Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Interview with Kim Barker

Never in a million years did journalist Kim Barker ever think her life would be played out on the big screen let alone be played by Tina Fey!

Barker was the South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2009, and in her best-selling novel, The Taliban Shuffle she recounts the humorous (although harrowing) moments reporting from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Her book made it's way into Tina Fey's hands and sure enough, a movie deal was in the works. The film is titled, Whisky Tango Foxtrot and is co-produced by Fey and Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live. It follows Kim's experiences while working as a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. The film also features Martin Freeman (The Hobbit), Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street), and Billy Bob Thornton.

Tina Fey and Margot Robbie in, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

It all started  in 2003 when Barker was a journalist in her early 30s was living in Chicago, with a comfortable life felt she was missing something. Some part of her was drawn to covering the post-September 11 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, so when the paper was looking for volunteers to go to over to cover the war and being a news junky, Barker was in.

Me and KIm Barker

I spoke with Kim Barker about what it’s like having her book and a chapter of her life made into a major motion picture, how surreal it is to have Tina Fey play her and what she thinks of the state of journalism today. Please click the link below for our interview. 

Just in case you're wondering what Whiskey Foxtrot Tango stands for - it’s a military code for the expletive otherwise expressed  as ‘WTF.’

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot opens in theatres nationwide on March 4th.