Actress and comedian Amy Poehler with "Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden.
(ABC News)
"I love doing the update. … The difference is that you will say your name on the show. It makes a difference," Poehler said. "You allow yourself to be yourself on camera, which is hard for an actor to do but really hard for a comedian to do. You're not hiding behind a character."
She was inspired by her comedy idol Gilda Radner who got her start on the show 30 years ago.
"I would have to say my ground zero person was probably Gilda. I remember thinking how she held her own in a group of real alpha males."
She is starring with Fey in the comedy "Baby Mama," in theaters April 25, which tackles the decidedly un-funny subject of infertility with odd couple antics.
Poehler plays Angie, a crude, working class girl with a heart of gold who signs on to be a surrogate for Fey's Kate, a single yuppie in her late 30s who can't get pregnant.
"We were excited about the idea. We felt we hadn't seen it in a while. The idea of it being a straight-up comedy about two women. The topic felt very real to us, like it was really ripe for good jokes," said Poehler.
While Poehler acted out her fair share of outrageous moments in the movie, she wanted to be careful in how she portrayed Angie.
"I had to make sure that she was blue collar realistically," Poehler said. "She goes through a journey in that film that's not always what you agree with … and you have to kind of stay on board with her and figure out why she's making these choices."
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