The Real Reason Why Tina Fey Played Sarah Palin On SNL
There are countless superstars who have turned down gigs on Saturday Night Live. But Tina Fey is not one of them.
The Upper Darby, Pennsylvania-born star made her mark on the New York-based sketch show. Not only as a performer but as a writer as well. During her time there (from 1997 - 2006), Tina basically became one of the biggest comedy stars in the world. She even got her own sitcom, 30 Rock, which was based on her time with SNL.
But after SNL, Tina moved on to other pursuits like acting, writing, and directing movies like Mean Girls. Sure, she was still friends with SNL's executive producer, Lorne Michaels, as well as many of her former castmates, but she was done with the show... That is until the 2008 U.S. election...
Once that came, Tina Fey was on SNL almost every night. But not as a host. Oh no, she was playing Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
And it was hilarious.
Here's the truth of how she ended up scoring that role... And it's about a Hollywood-insider as it gets.
Lorne Michaels Didn't Make The Tina Fey/Sarah Palin Connection On His Own
There's a lot of speculation about how Tina Fey came to find her Sarah Palin impression on Saturday Night Live. But she came clean about how it actually happened while being interviewed on The Howard Stern Show in December 2015.
"When you look back, what is your greatest accomplishment? I'm talking about during Saturday Night Live", Howard Stern asked the famed comedic writer and performer.
"In terms of being on it..." Tina Fey replied deep in thought. "I'd have to say some of those Sarah Palin things were probably the biggest things I was ever a part of."
"Who first noticed that kind of resembled Sarah Palin?" Howard asked. "Who told Lorne? Because you had to come back to Saturday Night Live."
"Yeah, I was at 30 Rock and nobody even noticed that I had left. No one cared."
"But someone figured out that you look like Sarah Palin?"
Sarah then claimed that SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels first started to figure out that it was a thing when he came down into his apartment building lobby one day. He was greeted by the doorman who said, "Sarah Palin. Tina Fey. What a gift!"
Lorne apparently told the doorman that Tina no longer worked at SNL so it wasn't actually a thing. But then Lorne walked out of the building and ran into famed actor Robert De Niro who said, "What a gift."
Yep, both Lorne Michaels' doorman and The Godfather Part 2 star said the exact same thing about Tina Fey and Sarah Palin. Within five minutes of that, Lorne knew he had to contact Tina Fey to come back to the show just to play the Vice Presidential nominee.
Did Tina Fey Even Want To Go Back To Saturday Night Live?
Tina Fey had a lot to consider when rumors were flying about her being asked to return to Saturday Night Live to portray Sarah Palin.
"It's funny cause it was this unspoken thing where I was walking around 30 Rock being like, 'I don't know. Should I even do it?' And it was like, by-the-way, nobody had even asked me to do it. It was real arrogant."
Tina said that she and Lorne Michaels had talked about how people were making the comparison between her and Sarah Palin, but she hadn't officially been asked to do it. After all, the majority of the political impressions on SNL tended to be done by current castmembers. Only recently has it been done by other celebrities like Larry David, Alec Baldwin, or Woody Harrelson.
But eventually, she was coaxed into it by rather good producing on the part of the people at Saturday Night Live.
How Tina Mastered That 'Sling-Blade' Sarah Palin Voice
During her interview with Howard Stern, Tina was asked to reveal how she came up with her masterful impression.
"I was sorta like... 'I don't work there. I don't do impressions.' I think I started maybe looking to see if there was any hook to be had. Because I was watching other people do impressions [of Sarah Palin]."
"Because you do a really good impression of her", Howard told Tina.
"But she has like a sling-blade voice. Like she has a voice... anyone can do it. It's not like doing Al Gore, or something", Tina explained. "She has a distinctive, funny way of talking."
Howard then asked Tina if she went to a dialect coach to help her master the impression.
"My friend Paul [Pell], her grandma was from Minnesota or something. And we sort of just partnered it off of Paula's grandma."
Tina found Sarah's voice by taking another flat-accent and just playing around with it in order to come somewhere close.
As we all know, Tina didn't just come close... She absolutely nailed the political figure. It ended up being one of the best impressions in Saturday Night Live history.
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