Amy Schumer talks Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Patricia Arquette in magical 'Last F---able Day' sketch

“It was an emotional day,” says Amy Schumer. “I am not kidding—I really think it was the best day of my life.”

Schumer is talking about the sketch within tonight’s third season premiere of Inside Amy Schumer: “Last F—able Day,” a bit co-starring Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Patricia Arquette. The three legendary actresses, along with Schumer, deliver a devastating and hilarious take on the double standards of Hollywood when it comes to its aging stars. (Who knew we’d be dying to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus chug ice cream—”Jen & Carrie’s Vanilla of a Certain Age,” a sly shout-out to Schumer’s publicity team—and belch like a frat boy?)

The Inside Amy Schumer crew has been tossing around the idea for L.F.D in the writers’ room for a couple of years now. “It started so long ago I don’t remember the specifics,” says head writer Jessi Klein. “I think we talked about how there’s this invisible line and a general sense when an actress is getting older. Somehow we got to the phrase ‘Last F—able Day,’ and it just clicked.”

The next step was bringing aboard director Nicole Holofcener, known for helming female-driven indies like Lovely and Amazing and the Julia Louis-Dreyfus/James Gandolfini starrer Enough Said. “I instantly loved the idea of it,” says Holofcener. “I called Julia [Louis-Dreyfus] right up, told her about it, and she was in. We talked about other possible unf—able women, and [Tina Fey and Patricia Arquette’s] names came up. They read it quickly and wanted to do it. I think once Julia agreed to be unf—able, it wasn’t hard to get others interested.”

Managing the schedules of three A-listers proved a challenge. But on a sunny day last month, filming began in Los Angeles. “We had one day to shoot, and I knew it should feel happy and sunny, very celebratory,” says the director. “No bitter feelings, no sour grapes, just the facts. And funny.”

Klein and Schumer couldn’t believe the sketch was actually coming together with these players involved. “It really was weirdly magical,” says Klein. “Especially for those of us coming from New York—after this long, terrible winter, we were in this beautiful bucolic setting on a perfect sunny day. Amy says when she sees them, ‘You guys are my heroes.’ All of us were sitting there feeling that,” she says. “Also, there was cake.”

Schumer and Klein told the three women that they could change anything in the script that they wanted—“I’m not going to tell Tina Fey what to say,” says Klein, with a laugh. The result? The women all sat upon crates and pitched new jokes. (The ‘white spiders’ line was Fey’s.)

Holofcener was happy to sit back and let it all unfold. “I can’t say that I had to do very much—it was so much fun. Stressful too, because I wanted to keep shooting. Sometimes someone would say they weren’t crazy about a line, and everyone would throw in their ideas. I had to kind of pinch myself because of what was happening right before me,” she says. “After doing the scene a million times I think it sort of got to me. This sketch is funny, but it’s funny because it’s so tragically true. The fact that Amy can be so challenging and political while being shamelessly hilarious is her true genius. It’s not stupid humor, it’s humor that really shows us who we are and how insanely screwed up our culture is.”

As for Schumer? “I got to listen and worship them. We made each other laugh all day long,” she says. “It was really the best.”