Tina Fey has found a very Tina Fey way to describe life in her 50s.
The ’30 Rock’ creator, 56, recently joked that getting older feels a lot like puberty in reverse. The only difference? The surprises are less about oily teenage skin and more about wondering why everything suddenly feels thinner, drier and stranger.
“I feel like it’s a reverse puberty in a way,” Fey said on ‘Today.’ “It’s like your body starts to change and be disgusting in new ways.”
Tina Fey Gets Real About Aging
Fey did not soften the comparison, and that is exactly why it landed. She said middle age comes with the same kind of bodily confusion many people remember from adolescence.
“When you’re 12 or 13, you’re like, ‘Why am I so oily?'” Fey said. “And now you’re like, ‘Why am I so papery?'”
That kind of joke is pure Fey. It is specific, slightly uncomfortable and painfully recognizable. It also fits the tone of her new show, ‘The Four Seasons,’ which folds real middle-age annoyances into its comedy.
Fey said the writers, many of whom are around the same age, pulled from their own lives while shaping the series. That included jokes about dry skin, aging, marriage and the weird little humiliations people do not always admit out loud.
‘The Four Seasons’ Uses Real-Life Middle-Age Chaos
Fey said the writers have known one another for years, which made the room more open. Everyone shared personal stories, then quietly denied everything at home.
“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,” Fey said.
When spouses ask whether a joke came from real life, Fey said they usually dodge it.
“We’ll usually just be like, ‘No, no,'” she said. “We’ll just lie and say, ‘That’s so and so.'”
Fey’s changing social habits have also become part of the conversation. She told The Hollywood Reporter she still regrets leaving the ‘Saturday Night Live’ 40th anniversary afterparty before Prince’s surprise set.
So, for the 50th anniversary, she tried to plan better. She drank water, rested and saved her energy. Then she got to the afterparty, could not find her friends and decided to leave.
Tina Fey Says Staying Busy Helps
Fey has also talked about being part of the sandwich generation, balancing kids, aging parents and work.
“This sandwich generation stuff, having your kids and an aging parent in the same house, it’s wonderful,” she said. “But it also really takes a lot out of you.”
Still, work has helped her keep moving. Fey said making ‘The Four Seasons’ after personal losses kept her connected to the world.
“It saved me from just shrinking up like a little granny apple head,” she said.
That may be the real Fey formula. Tell the truth, make it funny and keep going before the papery skin wins.
