducing comedy with a couple of super-talented ladies at the helm: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Tina plays Kate Holbrook, a woman at the top of her game professionally, but slightly less so personally. Babies haunt her: everywhere she turns, there's a baby... it's kinda scary. But "I just don't like your uterus" says her doctor, and she's told she's unable to have a child herself. Enter hard up Angie (Poehler), who rents out her womb to Kate in return for a dollop of cash for her and on-again off-again man Carl (Dax Shepard). After their relationship flips to off again, Angie moves in with Kate and the fun begins!

Angie has many many less social graces than control-freak Kate, causing all kinds of awkwardness and a couple of gross-out moments, but despite all that they gradually become genuinely believable friends. The friendship between the two of them is one of the main draws of the movie for me.

To find out what I thought of the supporting cast including Steve Martin, and what I thought could have been better, just read more

The supporting characters are all great too. First off, Steve Martin is absolutely wonderful as Kate's insane boss. His long grey ponytail and rewards for his staff (for example, five minutes worth of uninterrupted eye contact) are worth the ticket price alone. Another awesome supporting player is Romany Malco – who plays Kate's doorman and kills with every line he has, as well as providing a refreshing outside voice of reason at a couple of points. Greg Kinnear is likeable and mostly charming as Kate's love interest, and Angie's birthing coach (Siobhan Fahen) brings in some consistent laughs.

Now for the slight negatives: I found Angie to be a bit of an inconsistent character, flitting between being pretty trashy, then all of a sudden becoming normal and nice, before flicking straight back to trashy next time she appeared onscreen. A fair few of the jokes fell pretty flat in the screening I attended too, but there are certainly enough aces to make it worth your while. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are without a doubt two talented comediennes, I loved Fey's Mean Girls and am looking forward to Poehler's new TV series too.

All in all, this is a refreshing movie. It's not all about a girl/guy relationship, or boys being boys – which seems to be the basis of so many funny movies these days. Sex And The City proved that female focused movies can bring in the audiences, and seeing two talented, hot and smart women provide a female alternative to the predominantly male "buddy comedy" is great because it works. It's funny... however I can't help but think that if Fey had scripted it (as she did Mean Girls) it would have been even funnier!

Baby Mama is out on Friday in the UK.

Tina Fey's Baby Girl

PopSugar — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:04:21 -0700

Tina Fey's Baby Girl
Tina and SNL composer husband, Jeff Richmond, had a 5lbs, 5 ounces little girl this weekend. The child's name is Alice. Finally, a normal baby name. Congrats to the happy family.

Baby Mama Interview: Michael McCullers

LilSugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 08:00:23 -0700

What's a man know about being a baby mama?

A lot if you're Michael McCullers, the father of three who wrote and directed the must see movie that hits theaters Friday.

Having previously written Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember, McCullers met with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who he worked with at Saturday Night Live to brainstorm ideas for a film they could work on together. When Fey mentioned that she would like to make a modern day version of the Diane Keaton film Baby Boom, the group developed the idea of a surrogate pregnancy and the story was hatched.

To see how a man was able to delve into the minds of expectant mothers, read more.

Since he had two children at home and another on the way, McCullers had plenty of crazy pregnancy stories to write into the script. His initial drafts of the film were fine-tuned by Fey and Poehler to ensure that their characters accurately reflected the personalities of an expectant yuppie mom and her less classy surrogate.

Knowing that people would question the idea of a man writing about pregnancy and babymaking, McCullers addressed the question directly:

Am I the best person to write and direct that idea, being a guy? Although I am not a baby-crazed woman, I do live with a baby-crazed woman, which helped. My wife is one of these women who knew early on that she wanted kids. At that point we already had two kids and during the course of the movie we were actually trying to have a third and ended up having a baby while the movie was shooting. So I did have a pregnant wife at home [and] it helped me relate, though I didn’t see her very much.

I’m in my 30s and I’ve started to know a lot of women who are dealing with infertility. All of the sudden infertility and who can have a baby and who can’t has become a big issue with a lot of people in my life. And although there is a lot of anger and emotion that comes with that, there is, at least with the people I know, a lot of humor and funny stuff that goes with it.

Given the sometimes derogatory definition of the term “baby mama,” McCullers also discussed his decision to use the term for the movie’s title:

I saw that phrase migrating into the greater popular culture. People Magazine and Page Six and everyone sort of uses the term baby mama now. Its almost [gone] from unwed mother of your child to just the mother of a child. You know, they’ll say Tom Cruise’s baby mama or whatever, in US Weekly and it seems to be entering into pop culture. And I liked the way it sounded and looked.

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Countdown to Baby Mama!

LilSugar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:00:40 -0700

Baby mama drama makes for great comedy.

As Buzz mentioned, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are co-starring in Baby Mama, a hysterical new movie about motherhood that opens Friday.

An updated, female version of the Odd Couple, the flick revolves around Fey's character - a 37-year-old organic food executive who yearns for a baby - and her unemployed, junk food-eating surrogate that Poehler portrays.

The movie makes the most of the mama-to-be moments from Lamaze classes to baby-proofing and test-driving top-of-the line strollers.

I attended the Baby Mama press junket where Fey, Poehler, Sigourney Weaver and writer and director, Michael McCullers dished about making the film. This week we'll be running all the tidbits, so tune in tomorrow to see what funny women Fey and Poehler had to say. In the meantime to check out the trailer, read more.

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Baby Mama Brings Out Comedic Heavy Hitters

Molly — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:04:00 -0700

It was quite the little SNL reunion at last night's Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Baby Mama. The movie's leading ladies, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were joined with late night alums like Jimmy Fallon, Rachel Dratch, Chris Kattan, Molly Shannon, not to mention the producer Mr. Lorne Michaels himself. Hey, anywhere Steve Martin and Will Arnett party looks fun to me. I can't wait to see this one and it sounds like you're all on the same page. In the meantime, check out (lucky!) Lil's interview with hilarious Amy and Tina - I especially love the mini power suits and possible baby names - as well as the movie's director/writer Michael McCullers. Love those ladies.

