Tina Fey, the creator of "Mean Girls" and former "Saturday Night Live" star, has never been one to shy away from candid conversations. In a recent interview with "Today" published Thursday, Fey, now 56, got remarkably honest about the realities of aging, describing it with a two-word term: "reverse puberty."
Fey's Take on Aging
During the interview, Fey explained that she wasn't fully prepared for the changes that come with entering her 50s. "I feel like it's a reverse puberty in a way. It's like your body starts to change and be disgusting in new ways," she said with a laugh. She drew a humorous parallel between adolescence and aging: "When you're 12 or 13, you're like, 'Why am I so oily?' And now you're like, 'Why am I so papery?'"
Finding Solace in the Writers' Room
Fey revealed that she finds comfort in the writers' room for her Netflix series "The Four Seasons." "We're all pretty much the same age," she said of the creative team. "Almost all of us have known each other a super long time, and so all the writers are really good about sharing their own things." She added that some of their aging-related experiences have been incorporated into the show, sometimes causing spouses to question if they were the inspiration. "Then sometimes our spouses are like, 'Is that me?' And then we'll usually just be like, 'No, no.' We'll just lie and say, 'That's so and so,'" Fey joked.
Struggling with Late Nights
In a previous interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Fey admitted that she now struggles to stay up past midnight, which proved challenging at the "SNL50" afterparty. "I've never been able to get over the fact that I left the 40th afterparty before Prince's surprise set," Fey told THR. "So the whole week leading up to the 50th, I drank water, I went to bed early, I saved it all up. But when I got to the afterparty, I couldn't find any of my friends, and obviously, there was no chance of Prince, so I thought, 'Actually, I'm out.'"
Fey's candid remarks about aging, menopause, and the changes in her body have resonated with many, as she continues to use her humor to navigate life's transitions. Her latest project, "The Four Seasons," is available on Netflix.
