Tina Fey got real about women in power and the ability to say “no,” and we’re so inspired
Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter held their annual Women in Entertainment event, celebrating awesome ladies in Hollywood. Tina Fey accepted the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, and we are so excited for her. Tina’s extensive list of comedy hits includes Saturday Night Live, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, 30 Rock, and Mean Girls. Tina has contributed so many strong, complicated female characters to comedy. She makes us laugh and think, which is a rare gift. So we are so pleased to see her being honored by friends and peers, because that fabulous lady deserves it!
At the Women in Entertainment breakfast, Tina Fey opened up about what might be next for her.
During her speech, Tina talked about how she and some of her fellow funny ladies, like Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, and Maya Rudolph, have hit a bit of a career crossroads. They’ve found confidence in themselves. Tina said, “We love to work and to do good work, but we don’t need approval in the same way. We’re adults now, and I think we’re really starting to ask ourselves, ‘What’s next for me? What is my role in this business going to be once nobody wants to grab me by the pussy anymore?’”
In classic Tina Fey fashion, she brings up a great point, while still making us laugh. She and these other awesome ladies are in more uncharted territory now that they have the power. She said that she imagines they might try lots of things — directing, producing, mentoring. But, one idea that Tina had was definitely the BEST.
She said, "maybe, if we’re lucky, a really successful Golden Girls reboot with all of us."
Can we just say how amazing that would be?
Tina added a very important point about the benefits of being a woman in power.
Tina said that when you have power, you have the "feeling like you can say 'no' without any negative repercussions is an important kind of power. And it’s one that we can help each other have — by believing and supporting each other."
That’s a very important point, because often women feel like we can’t say no. And we’re glad Tina highlighted how important that little word can be.
Tina reminded everyone that she didn’t always feel so confident, but she had awesome women to support her along the way.
Tina talked about when she was developing Mean Girls. She said, “I had no idea what I was doing,” Sherry Lansing was the CEO of Paramount at the time, and Tina Fey recalled what a positive, supportive experience it was. Fey explained, “I wrote 10 drafts of that script [Mean Girls] and she never took it away from me. She never had someone else do a two-week ‘de-flavorizing’ of it. And I didn’t realize how special that was at the time, but I do now. So thank you, Sherry.”
That’s such an awesome example to set for other women in the industry, and we hope that more women find collaborations that are that successful.
Tina ended her speech with some very important advice for young women.
She said, “Don’t smoke. Wear a bra. Trust your instincts. Don’t date John Mayer.” LOL. We don’t think we’ll get anywhere close to dating John Mayer, but we appreciate Tina’s advice. And we will try to trust our instincts.
