The Story Behind What Happened to Tina Fey's Face Is Scary

May 2024 · 4 minute read

Tina Fey has candidly spoken in the past about what happened to her face. Her scar is the result of an incident that occurred when she was a child.

Mustafa Gatollari - Author

Being thrust into the public eye can be a scary thing because the more famous (or infamous) you become, the more people scrutinize and question nearly every aspect of your life. They're going to want to know the neighborhood you live in, where you grew up, and if you ever were cheated on/or were unfaithful in a relationship. 

Article continues below advertisement

They're going to want to know your workout routine and point out any "imperfections" they see on your body. Like people who are constantly questioning what happened to Tina Fey's face.

Tina Fey's actually been very open about what happened to her face as a child.

In her book, Bossypants, the Saturday Night Live breakout star, writer, actor, and producer discussed how during the spring semester of her kindergarten career, a stranger slashed her across the face without warning in her childhood neighborhood of Upper Darby, Pa.

She thought she was "marked with a pen," according to her husband, Jeff Richmond.

Article continues below advertisement

What actually happened is much more chilling: A random individual accosted her in her front yard where she was playing, out of the blue, and cut her face.

Tina Fey didn't delve too much into the details in her Bossypants book, but instead turned the entire situation into a pretty great stand-up comedy routine bit.

Article continues below advertisement

"I'm not going to lay out the grisly details for you like a sweeps episode of Dateline. I only bring it up to explain why I'm not going to talk about it," she writes in the book. "I've always been able to tell a lot about people by whether they ask me about my scar. Most people never ask, but if it comes up naturally somehow and I offer up the story, they are quite interested. Some people are just dumb: 'Did a cat scratch you?' God bless."

Article continues below advertisement

She continues, "Those sweet dumdums I never mind. Sometimes it is a fun sociology litmus test, like when my friend Ricky asked me, "Did they ever catch the Black guy that did that to you?" Hmmm. It was not a Black guy, Ricky, and I never said it was."

Tina writes that she doesn't want people to feel sorry for her or use the scar as an opportunity to act out a Lifetime movie scene.

"But I will tell you this: My scar was a miniature form of celebrity. Kids knew who I was because of it. Lots of people liked to claim they were there when it happened. 'I was there.' 'I saw it.' 'Crazy Mike did it!' Adults were kind to me because of it. Aunts and family friends gave me Easter candy and oversize Hershey's Kisses long after I was too old for presents. I was made to feel special."

Article continues below advertisement

"What should have shut me down and made me feel 'less than' ended up giving me an inflated sense of self. It wasn't until years later, maybe not until I was writing this book, that I realized people weren't making a fuss over me because I was some incredible beauty or genius; they were making a fuss over me to compensate for my being slashed."

Article continues below advertisement

Was Tina Fey in 'The Crown'?

For some reason there are a lot of people wondering whether or not Tina Fey was in Netflix's The Crown. Well, unless she had an uncredited background role, her IMDb page doesn't indicate that she played any role in the wildly popular series. The comedian has gone on the record saying she loved the show, but there's nothing to indicate she's had a part in it.

im rewatching interviews of matt and claire and when asked if which famous person surprisingly came up to them and told them they loved the show claire said tina fey went up to her and said she loved the crown and now im dead pic.twitter.com/KLQlUh4Gjj

— kat (@claire_foy) April 21, 2018

Article continues below advertisement

But, who knows if a cameo isn't possible in the future? Heck, we saw Bill Nye as Upton Sinclair in David Fincher's Mank, so anything could happen.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pbXSramam6Ses7p6wqikaKhfrLWiwIyhmKmolaOypXnTqGStoZ6Weqex2Kxkn5mTmg%3D%3D