Hollywood BollywoodScience Bookworm Rhythm “Once I got married and had babies, I had to take time out for my children. Hence I took a break. My personal life took precedence over my professional life” Pg07 QATAR TRIBUNE Publication Thursday April 4, 2013 High five for super sitcom Amy Poehler does not want to think of the time when Parks and Recreation will have its nal airing fi PG 02 COVER STORY Thursday, April 4, 2013 For Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation is still new CINDY PEARLMAN “Honestly, this show in many ways awicz. She learned from Justin Theroux. NYT SYNDICATE saved my life,’’ Poehler continues. “It Then came Adam Scott, and the idea enriched my life in all these different was that she would date him and learn MY Poehler’s career lives ways. It’s truly the job that I’ll never something about herself. and dies by television rat-- have again, so I’m very grateful for every “He just got her number,’’ she says. ings – which is particularly minute of it.’’ “It’s chemistry, baby. You just can’t fight scary for her as she, who After five years as Leslie Knope, she it.’’ Amy Poehler admits that she hasn’t a clue says, she’s still finding out new things Fans needn’t worry that the show will Ahow ratings are actually devised. about her character. settle into a new existence as a domestic “I don’t know how a Nielsen box “Leslie can overplan and overdo sitcom, with Ben and Leslie sitting on a works,’’ she says, speaking by telephone things,’’ Poehler says, “but she’s a mod-- couch and shouting at the kids. from the set of her hit comedy, ern woman who gets the job done. Like “Being an old married couple on Parks and Recreation. “Do you many of us, she likes to be in control, TV, to me, means that they have been punch a hole? Do you write and then things just sort of get thrown together a long time and are kind of ... something on a piece of paper up in the air, which is life.’’ you know,’’ Poehler says. “What’s so cool and give it to a carrier pigeon It’s been a memorable season for Le-- about getting to work with Adam is that and then the bird flies it off, slie, who has married her true love, Ben I always get surprised. I’m always chal-- sort of like that show Game of Wyatt (Adam Scott). They had to throw lenged and it’s always interesting. Thrones?” together their wedding in less than two “It feels very alive and very young,’’ Come now, surely a woman hours in order to get hitched on the she says. “Nothing about it feels old.’’ who spent seven years on Sat-- night of a black-tie gala. It’s natural, Poehler adds, that a urday Night Live (2001-2008) “This show hasn’t killed us with low show and its characters should evolve in before segueing to Parks and expectations,’’ Poehler says. “It isn’t that the course of five years. Recreation, which is currently in will-they/won’t-they love dilemma. They “I remember when this show was its fifth season on NBC, knows are a couple. They are together, which is born,’’ she says. “The first image that at least a little about the ratings something I love. comes to mind is me in my kitchen in process. “It’s about people living a satisfying, New York talking to (executive pro-- “You don’t give it to a carrier full life,’’ she says. “They’re three-dimen-- ducer) Mike Schur on the phone and pigeon,’’ she concedes. “Of course sional characters who deserve to have him saying, ‘You’re going to love how we you give your vote to a raven, everything, including work, love and shoot the show. You’ve never going to who then drops it into a glass tube marriage.’’ want to shoot anything differently after where it goes down to a man with The wedding is still a bit of a shocker this experience.’’’ wire-rimmed glasses. He sits in a to longtime fans, who remember Leslie He was right, the actress says. dark room, opens that scrap of paper going through a series of relationships “The way we shoot the show is so and then puts a check next to my with different kinds of men in the show’s fun,’’ Poehler says. “The writing com-- name, right? That’s how it works. first couple of years. Then Ben came bined with the easy way we shoot just “I just hope everybody does that along at the end of the second season, equals freedom for me.’’ each time an episode airs.’’ and things changed. Asked to pinpoint her favourite epi-- Actually the Nielsen process “She learned something from Louis sode thus far, Poehler points to Hallow-- is higher-tech than that, but the CK’s character,’’ Poehler says. “She een Surprise, the October 2012 episode important thing is that Parks and learned something from Mark Brendan-- in which Ben popped the question to Recreation, the saga of the parks- and-recreation staff in tiny Pawnee, Indiana, trying their best to make the town a little better while sorting out their own personal chaos, has a loyal audience. Millions of people tune in every week to see what’s up with Leslie Knope (Poehler), a midlevel bureaucrat, a new bride and – sometimes against her own better judgment – a dedicated public servant. As many television stars do, the 41-year-old Poehler credits the show’s writers more than her own performance. “Hard laughs and sharp turns,’’ says the actress, who is also among the show’s produc-- ers. “They’re so hard to do and amazing to watch, which is what I think the writers of this show do so well. Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation. Thursday, April 4, 2013 Amy Poehler in Weekend Update. Leslie. Live, quickly becoming known for her “There’s so much stuff, rich stuff,’’ “I remember when “It was so beautifully written,’’ she snarky impersonations of Madonna, Poehler says. “Leslie is newly married, this show was born,” says. “That proposal just felt like a long Sharon Osbourne and Kelly Ripa. In and the Parks Department is constantly time coming, so that made it extra nice. I 2004 she and Fey became co-anchors being faced with the threat of being cut she says. “The first think everybody was really happy for the of Weekend Update, one of the show’s or being exterminated or being misman-- characters, plus it was very sweet and most high-profile segments. She transi-- aged. The writers did an amazing job of image that comes heartfelt. tioned easily onto the big screen, being laying out the thoughts and dreams for “It felt very earned, which was also seen in such comedies as Mean Girls Season 6.’’ to mind is me in my fun.’’ (2004), Blades of Glory (2007) and At some point, of course, Parks and The show is also known for its fa-- Baby Mama (2008). Recreation will have its final airing. kitchen in New York mous guest stars, including Will Arnett, Offscreen Poehler married fellow That’s one thought that its star doesn’t talking to executive Patricia Clarkson and Parker Posey. comedian Arnett in 2003, and they are want to entertain. One long-rumoured guest shot has not the parents of four-year-old Archie and “Basically, when the show is over, the producer Mike Schur yet come to pass, however: Now that two-year-old Abel. The two are currently cast and all the writers are going to go her own long-running series, 30 Rock separated, however, and Poehler prefers to a town and we’re going to live there,’’ on the phone and him (2006-2013), is off the air, will Poehler’s not to talk about her personal life. She Poehler says. “We’re going to pretend it’s old friend Tina Fey be stopping by? is, however, often seen pushing her boys Pawnee until the Department of Tobacco saying, ‘You’re going “We never know who’s going to come around the NBC lot in a stroller. and Firearms tells us we have to leave.’’ around,’’ Poehler says with uncharacter-- “My kids mean everything,’’ she says. to love how we shoot istic caution, “and certainly we haven’t Like Fey, Poehler has had to make the show. You’ve even thought about what we’re going to some compromises. Each woman has shoot next year.’’ had to put her big-screen aspirations on never going to want Poehler grew up in Burlington, Mas-- the back burner, squeezing in an occa-- sachusetts, as the daughter of two high- sional movie around the demands of her to shoot anything school teachers. After earning a degree series. Nonetheless Poehler will be seen in media and communications from in the Sundance hit ACOD – it stands for differently after this Boston College, she moved to Chicago to Adult children of divorce – and also in study comedy with Second City and Im-- You Are Here, about two childhood best experience’’’ prov Olympics, where she first met Fey. friends (Zach Galifianakis and Owen In 1996 she joined the Upright Citizen’s Wilson) who go on a road trip back to Brigade, moving to New York with the their hometown after one inherits a large group two years later when it got its own sum of money. show on Comedy Central.