Fey: All families are dysfunctional

Tina Fey enjoyed taking on a "fresh" character in her new film.

The 44-year-old actress stars in upcoming comedy movie This Is Where I Leave You as Wendy Altman, who, along with her siblings, returns home in the wake of her father's death.

It's adapted from the book by Jonathan Tropper, and Tina based her performance on this when bringing the relationships her character has to life.

“One thing I like about her story is that it felt fresh. She’s a woman who lost the love of her life without really losing him early on. It’s more detailed in the actual book, but she tries to stick with [her long-time friend] Horry in the beginning, but at a certain point it just became impossible," she explained to Refinery29.

"She had to go off and make a more pragmatic life choice, to marry this successful guy. Her life from the outside appears perfect, but she’s not really happy with all the choices she's made. It was a back-story I wanted to figure out and explore; find ways to identify with her because, thankfully, I don’t have those direct experiences in my life."

Starring as her onscreen siblings are Jason Bateman, Adam Driver and Corey Stoll, with Jane Fonda playing their mother.

Tina believes no bunch of relatives is 100 per cent normal, and that's why people can relate to the feature

“I think the term ‘dysfunctional’ is just a buzzword - some pop psychology term that’s marketable. I think this family, well all families, function per se because they’re forced to," she added.

"I think this, for a lot of people, will be a recognisable family dynamic - granted this family gets a little more physical. If the family’s getting along in a film, robots that turn into cars will come in and attack that family. Now, that’s dysfunctional!”