Amy Poehler on how she learned to make people laugh after 9/11
From Saturday Night Live to Pixar's Inside Out, the comedian's star continues to rise
In 2001, just after the attacks on the Twin Towers, Poehler joined Fey on Saturday Night Live. The show is based in New York and the city was grieving. “It was a really interesting time to be on a live sketch show because people were saying ‘Comedy is dead’, and I remember thinking, ‘Could we just hang on a few more years?’
“Funny people, to me, are an elixir – they get you through the hardest times. Jokes kind of pull you up and reset you. And I’m lucky to be surrounded by some of the funniest people in the world.”
Her first SNL show aired just 18 days after the tragedy and featured then New York mayor Rudy Giuliani along with members of the city’s police and fire departments. It opened with producer Lorne Michaels asking Giuliani “Can we be funny?” and the politician replying “Why start now?”
“Comedy is so subjective,” she says, “and that’s why, when people connect to something they find funny, they feel really deeply connected. It’s like when you’re attracted to someone. It’s really hard to be attracted to someone you don’t find funny or share the same sense of humour with.”
Poehler was married to comedy actor Will Arnett (Arrested Development) for nine years and they have two sons: Archie, seven, and five-year-old Abel. The pair separated in 2012, and Poehler has since been dating comedian Nick Kroll, juggling being a mother with her demanding career.
“It’s an interesting time for women because there’s so much expectation and pressure to do all things well. But the lesson I’ve learned about being a mom is to be easier on myself. You are constantly crossing off what doesn’t work any more and then trying something else, having to readjust and stay flexible. But it’s worth it.”
Despite being a kids’ film, Inside Out (in cinemas from Friday 24 July) resonates with Poehler for those reasons. “We struggle constantly to have our children avoid any kind of fear, anger, sadness or pain,” she says. “But they feel all of those things whether we like it or not.
“On one level Inside Out is a really funny romp. But it works on another level, too, because as an adult you watch it and it’s like, ‘What used to bring me joy doesn’t any more. Who’s running my controls these days? What kind of parent am I?’
“When I walked up the red carpet at Cannes, one of the actors who voices Fear in the French version of Inside Out told me that you are supposed to make a wish. I won’t tell you what that wish was, but it was a good reminder that sometimes you should actually stop and enjoy the moment.”
Inside Out is in UK cinemas now
