WEBVTT - Cheryl Hines Knows How to Improvise 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.720 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:11.440 Thing from My Heart Radio. It takes real comedic chops 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:15.360 to play the woman starring opposite Larry David for eleven 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:21.200 seasons on the cringe worthy meta hit Curb Your Enthusiasm 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:26.240 My Guest Today, Actress, director and producer Cheryl Hines plays 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.680 the cantankerous comedian's wife with the improv skills and killer 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.880 timing that have earned her two Emmy nominations for the role. 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.559 As an actress, Hynes is known for her memorable turns 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.519 in the critically acclaimed film Waitress, the sitcom Suburgatory, and 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:49.280 most recently on HBO's The Flight Attendant. She's also brought 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:53.920 her talents behind the scenes, producing the Oxygen series Campus 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:58.520 Ladies and directing the film Serious Moonlight starring Meg Ryan 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.640 and Timothy Hutton. Hines is now also a member of 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.520 one of America's most well known and respected families. She 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.520 married her husband, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. In two thousand fourteen. 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.680 With Hines starring as Cheryl David for two decades and counting, 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:20.560 I wanted to know how she got her start in acting. Well, 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.880 I mean I did commercials when I was young in Florida, 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:30.280 and then I went to University of Central Florida and 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.679 this is how old I am. Okay, my senior year there, 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:40.720 that's when Universal Studio is open. So they did like 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.319 a big casting call, like over a thousand actors showed 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.759 up because all these kids wanted to, you know, work 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.760 there and get a job as an actor because they 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.800 had different shows. And so I got hired. And I 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.240 mean so yes, I was getting paid to act if 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:02.000 you consider that professional. I tell everybody who starts out 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:04.960 when they come to me and say like, oh, what 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:06.840 do you do? You know they always want to work 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.360 that angle? What do you do to make it? How 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:12.240 do I get an agent? All that bullshit. My feeling 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.880 about that is you do anything. I don't have any pride, 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:18.520 don't have any pride. Just I was doing a soap 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:20.959 opera in New York, my first job. And while I 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.840 was doing the soap opera, I still went down. This 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.440 is pre internet, of course, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:28.800 and you go down and we go to the n 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.880 y U Film School bulletin board where they had a 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:36.120 casting section and they'd say, you know, call Frank, called 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.560 Joe Cole Susie. We're making a movie and they're shooting 0:02:40.560 --> 0:02:42.919 in a bar that they've closed down for like all 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:44.880 Saturday day and night. We're gonna shot the whole thing 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.680 in one night. Student film. I go down, I do 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.640 the film. But my point is that I would do 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.560 the show, and then I went down and I do 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.160 I did uh a showcase theater. On the weekends, we 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.919 rehearse at night. I finished the show. We finished taping 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.519 at three o'clock. Every afternoon was a half hour run 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.960 downtown Van Dam Theater. Do a play Thursday, Friday, Saturday night. 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.280 My point is, I said to people, say yes to anything. Yeah, 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.040 it doesn't matter. You gotta put it out there. You 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.280 gotta put it out there the way. Oh definitely. I 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.000 mean when I first moved to l A, I mean 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.680 I didn't have an agent. I didn't you know, I 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.600 was bartending. But I would audition for a lot of 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.960 student films. I would audition for everything because somebody had 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.639 advised me to, you know, they were like, you'll get 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.120 better at auditioning the more auditions you go to. And 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.680 of course at the time, I felt like, well that's 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.440 so mean to the productions, to audition for something that 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.120 I probably couldn't even do if I got casts. But 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.600 I didn't have to worry about that part um. I 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:47.280 did audition for student films because I knew that I 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:52.400 would get experience. It was good experience to audition for that, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.720 and that those filmmakers are gonna, if they're good, go 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.840 on to make other films. Right, So everybody has to 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.720 start somewhere. You're standing there one day at a barbecue 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.160 and somebody standing next to you and you're like, and 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.240 this is before history rights itself, and you're like, what's 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.160 your name? That guys like David David O. Russell And 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.000 you're like, oh, could you pass me the mustard? What 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:16.880 are you working on? I mean like you're there in 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.080 the infancy of someone's career and they remember you. They 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:21.760 you came to l A when you were how old? 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:29.680 I was twenty five, and so you stayed there beyond college? 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.560 You stayed in Florida. No, New York. No. I didn't 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:34.960 go to New York. No. I just went from Florida 0:04:35.000 --> 0:04:38.039 to l A because I knew two people in l A. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.920 I didn't know anybody in New York. Who in l A? 