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Tig Notaro Breaks Down New Netflix Special, Why She’s Playing the First Lady and Not President (Exclusive)

Wrapping up the story! Comedian Tig Notaro joined Us Weekly’s Watch With Us podcast this week to break down her new Netflix special, which she considers the final chapter to a story she began in 2014. Listen to the entire episode above, and read the highlights below:

On the end of a trilogy:
“My idea for this special is that Happy To Be Here is the third place of what I consider a trilogy. That includes my album, Live, when I had cancer. The follow up to that was Boyish Girl Interrupted, which was me crawling out of the rubble and trying to get re-situated in life. Happy to Be Here is just simply me being happy to be on planet Earth. There’s nothing heavy or dark with this special. I think it exudes pure joy, which is where I am in my life.”

Tig-Notaro-netflix
Tig Notaro Netflix

On creating First Ladies with her wife:
“When we first got together, I said ‘You should run for mayor.’ Then I realized in that moment, I’d be first lady. We had a laugh at that … It escalated to president and first lady at the house, just silly jokes. One day, it was like, this could actually be a movie. So we met with a producer, told her idea and she loved it. She said, ‘You know, this would be so easily and quickly made as an indie film with Stephanie as the president and you as the first lady. However, Stephanie, if you’re not precious about playing the president, we could get the biggest star to play the president.’ Stephanie was like, “Oh my gosh, I don’t need to play the president at all. I said I don’t need to play the first lady.’

On how Jennifer Aniston was cast:
“I had heard a few years ago that Jennifer’s agent had called my agent saying she wanted to work with me on something. I remembered that and we’d talked about how Jennifer’s America’s sweetheart and everybody loves her and that’s the ideal president … she signed on to it before the final pitch went out.

Tig Notaro and Jennifer Aniston
Tig Notaro and Jennifer Aniston Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic; Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com

On her role as the first lady and not the president:
“It’s funny because so many people have responded saying ‘You should be president.’ I’m like, ‘No you don’t know the story yet!’ That’s the humor to it, that I’m the first lady, that I would take on that role. It wouldn’t excite me at all to be the president with my personality, it excites me to be the first lady as me. I can’t even tell you how fun it is writing this movie for Jen Aniston. We want to make a really good, smart, political film, but there is just pure joy in writing this. The silliness is fun but trust me the political element, we’re not skipping over that.

Happy to Be Here is currently streaming on Netflix.

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