To see more from the premiere including Robert De Niro, Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Chevy Chase, Seth Green, Romany Malco, and many others just read more

View 42 Photos ›

Images include: Faye Dunaway, Maggie Grace, Robert De Niro, Grace Hightower De Niro, Judah Friedlander, Brian Williams, Fred Armisen, Chris Kattan, Siobhan Fallon, Justin Theroux, Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Holland Taylor, Annabella Sciorra, Padma Lakshmi, Sigourney Weaver, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Will Arnett, Steve Martin, Rachel Dratch, Molly Shannon, Lorne Michaels, Chevy Chase, Seth Green, Romany Malco, Taryn Takha, Jimmy Fallon

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Baby Mama Reminds Me Everyone Loves Karaoke Revolution

GeekSugar — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0700

I managed to sneak in a screening of Baby Mama this weekend and was reminded that Karaoke Revolution is a universal crowd pleaser. Without giving away any pivotal plot points of the movie I can reveal that Amy Poehler's character, the not-so-worldly Angie who Tina Fey's character Kate hires to carry her baby, spends ample time in Kate's apartment sharpening her Karaoke Revolution skills. The habit annoys Kate at first but eventually brings the two together when they join forces for a wicked "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" performance.

To find out why I thought it was such a funny scene, read more.

Tina Fey's character "masters" the game by singing in an awful voice, but completely on key. It's pure, painful karaoke entertainment at its best. According to the video game cheat code experts, you can master the game by singing the right songs. Apparently, "More Than a Feeling" gets you five platinum records for five songs, while "What Is Love" gets you 10 platinum records for 10 songs. I'm no cheater, but karaoke can get pretty competitive . . .

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Steve Martin is a Top Movie Dad

PopSugar — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:46:01 -0700

Steve Martin may not be at the forefront of the gossip world but that doesn't mean we can't give him a little bit of Sugar love! Buzz named Steve one of their Top 10 Movie Dads and we're totally psyched to see he's doing a new film with one of our favorite ladies of comedy, Tina Fey. This week he and Tina were caught goofing around on the set of their latest film Baby Mama. In the movie Tina plays a single career woman who hires a surrogate mother (Amy Poehler) to have her baby so she won't have to take a break from work. Sounds like something those SNLers will make hilarious.

View 4 Photos ›

Bauer-Griffin

Women Buy Time by Freezing Their Eggs

LilSugar — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:32:18 -0700

The May issue of Marie Claire has babies covered, from Baby Mama star and real-life mom Tina Fey on the cover to a firsthand account of egg banking inside.

In a steady relationship but not ready to have children, writer Sarah Elizabeth Richards bought herself some time and peace of mind by freezing her eggs.

As she approached her 37th birthday, Sarah spent her $13,000 savings to do so. She wrote:

"For once, I didn't have to be that anxious girl trying to beat some fertility expiration date anymore. I could simply admire a baby and wonder what mine would look like someday, the way I used to before the biological clock started."

For information and pictures, read more.

Approximately 220 American clinics now offer egg freezing, though the process is still new, as only about 500 babies have been born of it. For more information on egg banking, check out the latest issue of Marie Claire.

What's your opinion on this practice?

Photos by Erin Patrice O'Brien

View 2 Photos ›

Baby Mama Interview: Sigourney Weaver

LilSugar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:00:13 -0700

Working girl Sigourney Weaver plays Chaffee Bicknell, the head of the surrogacy firm in Baby Mama.

Though Weaver only shares a few scenes with the film’s stars, her presence is felt throughout the film.

To read more about her role and how her experience as an older mom influenced the movie, read more.

Weaver plays a smart, motivated woman who has the enviable ability, unlike her clients, to easily get pregnant. The actress entered motherhood at the age of 40.

While “older moms” are common these days, they were not the norm 18 years ago. Weaver said:

I remember when I was carrying my daughter they referred to me as an elderly prima pare, or something like that, and the word elderly stuck out. And I felt, you know, phew, I had her just in time before I turned into a pumpkin or something. And I actually think the film will help surrogate motherhood get a different exposure. I really do believe what my character says that there is no wrong way to have a family as long as the welfare of the child and the health of everybody is kept in mind.

She also discussed why all women will relate to this movie:

One of the things I admire about the movie is that there are things included in it that are true and really humiliating for women. Like the doctor who says your uterus is upside down or it is shaped like a shoe or your eggs have crossed eyes or whatever awful things they say to you. You are by yourself and you go, ‘Well this isn’t really funny and this is heartbreaking.’ So they really brought in this whole experience and gave us a great chance to laugh about it. I think it really is a great gift to audiences because so many people have been through this.

Weaver also provided insight on the ways parenthood has changed from generation to generation and how satisfying it is to be a working woman:

I think that parenthood in the last 25 years has changed . . . I think in the old days women stayed home and children were left to their own devices to grow up. There wasn’t this intense focus on the child and the development of the child and doing the homework. My parents never really did homework with me, my G-d! So I just think that our focus on children includes my generation as a parent.

I guess the big challenge for a mother is that if you are a working woman there are these separations that you have to deal with. Once a child gets older they are much harder on the mother than they are on the child. But I think that the good thing is that the child grows up knowing that work is something that’s desirable, fun, exciting, stimulating, not just something you have to do. So I think it was interesting to try to go back and forth. I definitely think that motherhood was the most satisfying job that I had. My daughter’s going off to college so I don’t know what I’ll do with myself it will be so quiet and neat at home!