How a Hangout Between 'SNL' Stars Became Netflix's 'Wine Country'

wine country
Netflix
Netflix

When comedian Rachel Dratch turned 50, she and her longtime female friends went on a trip to Sonoma. Of course, this was not just any group of friends. It was an enviable group of former Saturday Night Live stars and writers, among them Amy Poehler -- meaning, it wasn't an easy event to assemble. "The hardest thing I think to plan a girls trip is getting everyone on the same free weekend," Dratch says. "This is a bunch of busy ladies and in our biz something can come up at the last minute."

That quality hang time inspired them to come together once more -- and film it. The result is Netflix's Wine Country in which Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, Emily Spivey, Paula Pell, and Amy Poehler star as pals who convene for a 50th birthday celebration in Napa and explore what it means to have a decades-long friendship while also getting trashed on good wine in a gorgeous locale. Sound familiar? All six of the performers worked on Lorne Michaels' legendary series in the early 2000s. While Dratch, Gasteyer, Rudolph, and Poehler were known for their characters like Debbie Downer and the Bronx Beat hosts, Spivey and Pell were writing behind the scenes.

"Hanging out with these women on a regular basis was a fun bonus I forgot would occur when I said I would do this," Dratch remembers. "Even though we had super early morning calls, we did manage to squeeze in some good food and wine as a bonus. In a way, we got to relive the vacation a little bit even though we were mostly busy."

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But Wine Country isn't a documentary -- exactly. Directed by Poehler, who conceived of the story with Spivey and former SNL writer Liz Cackowski, the movie follows a group of women who met while they were all waitressing in a pizza parlor, not working at one of the most influential TV shows in history. They come with their own baggage. Poehler's Abby is an over-planner dealing with professional and personal stumbling blocks; Rudolph's Naomi is waiting for a nerve-wracking phone call from her doctor; Gasteyer's Catherine is a celebrity chef mulling over a career decision; and Dratch's Rebecca is stuck in a lackluster marriage. During their weekend of fun and self reflection, they belt out The Bangles, have drunken discussions about Prince, and are baffled by millennials at a Fran Drescher-themed art show.  

The story is adapted from some of their actual adventures. On Dratch's birthday trip, they hired a tarot card reader -- here played by Cherry Jones with an air of menace -- and had a paella chef on hand, who also acted as a chaperone. In the movie, said cook is an eager, horny Jason Schwartzman. In real life, it was just Dratch's other friend.

Cackowski, despite her shared history, did not actually go on the initial trip, so she was able to act as a voice of reason in the writing process. "I think what was helpful of having someone who wasn't on the trip to be able to hear stories from it and be like, 'Oh my God, yes, that's definitely a scene,' or 'let's heighten that,' and then there were some other things were more like, 'that might be more that it was funny because you were there type of thing,'" she says. Anything that didn't make the cut? Experiences related to being super famous comedians in real life.

fey
Netflix

To that point: Hanging out with Poehler, Dratch, and Rudolph is a dream for many who have watched them over the years. Does Wine Country actually represent who they are? Yes, up to a point. "Some of the characters are really close to the personae and other ones are a little more loose," Dratch says. In her case, her character was initially written as more obsessive with regards to her age, but Dratch suggested Cackowski and Spivey tone that down. Cackowski thinks it captures all these women's essences, even if changes details. "I do kind of love how much when you watch it you kind of get a sense of what everybody struggles with and is vulnerable about and like a little glimpse into what their hearts are like," she adds.

One outlier is Tina Fey. Fey's a crucial member of the SNL coterie, who was paired with Poehler on Weekend Update and in movies like Baby Mama and Sisters, but she just didn't have the time to be part of the central cast. So Poehler, Spivey, and Cackowksi plotted a role for her as the owner of the house the gang rents out, who cautions against the perils of getting wasted together. "We just loved that she could be the voice of the stereotype of what happens when women get together and put this dark cloud over them at first," Cackowski says. Fey's plaid-heavy look was inspired by a woman the creative team met when scouting locations for the film.

Because, yeah, frequent trips to Northern California are nothing to complain about. Still, it's not like they were drinking wine in all those scenes -- just one. "It was a pretty short scene so no one got tipsy," Dratch says. "We just got to take short sips of really good wine. That was a nice bonus."

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Esther Zuckerman is a senior entertainment writer at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @ezwrites.