Tina Fey explains how a Nazi filmmaker taught her how to think about making art under President Trump

(Image credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

published 7 December 2016

Comparing President-elect Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler is nothing especially new. Yet as the days wind down before Inauguration Day, comedian Tina Fey told David Letterman in an interview published by The Hollywood Reporter that she wants people to do two things before the year is over: "Watch Idiocracy by Mike Judge and read [Nazi filmmaker] Leni Riefenstahl's 800-page autobiography [Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir]."

Pressed by Letterman on that curious second recommendation, Fey elaborated:

Fey: [Riefenstahl] grew up in Germany. She was in many ways a brilliant pioneer. She pioneered sports photography as we know it. She's the one who had the idea to dig a trench next to the track for the Olympics and put a camera on a dolly. But she also rolled with the punches and said, "Well, he's the fuhrer. He's my president. I'll make films for him." She did some terrible, terrible things. And I remember reading [her book] 20 years ago, thinking, "This is a real lesson, to be an artist who doesn't roll with what your leader is doing just because he's your leader."Letterman: My impression of this woman is that she was the sister of Satan.Fey: She was in many ways. But what she claimed in the book was, "He was the president, so what was I supposed to do?" And I feel a lot of people are going to start rolling that way. [The Hollywood Reporter]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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