Another day at the office for Tina Fey

New York

On Monday, “30 Rock’s” Tina Fey was one of the most visible faces on the strike line in New York. But today she was on the other side of the picket line –- inside Silvercup Studios, filming scenes for her NBC sitcom while her fellow writers marched outside.

In an interview Monday as she walked the picket line, Fey said that NBC had made it clear “that I'm contractually obligated as an actor to finish” the show’s last written script. “We have a couple more days of shooting that I will shoot as an actor, and that will be it,” she said.

As an actor-writer-executive producer, Fey embodies the competing pressures facing television showrunners.

“It’s very complicated things for 'hyphenates,'” she said Monday. “We’re certainly not performing any more writing duties. At the same time, I feel the strike will be most effective when everything shuts down. I understand the guild's point that the longer that shooting continues to trickle on, the less effective the strike is. It's very complicated. We have a crew that expects one more check, and we're trying to get it to them, trying to finish.”

“I think whatever happens in Los Angeles today will be influential on what happens here,” Fey had added. “I think if we end up seeing actors walk today in Los Angeles, then it might make it easier for us.”

More news on the strike

--Matea Gold

Comments

[Northwest John]

With the generally unimpressive state of mainstream television I am surprised as much of the outside world is that the studios or anti-writer's union crowd can't find eager and competent replacements.

I mean the talent pool isn't really that deep in Hollywood.