90s BOMBSHELLS with Bonnie Hunt!

With a resume that includes classics like Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, The Green Mile, and Jumangi just to name a few...it's no wonder Bonnie Hunt has some stories to tell. Like who was supposed to play Jerry Maguire before Tom Cruise got the role? What hit show did she turn down and why? How did she go from being a full-time nurse to an Emmy nominee? What A-list comedians would accompany Bonnie to the hospital where she worked to perform for patients? Talk about an amazing bedside manner!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Dude the nineties called with Christine Taylor and David Lasher.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to Hey Dude the nineties called podcast.
I'm David, Hi David.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm Christine. How are you doing in the Los Angeles rain?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
I think it's it might finally be over. But it
was four days straight of torrential. I've never seen anything
like it.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
It looked, I mean, we always get the news footage
here of the worst of it, so it looked awful,
like it just looked like flick. There were cars flooded
and mud everywhere, landslides and yeah, it's it's lay just
it's never equipped for that kind of excessive rain for
that long.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, we don't just get like normal rain like in
New York where it rains for a day and it's
kind of nice. It's like it's going to be a
four day they were calling it an atmospheric river. It
was all over the news. I was getting calls from
everyone I knew around the world. Are you okay? Are
you okay? And I was like, yeah, you know right now,

(01:05):
Yeah we're okay, Thank god we are. But yeah, there's
homes that came off their foundations and mud slides and
a lot of debris. But I think it finally is over.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
You're in the it does I see some light coming
through your windows? So that's a good sign. Yes, good sign.
I have a great little story that I very quickly
because our guest is Yes, she's okay, she's in the
waiting room. And I love our guest today and I
really want to have a full hour with her very quickly.

(01:36):
Not this past Saturday, but the weekend before on SNL,
Dakota Johnson was hosting, and we were watching, you know,
Ben and Quinn and I and we are just such big,
huge Mikey Day fans, Like there's nothing he cannot do.
He is funny in every single sketch, from the smallest

(01:56):
little part to that like you know, he goes for it.
I mean, we just love him. And so so Ben,
I guess tweeted something. Do you even say that anymore?
I'm not on it?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
What do you say? Do you still say tweeted? Yeah,
you can do it anyway?

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Then put out a tweet about how and with with
a link to this this sketch that we saw that
we loved so much that we were just laughing so
hard and Mikey reached out to Ben to just say
that was like the greatest thing ever. Thank you so much,
And he said, and by the way, I'm a huge
fan of your wife's podcast with David Lasher. He was like,

(02:36):
I was in the hey, dude, pocket of I was
a fan and he is a listener, so I really
if he's listening to this episode, I just want to
say what big fans we are.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
And it's always so fun when you hear someone sketch.
I was cracking up at him last week too.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
This was the sketch where he to Coda Johnson are
playing the parents, the old parents, and they put in
the videotape of when we found out how that we
were going to have a have a baby, and it's
them on like.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
A Jerry Springer.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
How brilliant was he in that sketch playing Oh my god,
it just I still I just am laughing thinking about it. Yes, yes,
and thanks Mikey. We're huge fans of yours, so so
thanks for listening. Anyway, All right, let's get to our guest.
Let's let's just bring her in. She doesn't even need

(03:34):
an introduction. Bonnie Hunt is epic and I love her
and so excited. Let's say, Hi, Bonnie Hunt, Hi, welcome
to our podcast. Happy to be you are so kind
and generous. I I sent you an email. Okay, first
of all, let's let me go back to just how
we met, because you worked with Ben on on Dana

(03:57):
Mora and we didn't me during that period of time.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
No, And I've known Ben since I was twenty years old.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
That's and first of all, like we've always been gigantic
fans of yours, and so I remember when he when you,
like I said yes to being an escape of Dana Moora.
He was over the moon excited to be working with you.
And you're just you're so so brilliant. But I had
the great pleasure of sitting next to you at the

(04:27):
Director's Guiled Awards, Yeah, which was almost a year ago,
and you were nominated for the series Amberrone. Ben was nominated.
You both lost, but we all went home with little
director's chair Chopske's yes with our I'm sure you keep

(04:51):
displayed prominently well.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
My niece loved hers because we get her name on it.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
She was so cool. We just had the best night.
You know how, those those dinners, those events can sometimes
be a little bit anxiety provoking, and.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
You know, Christine with you too. I just felt like
immediately at home and just you're great, you know, and
funny and smart and kind and it was just just
made the evening. That's what the joy of the evening
was so much. Yeah, it really is. It's those relationships,

