![\"Admission's](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tina-Fey-Paul-Rudd-Admission.jpg\" "\\"Tina-Fey-Paul-Rudd-Admission\\"")
When you\u2019ve got a movie starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd, you\u2019re bound to expect an excess of comedy, however, in the case of Paul Weitz\u2019s \u201cAdmission,\u201d the pair runs with their more \u201cadult\u201d characters and strike a an ideal balance between humor and honest emotion.<\/p>\n
Fey stars as Portia Nathan, a Princeton admissions officer dedicated to the school\u2019s lofty criteria. When the opportunity for a promotion arises, Portia\u2019s determined to get the gig, so tries to impress her superior by expanding her yearly recruiting script to include John Pressman\u2019s (Paul Rudd) alternative school, New Quest. That\u2019s where she meets Jeremiah (Nat Wolff). He may not fit the Princeton mold of sky-high grades and an endless list of extracurricular activities, but Portia sees something in him that compels her to consider deviating from the school\u2019s rigid standards.<\/p>\n
While promoting the film\u2019s March 22nd release, both Fey and Rudd sat down for a roundtable style interview. They discussed boarding the project, the appeal of their characters, the art of filming a cow-birthing scene and more, but the highlight might be the duo remembering the good old days, when they first came together to reenact \u201cSixteen Candles\u201d for a failed VH1 show. Read all about that and more in the interview below.<\/p>\n
How\u2019d you get involved?<\/FONT><\/B> What\u2019d you like about your characters?<\/FONT><\/B> Do either of you have any good college admissions memories or maybe even nightmares?<\/FONT><\/B> How do you think your background in improv helps you prepare to be on set?<\/FONT><\/B> Tina we know you as a writer as well as an actor. When you walk into a project like this, is it difficult to leave the writer side at home? Do you want to change things?<\/FONT><\/B> What was your own college experience like? What was your favorite part of college?<\/FONT><\/B> Did you have this experience with your own daughter? Did you try to get her into any of the New York private schools?<\/FONT><\/B> Tell us about that cow scene. Was that improv?<\/FONT><\/B> Had you done anything like that before?<\/FONT><\/B> What\u2019s the movie magic behind a moment like that? Obviously the cow isn\u2019t giving birth, so what\u2019s going on back there?<\/FONT><\/B> Can you talk a little bit about the comedy community? Is it as collaborative as it seems? Are you always aiming to cast each other in each other\u2019s movies?<\/FONT><\/B>
\nTina Fey:<\/B> I started talking to Paul Weitz about it a few years ago, and I actually had met Jean Korelitz, the author of the book, at a New Year\u2019s Eve party. She said, \u2018I have this book that someone\u2019s gonna call you about it.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Really? Happy New Year!\u2019
\nPaul Rudd:<\/B> My agent sent the script to me and I met Paul Weitz, and we had some conversations. Tina was already attached at that point. I read it, I liked the story, and I like Tina a lot. Paul I didn\u2019t really know. I knew who he was, but I didn\u2019t know him, and I enjoyed talking with him about the story, about the character and about things we wanted to do with it, so it happened fairly quickly for me.<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> I really liked that it was a story about adult people. It was a world that I thought was kind of interesting, this world of not just college admissions, but people who live their whole life in a college environment and how insular and weird that can become. Also I really liked the story. I thought there was just really nice, warm heart to the story.
\nRudd:<\/B> A lot what Tina just said and I liked that the character I was playing was an adult. And I was interested mainly in the fact that he traveled the world and did all of these things that from an outside perspective would seem to be humanitarian gestures, magnanimous gestures, when really there was a selfish side of him. That aspect of the character was interesting to me.<\/p>\n![\"Nat](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/Nat-Wolff-Paul-Rudd-Admission.jpg\" "\\"Nat-Wolff-Paul-Rudd-Admission\\"")
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\nFey:<\/B> I remember tanking my own \u2013 well, tanking implies I did it on purpose – I remember failing my own Princeton interview. My mom wanted me to apply to Princeton because, I guess, since I was a kid, she had this dream that I would apply to Princeton, and it was not happening. I remember kind of like the scene with Nat in the movie where he goes to the alumni interview and just from the minute you\u2019re like \u2018No, This isn\u2019t gonna\u2026\u2019 I had a long plaid skirt on and a suit jacket, and I just wasn\u2019t bringing it. Unlike now, where I\u2019m dazzling. [Laughs]
\nRudd:<\/B> Princeton\u2019s loss, I say. I never applied to any colleges. My parents are European. I don\u2019t think they understood the whole process. [Laughs]<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> Well, hopefully it does help. There were definitely moments with Lily [Tomlin] where we did improvise a tiny bit. We may have done the tiniest bit. Certainly you\u2019re not always necessarily improvising to try to find jokes. In this case, hopefully it makes you ready to react if somebody does something different, which you can definitely tell that Lily is really not only an expert at, but thrilled by it. If anything changes in a take, she definitely notices it and responds. In that one scene where it was the two moms meeting each other, that was probably the most improvisation.
