Tina Fey Calls Aging in Hollywood 'Glorious Act of Bravery'

"Sisters" star talks about getting older, wearing Spanx and being funny.

ByABC News
March 1, 2016, 4:40 PM

— -- Tina Fey, 45, famously stripped down to her Spanx on David Letterman's final show, but, given a choice, she'd rather just let everything hang out.

"I purposely wore three or four layers of Spanx underneath [my skintight dress], including those terrible nude-colored ones, because as I crafted the bit I didn’t want people to think I was trying to look good," she told Town and Country's April issue. "And some reacted that it was not good for women because I wasn’t fat enough under there. You cannot win."

That includes aging in Hollywood.

PHOTO: Tina Fey appears on the cover of Town & Country magazine's April 2016 issue.
Tina Fey appears on the cover of Town & Country magazine's April 2016 issue.

"The greatest challenge for me as an actress is just getting older. Trying to play the scene at hand while also trying to hold your face up. Fast-forward to being 68, and it’s a glorious act of bravery," Fey, 45, told the magazine. "There were people on the Globes in their twenties who were so Botoxed. In their twenties! We’ve been so conditioned now to never see a real human face, one that moves, with its original teeth."

She continued, "Sometimes we forget that there is a choice. I choose not to do this. It’s like wearing multiple pairs of Spanx: Good for you, not for me. Not mandatory."

Fey, whose movie "Sisters' grossed over $100 million, also addressed the continued perception that women aren't funny.

"Amy [Poehler] and I just did two months of press for 'Sisters' and journalists were still bringing up, 'People say women aren’t funny,'" said Fey, whose new movie is the dark comedy "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot."

"The next time I’m at a press junket," she said, "and someone says that, I have to remember to say, 'We need to stop talking about whether women are funny. And we need to acknowledge that black people are funnier than white people. Let’s discuss that.'"

PHOTO: Tina Fey is featured in Town & Country magazine's April 2016 issue.
Tina Fey is featured in Town & Country magazine's April 2016 issue.