College admissions is a terrifying, exhilarating, seemingly arbitrary process – not just for the nail-biting applicants, but also for the admissions officers, as Tina Fey and Paul Rudd prove in their new comedy Admission, in theaters March 22. Fey plays Portia Nathan, an uptight Princeton admissions officer with iffy people skills. She’s brilliant at her job… that is, until an eccentric former acquaintance (Paul Rudd) drops a bomb: he may have found the son she secretly gave up for adoption seventeen years ago. The long-lost potential son (Nat Wolff) might be a genius, but is he up to Princeton’s standards?
Her Campus caught up with Tina Fey to chat about her own Princeton interview, her college experience, and the possibility of a 30 Rock reunion.
Do you have any college admissions nightmares of your own?
I remember tanking my own Princeton interview. My mom had this dream since I was a kid that I would apply to Princeton, and it was not happening. I had a long, plaid skirt and a suit jacket on and I just wasn’t bringing it. Unlike now, where I’m dazzling.
What was your own college experience like? What was your favorite part of college?
I went to the University of Virginia. I came from a suburb where everyone was half-Italian, half-Irish, half-Greek, and the University of Virginia was filled with the most really white people I had ever seen – the most beautiful blonde girls with long ponytails and hoop earrings and they all rode horses. I felt like I had gone to Sweden or something. Then I got involved with the drama department and there I found the more oddly-shaped people.
You could say that the New York private school admissions process is just as intimidating as the college admissions process. What was it like getting your daughter into private school?
I’ve decided not to send her to school at all. She is kept in what is technically our building’s bike room. (No, she goes to school.)
What attracted you to the script for Admission?
It was a world I thought that was kind of interesting – people who live their whole life in a college environment and how insular and weird that could become.
When you act in a project like this, is it difficult to leave the writer side of you at home? Do you want to change things?
No. In fact, I would guess that I’m 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 I’m specifically asked to improvise.
How did you feel on set?
I feel like I’m still learning how people behave on movies. It’s like going to the White House. “What fork do I use? This fork?” I’m just trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do.
Is it too early to ask for a 30 Rock reunion?
It’s too soon. Who knows? I don’t think any of us will live long enough to make it to a reunion.