Tina Fey Accepted the Role in Modern Love (in Part) for the Tennis Lessons

Game, set, match!

Tina Fey stars in the sixth episode of Amazon Prime Video’s Modern Love, which follows a celebrity marriage that’s approaching its romantic demise and is only intact for the sake of their kids. 

The husband, played by John Slattery, 57, and wife, played by Fey, 49, take the advice of their couples therapist and begin looking for activities to help them reconnect. Finally, they find themselves on a tennis court, playing a match against each other, physically and metaphorically rallying to keep the game (and their relationship) alive. 

The writer and actress said the tennis match scene drew her to the role. “The idea that I got to get tennis lessons, and work with [writer and director Sharon Horgan] and John Slattery, I was like, ‘Yes,’” Fey tells PEOPLE Thursday night at the American Museum of Natural History’s 150th anniversary gala. 

Tina Fey in Modern Love

It wasn’t her first time on the tennis court, she says, remembering, “I played on my janky public high school team.” As to why her character seems to really get the hang of the game, Fey credits “the magic of editing.” 

The season 1 episode won over Modern Love fans for portraying a couple who hits a relatable rough patch and begins to work through it on the tennis court. Fey has been married to director and producer Jeff Richmond, 58, for 18 years, and they share two daughters, Alice Zenobia, 14, and Penelope Athena, 8. 

Tina Fey and Jeff Richmond

Fey’s outlook on health and fitness, in addition to taking to the tennis court, is about balance. Back in 2010, she told Vogue she doesn’t weigh herself.  “I just go by if my clothes fit,” she said. “I try not to participate too much in the incredible amount of wasted energy that women have around dealing with food. I just feel like being healthy is sort of a job requirement to be on TV, and being a writer is so much coping with fatigue and stress, and you just eat. You eat to stay awake.”

Season 2 of Modern Love will hit Amazon Prime Video in 2020. 


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