It’s hard to steal the show from comedians like Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, but when you’re playing the villains to their heroes, you can come close. Amy Poehler plays half of the Stranz and Fairchild duo, rivals to the boys’ figure skating team.
Amy Poehler Throws on the Skates for Blades of Glory
“It’s way more fun to be evil,” said Poehler. “What was fun about our stuff was that we had to look like from the outside that we were all sweet but inside we were rotten to the core. That was really fun to play. Also Stranz and Fairchild, I think Fairchild is kind of mean to Stranz too during the film. It was really fun to play the bad guy because as a woman sometimes you don’t get to do that. You have to be nice.”
The rivalry extended behind the scenes, as Poehler joked about the star’s sabotage of her best material. “Every time that we’d do something funny Ferrell would accidentally like hit the camera or lose the film. Hair in the gate, all that crap. We did get to do a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff that I remember being genius, but we got to play around a lot. We improvised a lot of stuff too so that was fun.”
The improv remains in the film. “We did a scene, the scene where we’re all in this room when we’re giving our sister seduction advice. Ferrell was off camera doing the other side of the phone call. So that was really fun because we got to improvise together and get ready for whatever he said because they hadn’t shot his side yet.”
Poehler dresses up in as many outrageous costumes as everybody else, but perhaps her wardrobe was easier on the body than the guys’. “The gentlemen had more spandex in many ways than the ladies, which is a nice twist, isn’t it? Usually the ladies have the spandex. We did a lot of fittings and I had costumes that plugged in and jingled and jangled. And Julie Weiss, the costume designer, she’s amazing, she’s also worked on such amazing stuff as Brazil.”
Learning to skate was new for Poehler, but she survived the film with no injuries. “No injuries, except for some bruised egos,” she joked. “Just some broken hearts and bruised egos.”
Blades of Glory opens to theatres on March 30th.