During Tribeca TV, Tuca & Bertie had its premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival at Spring Studio.
Tiffany Haddish stars in the Netflix adult animated comedy series Tuca & Bertie created by BoJack Horseman animator Lisa Hanawalt. The show is about the friendship between two 30-year-old bird women who live in the same apartment building: Tuca (Tiffany Haddish), a cocky, care-free toucan, and Bertie (Ali Wong), an anxious, daydreaming songbird.
BlackFilm spoke to showrunner/creator Lisa Hanawalt and star Tiffany Haddish at the premiere.
BlackFilm: Can you talk about your series? What was it like for you to be part of this on Netflix?
Lisa Hanawalt: It is so great creating my first series for Netflix. I just really wanted to make a show about female friendship. Between two women in their thirties.
BlackFilm: How did you approach Tiffany Haddish to be not only a part of the project? But also one of the producers?
Lisa Hanawalt: We asked Tiffany pretty early on. I had watched Girls Trip. And when I was watching it. I was like. “Omigod…she’s such a Tuca. She’s perfect.” So we asked her and then we went about finding a Bertie. Ali Wong was just perfect. She had the best audition. And the two of them had great chemistry together.
BlackFilm: So, it’s an animated series. But the dialogue is true to the experiences of the women. How did you decide to do that approach? To have it where it is not a conventional series? A lot of people when they think about an animated series they think it would be for kids. But this is a very contemporary and modern take on women and their experiences. How did you decide to do that?
Lisa Hanawalt: I really love adult animation. I’ve loved it my whole life, but there isn’t a whole lot out there about women and our experiences. So I was really just making a show that I want to see personally.
BlackFilm: Do you have any other projects other than this?
Lisa Hanawalt: I’m still working on Bojack Horseman. We’re working on Season 6 right now.
BlackFilm: How did you give input into your character?
Tiffany Haddish: Well, I read the script and they wrote it for me. It’s pretty much like me and I said okay. I didn’t say like. “Now, I’m going to be…” I didn’t do all of that.
BlackFilm: Did you give any input into some of the story lines?
Tiffany Haddish: I didn’t have to give any input into the storyline. I just came in there, did my thing and cracked a little few extra jokes. I saw the jokes that they had. I dropped a few jokes that were somewhat like that joke and let it go.
BlackFilm: The creator said that because she saw Girls Trip and your performance in that movie. That is why she selected you and thought you were the perfect woman to portray the character.
Tiffany Haddish: She wrote that woman a lot like me.
BlackFilm: What can we expect from the season?
Tiffany Haddish: You can expect a lot of laughs. And you can expect to pee on yourself a little bit. Because you are gonna laugh.
BlackFilm: Are you going to do a Girls Trip 2? There were rumors about a sequel.
Tiffany Haddish: I would love for that to happen. I’m praying on that.
BlackFilm: Do you have any other projects as well?
Tiffany Haddish: Girl, yeah I’ve got a gang of projects. Google me. I’m out here winning! My knees hurt. That’s how hard I’m winning. I gotta go sit my ass down. Thank you boo.
Tuca & Bertie is now streaming on Netflix.
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