Amy Poehler admits that vacationing with Parks and Recreation showrunner Michael Schur this August so that he can tell her what Leslie Knope’s arc will be for the upcoming nonexistent season is a very Leslie Knope thing to do. But it’s also nice to know that Poehler herself misses the show as much as its ardent fans probably do. (Though this may be a special kind of torture for Parks and Recreation fans to realize there are more stories worth being created for the screen, but no one other than those two will ever know what they are.)
It’s kind of shocking how little of Amy Poehler we’ve had in our lives over the last few months. After the media blitz of her book tour, coupled with the finale of Parks and Rec (the creation of which we chronicled earlier this year in an oral history), for the first time in ages, she’s just “not there.” Of course, later this year she co-stars with Tina Fey in Sisters, a film directed by Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore and written by SNL’s Paula Pell. So even though the two won’t be hosting the Golden Globes (despite me practically begging below), they will be back in our lives. We just have to wait.
In the meantime, we can hear Poehler’s voice in Pixar’s Inside Out, which premiered at Cannes and is already being considered by critics as possibly the best Pixar movie ever made. Set in the mind of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, Poehler voices Joy, one of five emotions – in addition to Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) – that controls Riley’s daily life. Soon after Riley and her parents move from her beloved Minnesota to San Francisco, Joy and Sadness are accidentally cast out of Riley’s mind and the two – along with a lovable, now lost, imaginary friend named Bing Bong (Richard Kind) – must get back to Riley’s conscious. It’s a complicated movie and, as Poehler says many times, a “deep” story that all somehow works. (Those “is this the best Pixar movie” debates are valid.)
Ahead, Poehler discusses the complicated intricacies of Inside Out, the pressures of nailing the Parks and Recreation series finale – and, yes, her plan to always know what happens to Leslie Knope from here on out.
Last time we spoke was one of my favorite interview experiences. We were at a restaurant during Sundance and your friend Max from Chicago randomly shows up.
Oh my God! That’s right! The valet stories I could tell! I’m going to pretend someone walks by now. That’s my M.O.
I was told this interview was delayed because you had to shoot a video with Tina Fey.
Oh, we were shooting a preview for European audiences for Sisters.
I’m a big fan of Paula Pell, I’m very excited for that movie.
She crushes it. The script is so funny; she’s so funny. She’s our oldest and dearest friend and I can’t wait for everybody to see her work.
You’ve done quite a few voice roles.
Yep!
When something like Inside Out shows up, can you immediately tell the difference? As in, “OK, this is something special.”
Yeah, it kind of feels like you’re getting called up to the big leagues. And you hear “Pixar” and you think, Oh, I’ll do anything. You just trust that whatever it is will be special… and when they revealed that I would be playing Joy and the setting would be inside the mind of an 11-year-old girl, I felt like someone was handing me a winning lottery ticket. It was the most awesome feeling. And I would access that feeling sometimes when I was playing Joy; I would think about when they told me I was playing Joy. Because the minute they told me about the film, I was like, “This film is going to be unbelievable and it’s going to be like nothing anybody has ever seen.” It’s beautiful in ways that I will be able, two years later, to talk about with you and other people.
When I first heard the premise, I remember thinking, “That sounds complicated.”
Yeah.
But when you’re watching it, it just works.
Well, that’s what’s so great about Pixar. They say, “This is the next thing we’re going to show you, come with us.” And you think, “OK? How is this going to go?” Then the minute the ride starts, the journey starts, the film starts, you say, “I see what you’re doing.” The way they manage to take avant garde, high concept, dare I say (laughs) European, French New Wave idea of feelings and emotions and turn them into tactile characters… these iconic characters, they did it. They distilled this big idea and what happens is: Young and old alike watch the film and laugh and cry. But what’s amazing is the film sticks with you and you talk about and you want to see it again… it’s so deep.
I did wonder if little kids will get this movie. But kids are smart and when I was 8, I was being taken to movies like The Secret of NIMH, which was some heavy stuff, too.
You know, the whole message of the film is it’s OK to have these feelings. You may not be happy all the time and it’s actually OK. And, even better, sadness and pain lead to progress. And we as parents and people, we do everything we can to not feel uncomfortable because we are scared and we don’t want to feel that. The film pushes that, too: “We’re going to have you have these feelings, is that OK?” And you just feel so much better after you have them. And my 6-year-old loves Anger. He thinks Anger is hilarious. And he loves the fire coming out of his head and he loves his high-waist pants.
I hope he hasn’t asked you, “I’d like to hear more of Lewis Black’s work.” He might have to wait a few more years.
(Laughs) Yeah. And, by the way, the real Lewis Black in real life is just a peach and I am a horrible monster.
And then there’s Bing Bong.
Oh my God!
He cries candy.
He cries candy! Richard Kind’s performance is so sublime that my favorite moment in the whole film is when Bing Bong and puts his hand out to Joy and says, “I’ve got a good feeling about this one.” Because that is a really beautiful resignation that childhood is over. It’s so deep. And Richard, he played Bing Bong like an old vaudevillian guy who still wishes he was relevant and still had his bag of tricks and still wants to be on stage — that desperation of, “I used to be a contender!” thing. And it’s so heartbreakingly good. There’s a constant struggle we have: Can we tolerate pain in the real moment? And if doing so, we may actually get to where we need to be a lot faster than just trying to distract ourselves from what’s in front of us. It’s so deep!
I’ve heard people say that you don’t realize you’ve left SNL until everyone else comes back that next fall. Do you feel the same way with Parks and Recreation?
Yeah, you know, in fact, I’ll tell this to you: Mike Schur and I are both going on a vacation with our families at the same time that we usually – there was always this time over the past seven years in August where Mike would call me and talk about what’s going to happen to Leslie that year. Basically, “This is Leslie’s journey for the season.” And he would pitch to me and we would talk it out and we would talk about ideas. It was something I looked forward to. It was like going back to school and this is the first year in seven years we aren’t doing it. So, we’re going to be together on vacation with our families for the purpose of doing that. And I’ve said to him, I think what we might try to do – (laughs) this is so Leslie Knope what I’m about to say! – is I want him to pitch me every August what’s happening to Leslie that year, even though I’m not playing her anymore. I trust that he will have a good sense of what she’s doing and I want to know! I want him to go, “So, I think Leslie’s at her job at this point.” I just want to hear, I just want to track what she’s doing.
What if he comes up with such a good idea that you can’t resist doing it for real?
I mean, look, I would work with him in any capacity in any time. I don’t see with the grind of that show, cranking the machine back up is a lot of work. And I think the ending of that show is so beautiful.
Speaking of, it feels like the pressure to do a great finale is more than it used to be.
Yeah, that’s true.
It’s almost if now a whole series is judged on the last episode.
It’s true. And, you know, we weren’t like a big event-y type show. It wasn’t, “Come watch Parks and Rec and see what crazy cliffhanger happens!” I think we had to self-adjust a lot of times, to drown out the noise of it all. But, you know, that was our whole story at Parks and Rec, that’s we had to do that all the time.
As the public, what can we do to get you and Tina Fey to host the Golden Globes again?
(Laughing)
Would a Kickstarter help?
(Laughs) Oh, that’s very nice.
How can we help?
You can all, look, as Inside Out will tell you, change is inevitable. It’s the only thing you can depend on. And it’s OK to be sad. And you never know what’s around the corner.
Mike Ryan has written for The Huffington Post, Wired, Vanity Fair and New York. He is senior entertainment writer at Uproxx. You can contact him directly on Twitter.
