Cristin Milioti Looks Back on ’30 Rock’ and Whether That Taylor Swift “Sexy Baby” Lyric Is About Her
Tina Fey’s beloved NBC series 30 Rock hosted one high-profile guest star after another during its seven-season run from 2006-13.
Though she wasn’t a household name on par with movie stars like Matt Damon, Julianne Moore or Salma Hayek, Cristin Milioti delivered a performance on the episode “TGS Hates Women” as Abby Flynn, a nemesis to Fey’s Liz Lemon, that made her a fan favorite thanks to a pitch-perfect performance while delivering lines of dialogue like this: “The whole sexy baby thing isn’t an act! I’m a verrry sexxxy baby.”
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In fact, it’s that line that made its way back to the zeitgeist two years ago when Taylor Swift released “Anti-Hero” off her album Midnights. The superstar herself praised the song, which catapulted to No. 1, “as one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.” It contains the verse, “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby / And I’m a monster on the hill.” Needless to say, the internet exploded with fan theories about Swift’s alleged love of the zany sitcom and whether the lyric was indeed a reference to Milioti’s line.
Milioti has now weighed in on the mystery.
During an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show With Julia Cunningham to promote her critically acclaimed turn as Sofia Falcone in Max’s The Penguin opposite Colin Farrell, the veteran actress said she’s definitely aware of the swirl surrounding the lyric.
“When that album dropped, my phone really blew up with people asking about that, and I don’t know. I mean, in my wildest, that would be a compliment. I would love that to be true. I have no confirmation if it is,” she explained. But if the rumors are true that Swift loves the show and binged it as comfort TV during the pandemic, she’s got a friend in Milioti. “That’s a show I binge if I’m on location somewhere or if it’s like a cold, dark winter. I can watch it over and over and over. I watched that show in real time every week and was obsessed with that show.”
“TGS Hates Women” casts Milioti as Abby Flynn, a guest writer hired by Liz Lemon to prove that she, well, doesn’t hate women. However, when Abby turns out to be a sexpot who distracts the men on staff — everyone from John Lutz’s Lutz to Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy — Liz attempts to set her straight. In the process, Liz reveals her true identity as stand-up Abby Grossman and confronts her in the writers room. The plan backfires when Abby says she only created the sexy baby act to hide from an abusive ex-husband.
When Milioti landed the role, she “could barely speak” because she was so excited as a fan of the show. “I remember being on that set, and Tina Fey, who was so nice to me, was showing me the different sets. She was like, ‘This is Jack Donaghy’s office,’ and I was just trying to be so quiet and cool about it being like, ‘Oh, in the writers room. Yep. OK. Got it. Yeah,’ and like, just seeing how it all worked. Everyone on that show was so incredibly kind to me, and it felt like I had like won some contest or something.”
The feeling has continued for Milioti, who praises the show as one of the proudest moments in her still-rising career. “[I was] basically in hot pants in New York on my favorite TV show, getting to do this character,” she recalled of the “sexy baby” scene shot in the park opposite Fey. “I was like so excited to make that voice and to have the crazy wig and those crazy costumes that I got to wear. That’s one of the things I’m the most proud of hands down. Loved that show and was such a pinch-me moment.”
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