Tina Fey Isn't Worried About Causing Controversy: "Getting in Trouble With the Internet Is Not Real"

"If a person exists, it's fair game," Sisters star insists in new interview with The Advocate

By Rebecca Macatee Nov 16, 2015 8:59 PMTags
30 ROCK, Tina Fey, Best TV QuotesAli Goldstein/NBC

Keep on waving those pitchforks behind the lights of your screens—Tina Fey's not afraid!

In a recent interview with The Advocate, the Sisters star explained simply, "I don't worry about what the Internet says. Getting in trouble with the Internet is not real. The Internet is not a force you have to obey."

These remarks came in response to criticism that Titus, a character on Tina's Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, was "a gay stereotype." But as Tina explained, she's known people "like Titus" IRL.

Eric Liebowitz/Netflix

"If a person exists, it's fair game," she said. "Titus makes Barbie clothes, for example, and that's based on an old gay friend of mine who worked as a cater-waiter when he first moved to New York. He was too broke to go out, so he'd literally sit inside and sew Barbie clothes to kill time. I try to base everything in some kind of truth."

She went on to explain that she realizes "there's no consideration of context in comedy these days." But, as she told The Advocate, "There's also a dangerous desire to silence people when they say something you don't like. If someone has a crazy opinion, I would prefer they let me hear it so that I can disagree and know who I'm dealing with."

One person Tina's always liked dealing with? BFF and frequent collaborator Amy Poehler. What makes their "womance" (a term coined by The Advocate, which we intend to borrow) work, Tina explained, "is that from the moment we met each other in Chicago in 1992, we've had tremendous respect for each other."

Paul Drinkwater/NBC

"We started on the same improv team, and we were put together like two beautiful baby lions in a cage who miraculously did not have the impulse to eat each other," she continued. "What makes it great now is that the only time we see each other is when we work on things—hosting the Golden Globes, doing Sisters—so those experiences are exciting and fun. We're both thrilled to be there, and hopefully that's reflected in the work."

Don't expect the dream team to do any kind of long-term collaborations, though. "[Amy] and I haven't really talked about this, but I don't know if we could ever do a series together," Tina told The Advocate. "We're both alphas who like to do our own thing and then meet up occasionally."

Fair enough. Fortunately for us, we can see Tina and Amy together in the upcoming movie Sisters, which hits theaters Dec. 18.