-Underneath all of this
painful stuff and disappointment,
at the core, it's all about unconditional love.
♪♪
I find now that I am much more forgiving
in my looking back at all of this.
A lot is much clearer to me now.
-Welcome back to "Late Night."
We're here with the wonderful Amy Poehler, everybody!
-[ Cheers and applause ] -Alright.
So that was a clip from this wonderful
new documentary you directed, "Lucy and Desi."
This is the first time you've directed a documentary.
And what a fantastic subject to do -- Lucy and Desi.
-Yes. It was. It's been really great.
It's been great to spend,
you know, most of the pandemic with these people.
Lucy and Desi were these incredible innovators,
and they have a beautiful love story.
And we tried to tell kind of
the long and everlasting ways in which they were partners,
in and out of each other's lives,
as well as the incredible work that they did.
So it was great to be able to watch their stuff,
work on that while we were all shut down.
It was awesome, and you know a lot about documentaries
because you have "Documentary Now!"
-I do. I do. I make fake documentaries.
You make the real deal. -Yeah.
-But we've always -- You and I have always loved documentaries.
-I mean, I have such high regard for the form,
and I learned a ton in making this,
and I want to make more, and I just --
Yeah, I have a lot of respect. -One question I have --
Because it did seem like a lot of people
have always gone back and rewatched "I Love Lucy,"
and the pandemic really hammered home
how a lot of people want to return to comedy.
Why is that? -Yes.
Well, another study I read...
-You read a lot of studies. -I do. I do.
-Yeah. Did this study give you
a number at the end of it?
-Yeah, at the --
And it was 100. I got 100.
[ Laughter ]
That, you know, when you're going through an anxious time,
you like to watch things
where you know how they're going to end.
That's why we returned to comedy during the pandemic.
It's why we like to watch things over and over again.
It's why we fall asleep to shows that we love.
And so there's this warmth that happens
when you're watching stuff over and over.
Because, like, we don't know how this --
We don't know how this interview is going to end.
-No, we don't. -It could be a disaster.
-Right. We don't know.
I mean, it's going fine right now,
but we have had some stuff take left turns.
-This desk could explode.
The floor could fall out from under us.
I could -- I could stomp out of here.
-Yeah.
-So there's anxiety in that.
And whereas...
[ Laughter ]
But with -- with -- Yeah. With shows like --
You know, it's the kind of show
that you remember watching when you were sick.
-Yeah. 100%. -Right?
-I have a weird relationship with it because of that.
I never watched it in, like, the full health,
the full bloom of health. -Well, we -- It's like a show
that always felt like it came with your TV.
Like, it was always on. -Yeah.
-But, you know, as you'll see in the doc, like, there's --
They have a really long career that lasts long after that show.
And, yeah. I mean, they're legends.
-So he -- An interesting distinction
is made between their performance styles.
She comes at it very much as an actor.
He comes at it from a musician, which has a far looser style,
not just in performance but in prep.
-Yeah. -Do you see --
Who did you see yourself in with that?
-Well, I think I saw myself
a little bit more in the Desi world.
But it made me -- Do you --
You like to rehearse a lot, right?
-Not anymore. -Oh.
-So, the weird thing about the pandemic is, I stopped --
We didn't have time to rehearse.
-You stopped trying. -I stopped trying.
I sort of looked out at the world and I said,
"Nobody else is trying."
-You were like, "No more suits!"
-"No more suits!
I'm not putting a tie on! This isn't a job interview!"
-Ooh. -But then --
So we had to move everything up.
And then when we came back, we used to do a little rehearsal
in front of, like, 40 or so people that we'd find.
And I -- We stopped doing it,
and I like doing the show a lot more.
-You like it better? I know what you mean.
-I like finding out in the moment
because it does feel a little bit more
like the sort of improv shows we used to do,
where you didn't know in advance.
-Yeah, but we worked with a bunch of amazing people
who had different processes of how to work.
Processes? "Prah-seh-sees"? "Pro-sigh"?
-We can find out.
I have a lot of helpful ass [bleep]
who watch the show that will let us know.
-Helpful ass [bleep], can you tell us what we did wrong?
And, like, I'm thinking about Forte
and I'm thinking about Parnell.
Chris Parnell used to rehearse and rehearse.
And he'd be -- We had dressing rooms next to each other,
and he'd always be going over his lines.
And I remember being like,
"Oh, I should go over my lines. Anyway..."
But, yeah, so they came at it very differently.
People think that Lucy was this really loose, like, natural,
but she worked really, really hard,
especially when she did so much physical stuff.
-Well, it's -- I used to play -- listen on --
When we were at "SNL,"
a Walkman of people I had to do impressions of.
I would listen to tapes of them over and over again,
and I feel like I was the most wooden impressionist.
And now, I don't know if you've been watching the show,
I'm incredible at impressions.
-[ Laughter ] -You really are.
-I mean, I have just come -- And I put no thought into it.
-You let go. You let go.
-I just say to them, "You come to me.
You come. You speak through me."
-No! -You don't understand this?
You're an 8.
A 3 would understand what I'm saying right now.
-Oh, my God. Disgusting. -You come in.
And then I speak -- They speak through me.
-Ew. You invite them.
-You're making a face I don't...
-Who do you think you're good at in impressions, for real?
-Okay.
-You think you're good at Arnold Schwarzenegger.
-No, I don't. I'm gonna do it. Ready?
I think I do a really good Vince Vaughn. Ready?
-Oh. -Okay. Ready?
-Yeah, I'll close my eyes.
-[As Vince Vaughn] Buddy, buddy, buddy.
-I would never in a million years
think that that was Vince Vaughn.
-Okay. -Not -- That's it?!
-That was it, yeah. -Okay.
-Okay, so, here's my Al Pacino.
-Oh, okay. I love Al Pacino. What a great impression.
Let's hear it.
-Okay. Wait. I need to set it up.
-Oh, no. That's not a good sign.
[ Laughter ]
"I need to set..."
Do you need set it up in, "I'm about to do Al Pacino"?
-No, I already have done that.
He was in an awards show, and he was in --
It was, like, one of those awards shows
where people were in Zoom rooms. -Yeah.
-So that's --
Because it's a perfect phrase for Al Pacino.
Ready? -Okay, okay.
-[As Al Pacino] I'm in the Zoom room!
-That's good. -That was better, right?
-That was good. "Buddy, buddy, buddy."
That's good. That was great, Seth.
It was like he was here.
-Hey. You know what?
I don't think we got the gold or the silver.
-We didn't, but we got the bronze!
-We got the bronze! -We got the bronze tonight!
-Amy Poehler, everybody. -On the podium!
-"Lucy and Desi" begins streaming tomorrow
on Amazon Prime Video.