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.360 Did you know? I? Knew. There was a screenwriter named 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:49.000 Mike France who has passed away sadly. But he wrote 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.760 Golden I, one of the Bond movies. But but his family, 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.800 My family grew up together in winter Haven, Florida, so 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.160 I knew him although he was a friend of my brothers. Well, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:02.000 you know, you grow up and you're like, oh, we're 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.600 kind of the same age and you're cute. But he 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.279 was living out here. And then I had a friend 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.240 from high school named Paul Beckett, and he lived out 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:17.240 here too, and he was a professional background actor, not 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.320 an amateur background power. It was his full time. He 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:25.039 was a professional background actor. Yes, Now, when you came here, 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:30.360 what year was that? A late eighties? When you get 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.760 out there, what's the vibe? Well, so when I first 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:40.280 came out here, I like, you're saying, do anything, like, 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.279 do everything anything to try to you know, as they 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.719 say in football, move the chains. Right. So there was 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.240 a woman and I won't even remember her name. Her 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.279 first name was Melissa, but I think I saw an 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.000 ad for a quote unquote intern. And I only say 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.080 quote unquote because I wasn't even in school. But it 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:00.960 was just another way of saying we're not going to 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.000 pay you, but I would love for someone to come 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:08.320 work in my office. So I did, and I you know, 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.920 helped like go through headg shots and this and that. 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.039 And one day she she looked at me and she 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:16.000 was like, you're attractive. You should do okay, but you 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.320 should get a boob job. And I was like wow 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.720 when she had to do the card, her Husbane's card, Yeah, 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:25.880 and it's I'm going to cost you. Um so describe 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:29.320 winter Haven. I mean with them saying the girl from 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.160 winter Haven is everybody complete and no one's telling you 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:34.840 you need to have a boob job in winter Haven. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:36.919 Only when you get to l A. But when you 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.000 were home and growing up there was he just very 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.880 ordinary and all Americans. Well, so I went to from 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:44.600 winter Haven, I went to Tallahassee. That's in Tallahassee. That's 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.440 where I went to went to middle school in high school. 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:56.240 So yes, all American and conservative in Tallahassee. So you know, 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.080 guys wore khakis and polo shirt. All the guys look 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:07.360 like football coaches. Your husband. By the way, I had 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.320 at one point it was like you cannot wear khaki 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:16.119 pleaded khaki's like you can't, so he has left them behind. 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.600 But yeah, and then the girls. You know, it was 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:23.160 really it was really pretty like I don't want to 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.320 say average, that's but but like group think, you know 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.360 what I mean, it's like traditional traditional, that's the word. 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.000 So no, nobody was really that, you know, it wasn't. 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.720 I didn't know one person who had a breast augmentation 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.400 when I was in high school. But when I was 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:44.320 in l A in the beginning, I actually heard someone 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:48.720 say to someone an actress told me that the guy 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.440 or the woman that that that hinted to them that 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.760 they should have their boobs done. The person that said 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.480 this to my friend said, don't you understand? He said, 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.200 this is a sign of how beautiful you are. And 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:02.280 when you when you, when you, when you have your 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.840 boobs done, you're gonna be right there. You're gonna be 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.160 We're gonna sell you, and you're gonna do so many 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:09.880 commercials movies like there are women who we could give 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:11.960 them a boo job, and it's really not going to 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.880 make a difference, he said, They're not gonna they're not 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:19.920 going to be hirable, expect much like oh God, what's 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.920 your name? Let me write that down to send it 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:27.160 to my lawyer. It's weird. It's weird. It was interesting 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:31.520 because at that time I hadn't even thought about it, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:37.200 and it did not seem like it was necessary. But 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:38.719 what you know, I went home and I started thinking 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.480 about all the actors, actresses that I really looked up 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:45.080 to that I felt like, Goldie Hawn doesn't have big ones, 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:47.880 you know what. I started thinking of all the actresses 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.520 that I really admired, and did breast size have anything 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.680 to do with it? And I thought, oh, no, I 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.560 don't think those are the parts I'm like going for. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.240 I'm not I'm not dying to be on Baywatch, you 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:05.400 know what I mean. So it was sort of that 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.920 when I first got here and then I started I 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:13.080 started studying and performing at some point at the Groundlings 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:17.080 Theater in West Hollywood, which was all improv and in 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:23.720 sketch comedy, and you know, I didn't really experience too 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:29.439 much of the harassment. Yeah, definitely, not not any harassment. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.440 But even like guys have it easier than girls, like 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:37.199 at the Groundlings, my experience wasn't that much more democratic. 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:41.160 The Yeah, I've been so fortunate because I haven't really 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:46.320 felt that in a sense, you know. And then when 0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:51.640 I I directed a little independent film a while ago, 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.199 but that was the question, and it was was to 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.640 like probably fourteen years ago or something. It was like, wow, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:06.760 you're a female director. That's crazy. And I was like 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:11.480 it is. They're like, yeah, like never even. It was 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:13.760 just so crazy to them, and I was like, oh, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.319 I I guess it is. I never thought about it. 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.679 Now for some reason, you have omitted, as we're kind 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:27.120 of doing, or rather semi chronological stroll down the path here, 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:29.560 that how did you get to become an assistant for 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:34.440 Rob Reiner? Well, so I was. I was working as 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.640 a bartender in a hotel downtown at the Intercontinental Hotel. 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.319 I don't even know if it's still there. So I 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.200 was bartending and one of my friends, I had a 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:49.160 friend who was working for or heard that Rob Reiner 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:54.480 was turning fifty and they needed an extra assistant to 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.679 help put the party together. And they thought of me, 0:10:58.080 --> 0:10:59.680 and she said, you know, do you want to go 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.520 meet them and see? You know, it's a temporary job. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.400 You can do it during the day and then still 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.280 barton at night, which is what I did. And I 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:13.360 really loved Rob and Michelle writer and at some point 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.480 they offered me a full time job. And how long 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:22.480 did that last? Probably two years, two and a half 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:26.640 years years. I worked with Rob who had the great 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.120 line once we did the movie Goes to Mississippi and Yeah. 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.320 He came up to me and he said, uh, he said, 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.839 do me a favor. He said, we don't want to 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:37.280 put a camera in the top in the back of 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.600 the stage in the on the ceiling and shoot down 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.440 like a big overhead master. And he said, is that 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:45.960 a right with you? Do you mind doing it again? 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:49.360 I have like a three page moneologue. I said yeah, 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.520 I said, gonna be shot it and covered. And I go, yeah, right, 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.120 you've got a good piece of material. You never get 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.760 tired of doing it because you know the next movie 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:00.760 you're gonna do, you're gonna have one line of day 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.280 and that line is going to be get down, Everybody, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.080 get down. So when you have good material, you'll do 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:09.160 it again and again and again. I want to talk 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:10.960 to you about directing a movie. You did the movie 0:12:11.160 --> 0:12:14.520 with Meg I did, I did. I did a film 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.920 called Serious Moonlight. Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.679 and Justin Long they and they were all really great 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:27.240 and that film. You know, it was a complicated sort 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:31.040 of moment in time because I had just done that 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.680 the movie Waitress. I was in the movie Waitress as 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:38.080 an actress, and Adrian Shelley had written and directed and 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.840 was in Waitress. It's part of the Adrian Shelly story. Yeah, 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:48.280 And so before Waitress came out, tragically, Adrian was killed 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.720 in New York City, and then Waitress premiered in uh 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:57.360 Sundance and without Adrian, and it was, you know, it 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.200 was very bittersweet because that film is so it's a 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.600 little bit magical and people really fell in love with it. 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.839 And Adrian had written this script Serious Moonlight. And Andy Oustroy, 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:14.160 who was married to Adrian, called me after Waitress and 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:18.320 right after Adrian had been killed and said, you know, 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:22.840 I want to produce this film that Adrian wrote, and 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.800 I I want you to consider directing it because I 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.920 think you would get the tone of it. And at 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.440 that time I was like, are you talking to me? 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:36.920 I'm like, wait a second, what what do you ask? 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.160 What are we talking about? Because I had what didn't 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.680 even wasn't even thinking about directing a film. You know, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.679 I had directed some television, but not a film, and Uh, 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:51.479 what television did you direct? Well? I directed Curb before them, No, no, 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:57.000 nobody have since no. I had produced and and I 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.680 helped create a show called Campus Ladies that was about 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.720 these two uh middle aged ladies that go to college 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:06.280 for the first time and live in a freshman door 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.520 in a triple with a nineteen year old girl who's like, 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:13.079 oh my god, I cannot live with you two actually, 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.880 and Jonah Hill played the r A. So I like 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.640 to think that I gave him his first job, which 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.360 is true. So I I directed a few episodes of that, 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:24.960 but it was really fun. So I had to