Rock'sProducers

One of 30 Rock's assistant producer, assigned to take care of me and the other actress playing in the same scene, escorts us to one of sets, where Tina Fey is already shooting her solo scenes.
"Hi I'm Tina, nice to meet you..."she says to both of us, shaking my hand and the other woman's.
"Hi, I'm Maria, pleasure to meet you..."
I'm not going to bug her with prounancing Marija.
It was...pretty normal, like it wasn't the Tina Fey.
Then we sit with the writer and two directors, and another 20 assistant-somethings, and watch Tina's solo shoots from the high chairs with black fabric back. The makeup artist touches my face up once in a while.
There were really many people in the studio, during the shoot. I have no idea what all of they do, but I'm sure there is a job for every single one of them.
They are everywhere behind the cameras. They watch the shoot, they laugh, because Tina is genuinely funny, and everyone seems to worship her.
"Tina's great, " one of the makeup artists told me while I was in her chair.
And yes, she really is.
She was very easy to work with, and I have to admit, I was a little nervous. Not only because the shoot, but becuase of working with her. Nervous in a good way. I even laughed once during our shoot, so they had to redo it. Damn. In that moment, I felt like an amateur. I was embaressed. But she was really funny, and it was almost impossible to keep my mouth closed. Tina just said to the director: "Should we do it again?" and we did.
In the first scene, we were told to dance with Tina, in the 80s style, with our hands up. Then try to get in front of her. Steal her spotlight. Yeah, right.
In the second one, it was only me and her.
"You can touch me whereever you'd like, " I said something of a sort to Ms. Fey. Yes, I did. Let me explain.
The scene described that Tina's character is touching the Russian girl awkwardly. So I gave her permission to do whatever necessary for the scene to be good. For the sake of art, and comedy!
At the same time, the director told me to look at the camera, and ignore her, because "I'm a professional, " meaning, a pro actress in the scene.
To that remark Tina joked at her own expense: "And I'm just an idiot amateur..."
A scene was shot in front of a fireplace with candles. And my hair had a lot of hairspray on it. Ms. Fey warned me to be careful during the shoot, and not get my hair close to the candles. She pointed the same out to the directors. How thoughtfull of her.
Then the pizza feeding scene. That was also hilarious to shoot. I was feeding Tina Fey pizza.
I wish I could remember every little moment of that shoot, every conversation we had while waiting for another take. I remember clearly how funny, pleasant and normal she was every step of the way.
The shoot was a success and the directors shook my hand and thanked me. I told Tina it was a pleasure to work with her. She was whisked away fast after that.
And Alec Baldwin was watching the part of the shoot. And laughing.
It was a great experience, all around. And I got paid for it, of course.
My hairdo lasted for another three days, in a slighty different form. It went with me to L.A, the day after the shoot. How appropriate.