You both write as well as perform your material, but you don't have writing credits on "Baby Mama." Does that mean your input on the film was more scene-to-scene?
Fey: I think it went how we wanted it, which was, like, he did all the story breaking and heavy lifting and writing the actual movie. And then he let us improvise our dialogue a little bit. If we had a joke, he would add it.
Poehler: Weirdly, I'm gonna get a "head of the studio" credit. I forgot to tell you.
Fey: I got "craft services removal"? Is that because I ate a lot?
"Baby Mama" is a breakout role for you, Amy, where we see your chops in more than five-minute bursts of wacky sketches. With Tina on "30 Rock," you've both now had to go from being funny in five-minute spurts to playing more real and three-dimensional characters.
Poehler: It involves commitment rather than commenting, and really trying and not being afraid to be caught trying. All those bad habits you can pick up when you're always on the outside of doing something. Every comedian -- at least me, I'll speak for myself -- wants to be considered an actor. . . . I've kind of played arch characters that come in and try to be kind of crazy and leave. So I was excited to actually hunker down a little bit. "Feel the Earth," as my yoga teacher would say.
That's what was such a revelation about seeing Steve Carell in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." You loved him as a correspondent on "The Daily Show" but were you really going to be able to care about him for 90 minutes?
Fey: Amy and I saw Steve onstage at Second City before he ever went to "The Dana Carvey Show," and I felt like I knew -- wait until people really see what this guy can do. He was so brilliant, and it was kind of fun just to watch it unfold, he has such a warmth to him. I thought he was just so great in "40-Year-Old Virgin" because had such vulnerability and warmth and pathos. Maybe part of it too is knowing going into this that our job was to try to be real people.
Poehler: As the film goes on, you start deciding what the character would and wouldn't do. Because in comedy sometimes everyone ends up talking like the writer.
You're both in your late 30s but really now hitting your stride. Is being funny the key for a woman to survive a show business career where 32 is otherwise over the hill?
Poehler: If I could be where I'm at but back it up five years, I'd be psyched. . . . But, however, if this kind of stuff had happened to me when I was 26, I don't know if I'd be able to.
