Tina Fey had to make one very important call before casting a certain someone in 30 Rock.
The former Saturday Night Live star said in a joint sit-down with Jon Hamm that she reached out to SNL creator Lorne Michaels before offering Jon the part of Dr. Drew Baird.
“I didn’t meet you before you hosted [Saturday Night Live], and I remember calling or emailing Lorne and saying, ‘Let me know if he’s funny because we have a part coming up on ’30 Rock’ that would be great for him,’” Tina shared with Interview magazine in a piece published on Monday.
The call was “also to make sure you weren’t a dick,” Fey added.
Jon added that “that’s a real thing” in the business.
“It’s not fun to work with people that aren’t fun,” the “Bridesmaids” star said.
Tina agreed, saying that “life’s too short and the hours are too long.”
Frazer Harrison via Getty Images
During the pair’s interview, Jon also recalled the “fun” of being offered the part in 30 Rock, and the special way he found out he was being considered.
“I remember coming back down to the host dressing room at ‘SNL,’ and the phone rang,” he said. “I’m in 30 Rock and it’s like, whose phones are these? Does somebody have this number? Who’s calling my dressing room?”
“So I picked up and I think it was Robert Carlock on the other end who said, ‘Hey, would you like to do this? We have a part for you,” Hamm shared, explaining that Carlock told him the part was for “a totally normal doctor that won’t go weird at all, I promise.’”
Spoiler alert: things got very weird.
“The first episode you did with us, you were a normal doctor,” Tina shared. “And by the end of this arc, you have hooks for hands.”
The pair have kept their creative partnership going well beyond their days on 30 Rock.
The duo has teamed up on projects like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Modern Love, Maggie Moore(s) and Mean Girls: The Musical.
“Tina is a very confident and capable actress, she’s an amazing person,” Jon gushed over his Maggie Moore(s) co-star in a 2023 interview with ET. “We’ve known each other for a long time now, and I think we respect each other’s talent and abilities and what we bring to the table.”
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