In Date Night, Claire and Phil Foster (Tina Fey and Steve Carell) are a typical suburban couple whose lives – including their weekly date nights of dinner and a movie – have become routine. To reignite the marital spark, they visit a trendy Manhattan bistro where a case of mistaken identity turns their evening into the ultimate date night-gone-awry. But as Claire and Phil take their unexpected walk on the wild side, they begin to remember what made them so special together.
We have obtained this interview with the two stars to find out a bit more about the people behind the characters.
There was a great chemistry between you. Did you know each other previously?
Tina Fey: We met a bunch of times and we both came out of the same theatre in Chicago. So it’s almost like you went to the same college with someone. We have a fraternal relationship but this is the first time we spent any real time together.
What’s funnier – marriage or politicians?
Tina Fey: They each are in their own way. Maybe we should have a marriage of politicians.
Did you find anything of yourself in these characters and if so what?
Tina Fey: Sure. We are both married with young children. There are definitely moments in the movie that were already in the script or we talked about putting in the script that we can relate to like having children jump on your head when you are sleeping. Both Steve and my husband never close a cabinet or draw at any given time.
Steve Carell: That’s absolutely true.
Tina Fey: And just that feeling when the baby sitter comes and you are almost jealous because they get to sit and watch television and you have promised each other that you would go out and do something and you are so tired you want to punch your own face.
Steve Carell: You sort of grudgingly walk out the door.
How did you feel having a chance to put your own input into the scenes? Do you feel your voices are heard enough?
Steve Carell: Shawn started that early on. He was very solicitous of us and wanted us to share experiences as married people and people with kids and tap into that. I think that’s in part when we had the final script it rang true. It felt honest to us because part of it has to do with us.
How is it being a female comedy writer?
Tina Fey: I was told so many times like when I was at Second City in Chicago that it’s really hard for women but it was fine and at Saturday Night Live it was great there. I think I’m very lucky that I am at an age when all the women who fought through things in the 70s have made it a lot easier for women my age and so far so good.
Did you expect the success you have on camera?
Tina Fey: This is something Steve and I have in common. We are both really grateful to be working. I’ve done plays in Chicago for literally three or four people and television with hardly anyone watching. I would do any of those things as long as I could keep doing what I want to do and be with people I like. We have both done sketch comedy and improv literally for free in the beginning so we can’t believe where we both are.
If you had to choose between writing and acting, what would it be?
Tina Fey: I would choose writing because you have more control over the situation. Being an actor for hire is a very grim lifestyle.
Steve Carell: A lot if out is out of your hands and control, but this movie was very different because they were very inclusive with the writing and the improvisation as we shot and even when we saw the movie, Shawn wanted us to weigh in on what we liked and that’s not normally the case. Generally speaking you don’t have that kind of control. You don’t know what’s going to happen or how it will be edited and you are at the mercy of all these other people so you have to find good writers and directors like Shawn to work with.
What about the pole dance?
Steve Carell: That was all improvised. They had a choreographer waiting to work with us just in case we needed some moves which clearly we did but we thought it was better for us not to know what we were going to do because the characters didn’t know what they were going to do.
How was it running in the heels?
Tina Fey: I am not great in heels and I was very slow so we had different sizes and it was nighttime, so if I had to run really fast or climb I had a shorter one with a clear plastic strap on front but I never fell down.
How do you think this film will translate in other countries?
Steve Carell: This to me feels very universal and I think it will translate. This scenario will translate – the whole idea of a couple with kids and where a marriage has arrived and this ridiculous situation they are thrust in I feel is very accessible.
I believe your kids are already showing a talent for humor?
Steve Carell: Both of my kids understand irony which is pretty remarkable for kids that age. It’s shocking to see – when my wife and I say something that is clearly ironic and they get it and then add on to it.
Are you different in real life? Do people expect you to be funny?
Tina Fey: We are both really quiet in real life.
So not the funniest people at the dinner party?
Steve Carell: Do not invite the two of us we will suck all the energy out of the room. (jokes). We both fight against that. When I do an appearance on a talk show I really have to push out of myself because it isn’t just a conversation. It has to be of heightened entertainment value so you have to be wittier and more charming than you really are.
Are your partners similar to you?
Tina Fey: They are both very funny.
Steve Carell: The four of us sat next to each other at the Academy Awards and we had a lot of fun. I think we all have the same sensibility.
Tina Fey: They are both funny and easy going.
What funny movies did you like as a kid?
Steve Carell: I liked Mel Brooks and I liked Peter Sellers [movies].
Tina Fey: I liked “Caddyshack” and “Ghost Busters” and Woody Allen and Monty Python.
Did you have a comedian you modeled yourself on?
Tina Fey: No one consciously but I must have absorbed it – I watched so much SNL (Saturday Night Live) and TV comedy like Carol Burnett and Mary Tyler Moore. When you are a nerdy kid who loved comedy – you watch everything and you are trying to soak up all of it.
Steve Carell: I did the same thing. You pick and choose the things you respond to. I used to listen to comedy albums like George Carlin and Steve Martin. I would listen to them over and over. I wasn’t doing it consciously but you hear the rhythms and patterns.
This interview with the main cast of Date Night, starring Tina Fey (Claire Foster) & Steve Carell (Phil Foster) originally appeared on the Next Entertainment website. All rights reserved.
See the original interview here.
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