Amy Schumer on comedy: 'I hate seeing female comics be mean about women'
Schumer says she feels "hurt" when women make jokes at other women's expense.
— -- Amy Schumer produces her share of controversial comedy, but there are some things in the industry that truly bother her.
“I hate seeing female comics be mean about women,” she told Jessica Seinfeld in an interview for InStyle magazine. “Gloria Steinem gave me the biggest compliment about ‘Trainwreck.’ She said, ‘It was the first time I went to see a movie that had sex in it and I wasn’t worried I was going to be offended.’ And I’m so used to seeing male comics talk about women in a way I feel is unfair. But when it’s a woman making these jokes, I feel hurt.”
She also acknowledged, however, that some edgy jokes can be necessary.
"I think frustration is good," Schumer said. "I just want to make people laugh, but I'm also in a place where I want to make a change. A joke doesn't have to be something that's going to make people think, but if it can, that's better."
Schumer said her feminist views don't mean she isn't supportive of men.
"My understanding of men comes from my dad, my brother and the comics I'm close to. I'm interested in the male experience. I don't think that women are so much better than men," she said.
Schumer and her boyfriend Ben Hanisch, a furniture designer, have been together about a year and a half, and she said he's different from the other men she's dated.
“I’ve had a lot of that, you know?” she said when asked about partners who need to compete with her success. “Or just people who due to their own insecurity need you to be smaller. I feel like I can shine with him and also be nothing and we’re good.”
She also stressed the importance of the female relationships in her life, saying that Seinfeld is one of five new friends she’s made over the past 15 years. The two became friendly after Seinfeld's husband, comedian Jerry Seinfeld, made a cameo on Comedy Central's "Inside Amy Schumer."
“I’m pretty picky,” Schumer said. “It’s just got to line up.”
She wants people around her who will be honest with her, like if she's put "on too much makeup,” she said.
“Tell me,” she said. “Don’t just make me feel good. There are probably 20 people who are close to me, and none of them are yes men.”
Her friends are what she's proudest of in her life.
"[I'm proud] that I can have this movie come out or that I can host 'Saturday Night Live' and get to experience all of it with the people I really love," she said. "Because it seems like it could be so lonely. Why do any of this if you don't have your people?"
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