Amy Poehler Horizontal - H 2014
AP ImagesAmy Poehler graces the cover of Fast Company‘s June issue and in her interview about her life as a multimedia entrepreneur, she gets candid about frustrations she has with working in the male-dominated field of comedy.
“I have these meetings with really powerful men and they ask me all the time, ‘Where are your kids? Are your kids here?’ ” the mother of two told the magazine. “It’s such a weird question. Never in a million years do I ask guys where their kids are. It would be comparable to me going to a guy, ‘Do you feel like you see your kids enough?’ ”
Poehler also spoke about her leadership style and how she seeks confidence. “I often look to men to model behavior.” she said. “Not because I want to squelch what’s feminine about me, but because sometimes I want a little more action, a little less feeling in my interactions.”
“I’ve been doing this thing lately where I try to talk slower at meetings,” added Poehler. “I take a lot of meetings with women and we all talk really fast. But every guy talks so much slower. Maybe there’s a scientist who could tell me why, but I think men are just a little bit more comfortable taking up conversational real estate. So I’ve been seeing how slow I can tolerate talking. I’m doing it now. Let me tell you, it’s really hard for me.”
Poehler, whose production projects often work with female talent, said she does this because she’s selfish. “I just like working with women,” she said.
Aubrey Plaza and Natasha Lyonne both praise Poehler’s leadership style in the article.
“You always feel very safe having her in charge, because there’s just this underlying sense that she can steer you in the right direction,” said Plaza.
“She never apologizes for being a woman, and always does things exactly the way she wants,” said Lyonne. “It’s just her way of existing. And it trickles down into all her projects, like helping all these young female comedians.”
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