Tina Fey has dedicated her latest film "Whisky Tango Foxtrot" to her late father Donald Fey. In the film, Fey stars as journalist Kim Baker, a woman who worked in Afghanistan as a war correspondent. The comedian revealed that the film was a tribute to Donald, who was a Korean War veteran who worked as a journalist for 30 years after the war.
"My dad served in Korea. He was a code-breaker in Korea. So he didn't see active duty, but he was real smart," Fey said on Wednesday at a New York Times TimesTalk. "He went to the Temple University School of Journalism after he got back."
Fey also said during the discussion that her family had created a scholarship in her father's name at Temple University.
"It's a very specific scholarship, which I think is okay. It's specifically for returning vets who might want to study journalism," she said. "I think we've raised over $100,000 so far for it to be an ongoing scholarship."
Donald died at the age of 82 due to heart failure on Oct. 18, 2015, the same time that the directors of the film, John Requa and Glen Ficarra, were in the middle of editing "Whisky Tango Foxtrot." The two managed to put a special dedication to Fey's father in the credits of the film, an idea that was first brought up by Fey's friend and "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels.
"He said, 'You only have one father, and you only have one chance to do this,'" Fey told The Hollywood Reporter at the film's screening Tuesday night in New York City. "Like many, many times in my life, I took his advice."
The dedication does not come in directly after the film ends, but isntead after the sequence of individual cast members are presented onscreen.
"We actually argued a little bit," co-director Requa said of the dedication's placement. "We're like, 'Just put it right at the end of the movie, before the titles.' She said, 'No, no, it's better if you put it in a little bit, so it doesn't draw too much attention.'"
"He's a journalist and a vet, so it's so fitting - he really is a guy who embodied what the movie is about," Requa added.
"I think he would've absolutely loved it," Ficarra said.
"Whisky Tango Foxtrot" comes out in theatres on March 4.