\nRudd:<\/B> Every time she\u2019d see my mother, she\u2019d have a different reaction.<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> No. In fact, I would guess that I am probably less likely to change things than other actors only because I know how mad it makes me when actors want to change things, so I try not to unless we\u2019re specifically being asked to improvise. The thing about the book and Karen Croner\u2019s screenplay, it was all so well done that you didn\u2019t have the impulse of, \u2018Oh, we gotta fix this.\u2019 It was all really thoughtfully written and the story [was] broken up really thoughtfully. It\u2019s nice when you can go into something where you can really trust that everyone involved has thought about it more than you have even. That\u2019s like a gift.<\/p>\n![\"Tina](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tina-Fey-Paul-Rudd-in-Admission.jpg\" "\\"Tina-Fey-Paul-Rudd-in-Admission\\"")
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\nFey:<\/B> I went to the University of Virginia. I grew up in suburban Philadelphia. It was like \u201988 to \u201992, I was there. The University of Virginia\u2019s a great school. For me, it was very culturally different. I came from a suburb where everyone was half-Italian, half-Irish, Greek, whatever. It was the most really white people I had ever seen. It was the most beautiful blonde girls with the long ponytails and hoop earrings, and they all had horses and stuff. It was entertaining for me. I felt like I had gone to Sweden or something. But I got involved in the drama department there and that\u2019s where I found the more oddly shaped people and we stuck together.<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> I\u2019ve decided not to send her to school at all. She\u2019s being kept in what is technically our building\u2019s bike room. [Laughs] No, she goes to school \u2026
\nRudd:<\/B> Wait a minute. Hold on. You have a bike room?
\nFey:<\/B> Well, I\u2019m not allowed to keep a bike. I\u2019m on a waiting list to keep a bike.
\nRudd:<\/B> You have to apply\u2026
\nFey:<\/B> I am on a waiting list to get my bike in tat building. A lot of people have moved; I don\u2019t know why there\u2019s not room.
\nRudd:<\/B> You would think at this point you would have gotten your bike in there.
\nFey:<\/B> Unbelievable.<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> Yeah, some of that was. In the front, they asked me while I was talking to the cow to improvise some things. I\u2019m trying to remember, while I was talking to the front of the cow, did you have to stand at the back of the cow the whole time?
\nRudd:<\/B> Yeah, I was behind the cow for \u2026
\nFey:<\/B> The Ginger Rogers of cow scenes.
\nRudd:<\/B> It shot over a couple of days, so acting\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n![\"Tina](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tina-Fey-Admission1.jpg\" "\\"Tina-Fey-Admission\\"")
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\nFey:<\/B> I haven\u2019t.
\nRudd:<\/B> Well, most of the time I\u2019ve spent with cows has been on the other side. [Laughs] I used to live next door to a farm, so every day for a while I used to just walk over and feed the cows when I was in school, which was weird because I lived in a subdivision, but this one holdout in our neighborhood in Kansas still had a farm. I\u2019ve spent time with cows, but I\u2019ve never spent that kind of quality time behind a cow.<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> There was a guy named Phil, special effects guy, who made some fake calf legs that had a handle on one end and he would squat under the camera, and I guess there was a tail \u2026
\nRudd:<\/B> There was another tail. That\u2019s right! Nat actually held his tail and then there was another fake tail.
\nFey:<\/B> Was the real cow still – Phil was under the real cow a little bit, which is incredibly dangerous!
\nRudd:<\/B> And there was a bucket of goop.
\nFey:<\/B> So Nat, Paul and I eventually had to pull on the fake cow legs and Phil would pull back until he was given the cue to – birth. [Laughs]<\/p>\n
\nFey:<\/B> So many STDs. No, I\u2019m kidding. [Laughs] Anytime you can use anyone that you\u2019ve known for a long time or that comes recommended – I remember I emailed Amy [Poehler] when I found out [Paul and I] were doing this together and I was like, \u2018Is he gonna be nice to me or is he like a cool comedy guy?\u2019 And she\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my god, he\u2019s gonna be so nice to you!\u2019 I was like, \u2018Okay.\u2019
\nRudd:<\/B> I emailed Amy, too. [Laughs]<\/p>\n![\"Tina](\"http:\/\/www.shockya.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tina-Fey-Paul-Rudd-Admission-2.jpg\" "\\"Tina-Fey-Paul-Rudd-Admission-2\\"")
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