A heated backstage conversation between Amy Poehler and Jimmy Fallon has gone viral days after Jimmy was accused of creating a toxic work environment for his employees. An excerpt about the incident from Tina Fey’s 2013 autobiography, Bossypants, has resurfaced on social media. The tense interaction between the former Saturday Night Live co-stars involved Jimmy yelling at Amy during a table read for the NBC variety show.
“Amy Poehler was new to SNL and we were all crowded into the seventeenth-floor writers’ room, waiting for the Wednesday night read-through to start,” wrote Fey. “Amy was in the middle of some such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, except it was dirty and loud and ‘unladylike.’”
“Jimmy Fallon turned to her and in a faux-squeamish voice said, ‘Stop that! It’s not cute! I don’t like it,’” the passage read. Amy dropped what she was doing, went black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him. ‘I don’t f–king care if you like it.’”
The writer said that Jimmy was startled, while Amy went on to joke to Seth. “Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute,” wrote Fey. “She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not f–king care if you like it.”
Jimmy Fallon apologised
Rolling Stone reportedly publishedallegations from current and former employees who accused Jimmy of creating an unhealthy work environment for them. Several sources reportedly accused Jimmy of having a history of “outbursts” and behaving rudely with staff when under pressure.
Jimmy later apologised to staff on the Tonight Show during a brief Zoom meeting, people present during the interaction told Rolling Stone and Variety. “It’s embarrassing and I feel so bad. Sorry if I embarrassed you and your family and friends. I feel so bad I can’t even tell you. I want this show to be fun, it should be inclusive for everybody, it should be funny, it should be the best show, the best people,” Jimmy was quoted as saying during the meeting.
