Politics & Power Quote by Amy Poehler

Poehler is smuggling a pretty radical idea into casual showbiz chatter: credibility isn’t a crown you’re handed, it’s a permission slip you write. The line starts in the weeds of craft - “good longform with talented people” is basically an improv lifer’s definition of legitimacy - then swings outward to something like a life philosophy. Do the work in a room where your instincts get sharpened by other killers, and you earn a kind of social elasticity. Suddenly you can play “the president or a construction worker” and the audience follows you, not because they’re gullible, but because you’ve trained them to trust your choices.

That’s the intent: elevate process over persona. She’s talking about improv, but she’s also talking about the way women in comedy are constantly asked to prove they can occupy authority without apologizing for it. When she says “people accept that,” there’s an implied history of not being accepted. The subtext is that range isn’t innate; it’s built through reps, collaboration, and a willingness to commit to the bit so hard it becomes believable.

The kicker is the last sentence: “It’s really the roles you give yourself.” That’s both empowering and quietly accusatory. It pokes at the cultural habit of waiting to be cast - by bosses, by audiences, by gatekeepers - and insists the first casting director is you. Coming from Poehler, whose career is basically a case study in self-authored authority (UCB, SNL, Parks and Rec, producing), it lands as less motivational poster and more field report: the freedom everyone wants is usually hidden inside the discipline they avoid.