الوسم: exec’s

On surviving comedy as a woman: “I have these meetings with really powerful men and they ask me all the time, ‘Where are your kids? Are your kids here?’” she says with a sneer. “It’s such a weird question. Never in a million years do I ask guys where their kids are. It would be comparable to me going to a guy, ‘Do you feel like you see your kids enough?’”

The scrutiny makes her uncomfortable: “It’s a struggle for me to remain open. To not shut down because I’m defensive or scared or maybe my ego is getting in the way. And the other side of that is just believing that I belong where I am and deserve to take up space. I fight constantly between those two things, between not apologizing for what I want and staying vulnerable and creatively supple and not thinking I know better than everyone else.”

On talking like a man: “I often look to men to model behavior. Not because I want to squelch what’s feminine about me, but because sometimes I want a little more action, a little less feeling in my interactions. I’ve been doing this thing lately where I try to talk slower at meetings. I take a lot of meetings with women and we all talk really fast. But every guy talks so much slower. I think men are just a little bit more comfortable taking up conversational real estate. So I’ve been seeing how slow I can tolerate talking. I’m doing it now. Let me tell you, it’s really hard for me.”

Why she works so heavily with emerging female talent: “It’s selfish. I just like working with women.”

She’s very involved with the Worldwide Orphans Foundation: “When I’m with my kids, I feel so lucky to have all this love in my life. But these orphans have no**** who lights up when they come into the room, and that’s really, really heavy.”

[Form Fast Company]

Cele|bitchy | Amy Poehler to male Hollywood execs: ‘stop asking me where my children are’