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Amy Poehler is fondly remembering the day Michelle Obama filmed her guest appearance on Parks and Recreation — in part, because she “drooled” in front of the then-first lady
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In an episode of her podcast Good Hang, the actress asked if Obama “had a memory” of that day, saying she had “a very strong” one
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“I went to say my line, and I drooled,” Poehler recounted
Amy Poehler says she has strong memories of the day Michelle Obama filmed her 2014 guest appearance on Parks and Recreation — because she drooled before the director yelled “cut.”
Obama appeared as herself on the hour-long season 6 finale of the show, and as Poehler recounted on the May 13, 2025, episode of her podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler, the former first lady was “perfect.”
“Do you have a memory of that day? I’m sure you didn’t because you were probably the middle of your workday, but I have a very strong memory about something,” Poehler said on the podcast.
Obama said that the day was “a blur,” adding, “the thing is is, like, I’m not an actress, and I’m running lines and trying figure out, I mean, can be a good actress on top of everything else.”
“But I was nervous,” Obama, 61, added. “I was like, you know, I wanna I wanna get it right, but I wanna be myself in a natural way. So it was very much a blur. What do you remember?”
Daniele Venturelli/Getty; Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty
Amy Poehler, Michelle Obama
That’s when Poehler said she remembered “the very first take” of their scene, saying, “We were busy. We were hitting a bunch of places that day. You were perfect. You got your line. You hit your mark. You said your line, and my character, Leslie Knope, is supposed to be overwhelmed by seeing you.”
“And I, Amy Poehler, was also very jazzed, and I went to say my line, and I drooled,” Poehler, 52, added. “Do you not remember? I’m glad you don’t remember. I full on drooled.”
Poehler said Obama was “a total pro,” adding, “You just looked like, ‘Okay. Maybe this is a choice.’ And then director yelled, ‘Cut’ … I was like, ‘Did I just drool?’ And they’re like, ‘You did.’ “
Poehler then joked that she has “very active salivary glands,” adding: “When I go to the dentist, they’re always like, ‘Whoa.’ “
“I do not remember the drool,” Obama reiterated, adding, “But I’m gonna think about that.”
“Yeah. I know. I want you to always associate that with me now,” Poehler joked.
NBC
Michelle Obama on ‘Parks and Recreation’ in 2014
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Poehler added that filming the show in those years “was such a fun time, because not only was I getting to do the job that I loved, but it was a time when it felt like everybody wanted to stop by and be part of the show that was about public service.”
“And it was a different time where there was this ability or lightness, I think, in many ways to just put a bunch of different people together in a room, and they don’t agree, and they still find a way to work together,” she said.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Poehler spoke with the former first lady and her brother Craig Robinson to discuss family dynamics, life after the White House and the launch of the siblings’ new podcast, IMO.
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