Amy Poehler Q&A
The woman who brought Hillary Clinton, Dakota Fanning, Nancy Grace, Michael Jackson, Kelly Ripa and Britney Spears to life on 'Saturday Night Live' has a new gig -- on primetime TV.
On NBC's 'Parks and Recreation,' Amy Poehler plays Leslie Knope, a low-level government employee in Pawnee, Ind. Shot documentary-style like another NBC Thursday-night show ('Parks' comes from the producers of 'The Office'), it takes viewers inside the minutiae of politics as seen through the eyes of the incredibly naïve Knope.
AOL TV got the exclusive scoop from Poehler on the buzzed-about show and her new castmates, her dish on pal Tina Fey, funny hubby Will Arnett, their new baby and -- Oprah would be so proud -- her vision boards. -- By Maggie Furlong
NBC
1. We've all seen the previews, but can you give me the basic gist of the show?
It's a character comedy about people that work in a very, very low position in the local government that does not have a lot of power -- parks and recreation -- and I play Leslie Knope, a deluded optimist who overpromises in episode 1 that she's gonna build a park for the community, and she realizes very soon that it's gonna be much harder than she thought. [Laughs] She literally gets in over her head, physically and socially, very early on.
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2. She's a lot like Tracy Flick from 'Election' ...
Yeah, she's kind of like a school monitor, but very ambitious. She's smart, but she's not savvy and, you know, they're two very different things. Leslie has all the facts and she follows all the rules, but she's not a good communicator. There's nothing cool about her. She's like a big-hearted dork in a lot of ways, so it's been really fun to play -- she's the kind of woman who doesn't have the skills to let a guy know that she likes him, and she doesn't know how to play it cool. She realizes that to get things done, she has to kind of learn how to do that and so we follow her along on that journey a little bit.
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3. Do you think that people are going to latch onto her like they have with Michael Scott on 'The Office,' Mike Schur and Greg Daniel's other show?
Well, you know I think at the end of the day it'll just be ... if you think the show's funny and you like the characters. Certainly Mike Schur and Greg Daniels have such an esteemed body of work, and I'm such a fan of their tone and the stuff that they write. So I think at the end of the day you'll just judge it independently and kind of decide if you want to watch these people every week.
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4. But with Leslie, she obviously shoots big and aims high ...
Sure, this is a stepping stone ... you know, Leslie has a life plan. In one episode, she explains she'll be city council by 30, city manager by 40, a lieutenant governor by 45, then the governor dies, she takes over, she's the governor for a while, she balances the budget, she addresses the national convention. She's just got all this stuff in mind, so she's really ambitious, and she's got a lot of big plans.
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5. Do you think you're like that at all? Like, "I'm gonna be wildly famous by the time I'm 25 years old."
[Laughs] Oh, my room is filled with vision boards! Oh, I'm lousy with vision boards. [Laughs] I'd like to think that I'm much more realistic than Leslie. I feel like she has so many things that she does in the show that I love because she just kind of announces a lot of things and kind of presents these things that you're like, "Oh no ... oh no, that was a terrible mistake." So no, I don't think I'm much like her, but I adore her, and I think she's super fun to play because she's like any good comic character: She's deluded and kind of an insecure narcissist. [Laughs]
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6. You were attached to do the show long before anyone knew what it was -- did you have a lot of say in what the show was going to be about?
Well, Mike Schur developed the show and came to me having already thought about the world it was going to be in and who Leslie may be. I got to speak to him and collaborate with him a little bit about who she was, but I have to say that the idea of Leslie working where she was and the people, that was formed by Greg and Mike early on. And all the stuff about what it was going to be, it wasn't so much trying to be coy or secretive --everybody was just busy writing! It's good to be surprised.
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Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images
7. The cast is awesome ...
Aubrey [Plaza]'s hilarious in ['The Jeannie Tate Show'] -- and she's amazing on our show. So Aubrey and Aziz [Ansari] I knew from [Upright Citizens Brigade], and Rashida [Jones] I've known forever, and she's a very good friend of mine. Nick Offerman I knew really well, and he's terrific, and then I got to meet Chris Pratt and Paul Schneider, who are great actors and funny guys and great to work with. I mean, maybe everybody says this, but this time I'm not lying ... everybody's really as nice as they are funny, and it's really a fun group ... Aziz and I spend a lot of time together, and in the show we share an office. Aziz plays a guy, Tom Haverford -- he's as smooth as Leslie is awkward, but he and I get to do a lot of stuff together, and it's super fun.
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8. There was a story about test audiences not responding well to initial screenings of the show -- is that feedback something you listen to?
Well, as you know -- and maybe people are savvy enough to know this -- but early testing stuff, when it's done by people, your cut has changed 20 times. And you take some of it and learn from it and sometimes you don't. So it's not so helpful to read what everybody thinks it's going to be or not be. I just try to keep my head down and focus on doing the show, and it's been easy because we've been working really hard, and I'm really proud of the stuff that we've done. Right now we've just finished episode 3, and we're getting ready to start episode 4, and then we'll be done with our sixth the week after the premiere, so we're just kind of blazing through it.
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9. This role is continuing your beautiful parallel career with Tina Fey. You're both brilliant, fabulous women, and hilarious. Are you guys trying to take over Hollywood?
[Laughs] Well, you know, it's funny. I mean, there are certainly many other men who are in films and television at the same time, but maybe there's just not as many of us funny ladies, so people are always asking us about the other one, which is fine with me, but it's kind of interesting.
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Reader Comments (30)
Hoosier State at 6:14AM on Apr 7th 2009
Here we go again with someone making fun of Indiana.
S.C. Kemiji at 6:55AM on Apr 7th 2009
She used to be funny. Now it went over head and she thinks she can say or do anything. Actually she repulses me. I no longer enjoy her humor
crazynannan at 6:53AM on Apr 7th 2009
WITHOUT AMY POHLER SNL SUCKS.
Hugh Jassol at 7:03AM on Apr 7th 2009
Actually, it might be a help (since she's doing a comedy show), it might help if she were funny. She's about as far from funny as a root canal. Come to think of it, SNL has been about as funny as a migraine for the last 20 years. It sucks, Loren! And then these hack comics wonder why their spin-offs suck wind. Will Ferrel isn't funny either. Never was, never will be. His publicity said he was funny and everyone believed it. Truth is, he sucks.
Diane Guffin at 7:14AM on Apr 7th 2009
And all this is why we don't watch SNL anymore.......there was a Saturday night in the past we couldn't wait to watch....not anymore.....
it's just more of NBC........
Ugly Betty rules that time slot at 7:20AM on Apr 7th 2009
There is no way this show will stand up to Ugly Betty. Nice try, but it just isn't going to be viable.
I though Office was bad at 7:36AM on Apr 7th 2009
Wow, I thought office was a complete waste of time, Now look what they have gone and done.
SNL sucks at 7:38AM on Apr 7th 2009
Remember when SNL used to be funny?
I though Office was bad at 7:38AM on Apr 7th 2009
Won't stand up to Ugly Betty. Do you even hear what your typing.
Scott Compton at 7:53AM on Apr 7th 2009
SNL should of been done away with 25 years ago. Hasn't been funny for a very long time.