Tina Fey Talks Whiskey Tango FoxtrotPosted by Wilson Morales
March 3, 2016
Coming out this week is Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, starring Tina Fey, Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, Billy Bob Thornton, Christopher Abbot, and Josh Charles.
Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa from a script by Robert Carlock, the film is an adaptation of journalist Kim Barker’s wartime memoir The Taliban Shuffle, which the dark comedy recounts Barker’s experiences covering conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan, her fish-out-of-water experience and the challenges of being a woman in wartime Afghanistan and Pakistan.
For Fey, this is considered her first non-comedic leading role and after doing “Sisters” last year, it’s a change of pace for her career.
At a recent press conference promoting the film, she talked about her experience on the film.
Was it scary for you to know that this role had quite a bit of drama in it, that there wouldn’t be a joke waiting for you at the end of a line of dialogue? And how did you find out about Kim’s story?
Tina Fey: Well, first I found out about the book because, I think it was the Times review where I was like “this is like a Tina Fey character,” and because I’m an egomaniac and a moron, that really spoke to me.
So I got hold of the book that way. Love the book, found it so – you know, for me, when you look at something like that, when you read a book for enjoyment it’s one thing, when you read a book also thinking could this be a movie, when you see things, events, moments, that to me were so fascinating and strange and funny, and cinematic I hoped, so I definitely thought it really should be a movie and took it to Loren Michaels and to Robert, who I thought would be really well qualified to try to adapt it. And then in terms of yeah, whether it’s drama or not, I think, you know, again, the book is funny and I think no life experience is wholly dramatic. In real life, people in the most dire situations must cope through humor and find humor in these things, and so I thought there was a real honestly that way in the book and the hope was that you just see how you try to perform honestly and where there are jokes or not, it’ll be fine.
War comedies seemed like a dead genre, despite our country being at war now for quite some time. Talk about the challenges of making a movie with comedy and heart that is set in a warzone and you know, the inevitable comparisons to classic comedies like M.A.S.H.
TF: Right, there actually are so many great war comedies. And this movie at its core I think is a human story, it’s about relationships, it’s not political, it’s not Dr. Strangelove, right, it’s about this woman who’s sort of making a choice to blow up her existing life and go on this adventure, for lack of a better word. And so for me it was about like these people and these relationships, and maybe it was just not knowing better to know that this is a genre we weren’t supposed to be trying to touch.
It didn’t seem hard at all until now when you go to try to like sell it to people, like maybe we should say that the vehicles transform to robots, and then they fight each other. And listen, you’re going to be halfway through the film before you realize that that didn’t actually happen. [LAUGHS]
Can you talk about playing the principle role and producing at the same time?
TF: Yeah. Well, for the first part, I would say that, you know, to be a producer at the same time, you have to work with people that you trust and who are doing their jobs well enough that you’re not on the day thinking about – you’re just trying to think about what you have to do that day, and not be like, are we gonna make, uh, how many pages we got today? Like, you’re not thinking about that. And film especially, even more than television, you hire directors to make the movie, it’s their movie, more than anyone else’s, once you’re there on the day. So that’s okay.
I enjoyed the scene between Kim and Fahim where you guys sort of went your separate ways and he was pretty much implying that you’re like getting very high off of the idea of living this life of constant danger. What was shooting that scene like? And at some point did Kim finally realize that Fahim was right the entire time?
TF: Yes, I think she definitely does, and I think in that moment she’s sort of suspecting that he’s right. I mean, a scene like that is a pleasure to shoot because I knew that Robert had written this beautiful monologue for Chris Abbott, and Chris Abbott is so good, he’s so good, that as the other actor in that scene, it’s just – all you have to do is listen to him and react to him and he’s doing such beautiful work and the words are so great that it was, I mean, like a great scene to shoot, for me, ‘cause he’s doing all the heavy lifting and doing such a good job. So I think it’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie also, and yeah, so it’s really sort of summing up a lot of what the whole movie is about, is like you’re getting addicted to this lifestyle and it’s dangerous and I don’t want to be a part of this anymore. Yeah, he’s real good.
Can you talk about working with such a great supporting cast like Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, the other ones?
TF: Yeah. I mean, for me, it was just so educational, and to get to work with Martin and Alfred and Billy Bob and Margot, you know, these people that I really, really admire in other roles, you just try to keep up with them, you know, you just try to – it’s like playing tennis with someone who’s a much better tennis player. You just like hope that your game comes up a little bit. Don’t you think?
Trailer 1
Trailer 2