sort 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.680 of search my soul and figure out is this something 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:33.960 that I should do? I can do? And then I 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:39.000 talked to my director friends like Barry Sonnenfeld and and 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.000 they all said, yeah, you should just do it. Like 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.680 nobody can tell you. You can't even tell somebody what's 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:47.840 going to happen when they direct. It's something that you 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.280 have to experience. We can't even tell you what you're 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.800 going to go through. But just go for it. Do it, 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:56.080 you know, call me if there was a problem, call 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:58.160 me with questions, which is what I did, and we 0:14:58.240 --> 0:15:04.040 shot in uh fifteen days, I think fifteen days and 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:09.080 uh yeah, and then Meg said yes to the script 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:15.640 and Timothy Hutton and I mean it was it was 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:21.240 a it was a great and terrifying and stressful experience 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:24.800 when you went to the Groundlings. Who was your teacher? 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.000 My first teacher there was Lisa Kudrow. Isn't that amazing? 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.280 It's so amazing. And the reason I went to the Groundlings, 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.040 like I was saying, is I met Phil Hartman's sister 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.720 at the bar of the Intercontinental Hotel and she was like, 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:41.400 that's where my brother got to start. And I said, 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.200 oh my god, I've got to go to this theater 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.760 and see what it's about. And when I went, I 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.000 fell in love with it. I couldn't believe what they 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.800 were doing on that stage. But I had no money. 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.040 I didn't even have a refrigerator at this point because 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.480 I didn't know apartments didn't come with the refrigerators. But 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.440 all I did was talking about the Groundlings, and that's 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.600 really what I where I wanted to go, you know, study. 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.720 And so on my birthday, all the regulars and the 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.720 Wade staff Chip did and paid for my first Groundlings class, 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:18.520 and then my teacher was Lisa Kudro, actor and producer 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:24.239 Cheryl Hines. If you enjoy conversations with funny and insightful actresses, 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.200 check out my episode with Kristen Bell and the moment 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:30.440 I said, you know what, I have a thing and 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:34.120 it's a quirky, weird, funny, bubbly fun thing that's can 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.440 be snarky and I love doing it. I do it 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.960 pretty well. Why not lean into it? And that is 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.680 when I felt like I started becoming happier, when I 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:47.480 stopped trying to be in everyone else's category. To hear 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.360 more of my conversation with Kristen Bell, go to Here's 0:16:51.400 --> 0:16:55.440 the Thing dot Org. After the break, Cheryl Hine shares 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.560 what it's like to direct the One and Only Larry David. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.680 I'm Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here is 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.040 the Thing. When Cheryl Hines was first introduced to Larry 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:19.119 David during her Curb Your Enthusiasm audition, the actress had 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.360 no idea if she was about to encounter John Cassavetti's 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:27.560 Howie Mandel with a funny dweeb from chemistry class. I 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:30.600 didn't even know what he looked like, and at that 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:35.000 time I was still working for Rob Reiner, and Rob 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.040 and Larry know each other. And I knew that they 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:42.760 know each other because because because Sel was a Castle Rock. Yeah, 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.920 but at that time I was auditioning for a lot 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.879 of stuff. My agent called and said they were looking 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:55.400 for an unknown actress to play Larry David's wife and 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.320 it's all going to be improvised. I said, well, how 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:05.640 old is that guy? Isn't he old? And my agent, 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.960 who my agent at the time, was not a great agent. 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.320 If you're listening, you know who you are, um, but 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.639 he was like because he was like, look, you're probably 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.000 not going to get this part. Just go have a 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.600 good audition. Then maybe there's something else for you in 0:18:21.640 --> 0:18:24.919 the show. And I was like, thank you, Okay, So 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:28.280 that's what I did. I just I didn't know what 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.159 he looked like. I didn't know anything about him, about Larry. 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:36.119 And when I was walking down the hallway to audition, 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:39.840 the casting director said, don't touch Larry. He doesn't like 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:43.320 for people to touch him. I was like, okay, and 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:45.760 they said, uh, you know, it's supposed to sort of 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.560 feel like a documentary, so up at any point it 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.919 feels fake or false, the audition will be over. I 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:56.640 was like, Okay. They were like in here's Larry, there's 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.080 this is a mine field, and there's some minds on 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.159 the floor that will blow up your whole audition. To 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.680 make sure you don't step on them. Right, they're out 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.680 there somewhere. Did they really say that to you? I mean, 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.520 and actually it was good advice because you know, because 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.680 because curb your enthusiasm is all improvised. So I've been 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:20.000 in the room to improvise with other actors that come 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.879 into audition for our show. And when you're improvising and 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.360 you know this, like