A Minute With: Amy Poehler reunites with Fey for 'Sisters' romp

[December 15, 2015]   By Jill Serjeant

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amy Poehler reunites with best friend Tina Fey on the big screen for "Sisters," a raucous romp that sees the U.S. comedy queens play opposite type and opposite the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" movie opening on Friday.

Reuters spoke with Poehler about dancing with Fey and playing the good girl. The following are edited excerpts.

Q: You and Tina are super close but I don't believe you've ever played sisters before?

A: We've only really done one film together and we've never played anybody related to each other on film. What's great about shows and sisters is that we get all of the good juicy stuff of being friends but you don't have the complications of having to share parents.

Q: The usual roles we associate you with have been reversed here - Tina plays the wild girl and you're Miss Perfect.

A: Yes. As the film progresses, both characters meet in the middle and then switch off and play the other side. My character, Maura, starts as someone who's a little enmeshed with her parents, and fear based, and as the party continues she gets the party that she wants. I was excited to do something different than "Baby Mama."

Q: It feels like you both had freedom to improvise. What were your favorite scenes?

A: There was some improvising certainly. There were a lot of fun stunts and also we got to do a lot of stuff where we were goofing around and finishing each other's sentences.

Q: The dancing looked fun too.

A: Oh yeah! The dancing was especially exciting. Exciting to practice for weeks and weeks.

Q: Did you really practice for weeks and weeks?

A: No, they showed it to us once and then we did it.

Q: The movie opens the same weekend as "The Force Awakens" in what the movie industry calls counter programming. Are you a "Star Wars" fan?

A: Not really. I love (director) J.J. Abrams. I think he is an incredible talent and a very nice guy. But to be honest, I don't know anything about "Star Wars." I think men and women will go to "Star Wars" and men and women will go to "Sisters." The great thing is that people will be going to the cinema that weekend and they are going to have a lot of great big choices.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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