you have to make decisions quickly, 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:30.879 and you have to you how to do yeah, and 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:33.800 you have to assume a relationship in an improv you 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.480 just do otherwise it's too strangers, you know, yes, and 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:44.040 we say yes. So if you're improvising with someone, your inclination, 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.879 especially if your husband and wife, might be to touch 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:51.520 the other person. So, knowing what I know now about Larry, yeah, 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.640 don't touch him. He doesn't want to. He doesn't want 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.320 twenty strangers touching him, even if it's in an audition 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:03.960 for his show, right, even it might improve the audition. Yeah, 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:05.920 he doesn't want that, is he still that way. He 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:10.280 still got that, uh how a Mandel thing. Don't touch me? Yes, 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:17.080 that thing too, your elbow fispum, no touching, don't touch me. Yeah. 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:19.000 I never would have guessed that about Larry. I didn't 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:22.240 know that about Larry. What I only one time had 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.919 an opportunity. They were just like a brief discussion of 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.840 me doing the show, and I guess it was I 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:32.080 want to guess that it was McEnroe did the show. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.520 I was going to play myself and Larry and I 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.040 share a limo from l a X coming into town 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:40.480 and they said to me that here's the idea. And 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:42.760 I thought, uh, oh great, and we couldn't work it 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:46.879 out dates wise or whatever, and uh he never called 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:49.159 me again. It never asked me again. And uh, but 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.119 I was asked to do the show. I think the 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:52.840 person that played the part I was supposed to play 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:57.159 was McEnroe. So when you do the show now, the 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.800 show has been obviously over twenty years. Yes, so you've 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:02.879 been in and around these people for twenty years now. 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:04.639 I know that when I did a show, and I 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.240 and I love the people, there was like a handful, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:10.800 not many certainly, who I never wanted it to end. 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.040 I never tired of being around them. When Curb is over, 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:17.199 have you had enough of Curb and you're ready to 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:18.919 take a break. And that is a put down of anybody, 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:20.800 But it's like, there's a thing where you've done this 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.760 for so long now, No, you like when you have 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.480 a break. No, you can do fifty two shows a year. 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:29.919 We'll see. That's the thing too, because up for a 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.840 season for us is ten episodes, so and then we 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.879 do it like every other year or something. But I 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:41.720 have the same sort of feelings about Larry. I mean 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:44.359 I feel like, you know, when you're in high school 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.720 and you're you have a chemistry lab class and they 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:50.080 pair you up with somebody random and you're like, oh 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.200 my god, I'm stuck with this guy. Um, and then 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.040 you realize, oh my god, this is the smartest, funniest 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.040 guy I've ever met in my entire life. Um. And 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:03.880 you you know, you love going to class every day 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.480 because the two of you make things explode. And that's 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:08.199 how I feel about Larry. I mean, I feel like 0:22:08.280 --> 0:22:10.320 in all of them. I mean, I love Susie, I 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:15.240 love jaff Richard Lewis. It's like I just I could 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:17.920 do it every day, all day for the rest of 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:21.760 my life. I watched that show, and I mean people, 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:25.400 you know, the great gift of that show is that 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:28.239 you gotta have people who can deliver a line. You know, 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.359 Susie Essman, you gotta have that woman was how to 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.280 deliver a line. She's like, she's like the Olivier of vulgarity, 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:43.200 you know what I mean? And I think to myself, 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.199 is Larry somebody who does he want to bring in 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:47.960 new people? Does he want to try new people, Let's 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:49.879 write new characters, let's freshen up. Or is he one 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:51.800 of those guys where I got a company of actors 0:22:51.800 --> 0:22:53.840 and I like them and I want to work with them. 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:55.560 I like what I'm gonna stick with what I have. 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.080 He's a combination. It's always been odd to me that 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:04.320 we have actors, famous people who play a version of themselves, 0:23:04.320 --> 0:23:07.040 and then we also have famous people who play a character. 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.600 Like Vince Vaughn has been playing a character, so it's 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:15.800 it's funny, but he it really is uh story driven, 0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:19.840 so he he comes up with the ideas. Larry comes 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:23.480 up with the ideas, and Jeff Schafers is really amazing 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:26.879 behind the scenes. So they come up with ideas for 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:30.640 the shows and then they take it from there. But 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:33.560 you know, I think he likes to cast people that 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:38.280 he knows. But also you know the casting. They've casted 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:42.240 a lot of people casted. Is that a word they've cast? 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:46.320 I think the past tense of cast is cast. Even 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:50.720 when you say it wrong, Sherrott sounds great. Well when 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.120 they cast, when you blow the line, it's fantastic. So yeah, 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:55.960