(05:27):
those paths that cross, and it's just like, oh, this
is this is nice.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
It was so and we said and I said, I'm
gonna I'm getting your information and we're going to I'm
literally gonna make you be my best friend. I love
you so much. And guess what a year went by
and then I I the first email you get from
me is asking you to come on this podcast shamelessly.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
Here David, Where were you?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
David? Have we ever met?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Which is a terrible thing to say somebody, but it's
it's my mind that sometimes I don't.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I think I don't. Okay. So, so my roommate when
I'm moved to LA was Doug Ellen. Oh do you
know Doug? I did a movie with Doug Kissing a fool. Yes,
with David Swimmer. Christine was This was David's first movie
on the heels of friends, like when he was he
was the movie, yes, of course, and I remember, you know,

(06:19):
I was helped. I was with Doug the whole time,
and Bonnie was so freaking funny, funny in this movie.
And I, of course I was always aware of you,
and I'm a huge fan of work, but Kissing a
Fool and your collaboration with Doug is the first time
that I really I'm sure we were at the premiere
or some screening together, but never really like met like this.

(06:41):
So it's so nice to finally meet you.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Oh that's nice. I remember Doug having a laptop on
the set and we were quickly doing rewrites as we
were going along. It was a nice collaboration. And then
when I did a series, I think it was Life with.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Bonnie, Right, you hired him, right?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Well, they CBS bade me hire right even though we
had written all the episodes, and they just always did
that to me. I would write everything and come in
and sell it and be in production and say, oh,
you got to basically have some guys around you. I
guess dog and I hired each writer saying I'm hiring you,

(07:18):
but everything's kind of you know, written, and then what's
not written, I kind of change as I go along
based on the actors I'm working with, because if you
get somebody great, you write a new episode for them,
you know, like if an actor was available like Tom
Hanks or something who we had Tom Hanks, Robin Williams,
all these guys, the Smalls did the show. So if
they called me and said, hey, I have a week free,
I'm like, okay, and write a new episode. But Doug

(07:41):
was on that show and he wrote a couple of
episodes just to you know, examples, And I said, I
think you should be writing for like men, you what happens.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I think you should write a movie show in the
history of television.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
Yes, I said, take your time here, you have an office,
you're being paid aid write something about guys, because.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah, that is so great. You know what he wrote
was fine.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
It just wasn't a woman, you know.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
For me, Kissing a fool took place in Chicago, right,
and Christine, you can take it away. But like, I know,
I want to hear about your roots in Chicago and
Second City and all that.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, no, tell you got to fill us in on everything. Yes, yes, I.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Get us in Chicago west of Wrigley Field, off of
Addison and you know, it's six brothers and sisters and
still lucky that we're all here. We grew up in
a little brick bungalow and had the best of times.
We had the best neighborhood. We had one of those
neighborhoods where all the kids were on their bananas.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
Bikes and did you hear the Cubs games from your.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
No, we weren't that close. We were there all the time.
I mean, Wrigley Field was one of the most romantic
places in my life. Like it was where you went
on first dates. And we're when you were a kid
with you'd go with your folks and you'd see them
happy and enjoying the game and relaxing and just like sports,
you know, entertainment and what we do is so healing.

(09:10):
I mean, I was a nurse in Chicago, you know,
I went to nursing school and became a nurse and
was working full time as a nurse, and then got
hired by Second City after auditioning. So I would work
as a nurse and you know, do eight shows a week,
and it was one of the greatest times in my life.
And I knew it was because I was a cancer nurse.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
So I'd be.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
All day with patients that could escape for a moment
when they'd watch I bring in a VCR, you know,
that's what we're doing VCRs and movies and just see
the power of storytelling and how it can help somebody
for a moment escape what might be scaring them or
hurting them or making them sad.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Oh I would.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
I mean, I imagine having having you as a nurse,
because my mom went through cancer a couple of years ago,
and it was the nurses that we've formed the greatest
bonds with. It was like it was my mom, Like
they my mom knew their stories. If they had a
great sense of humor, that was even better. But they

(10:15):
were maternal and gentle, and I mean, that's the job.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
It's an honor to be when somebody lets you in.
I mean, I've been a volunteer patient advocate for really
diagnosed cancer patients now for thirty years and it's a
big part of my life and every weekend at the
hospital with somebody, and it's such a private, intimate journey
for a family, and when you're a part of it,

(10:43):
it's just something I have great respect for and that
keeps my perspective and is a gift.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
It's the best part of life is that connection. And
whether it's through what we do as storytellers or when
you're holding somebody's hands, it's powerful and it's it's what
it's all about. I mean, you know, when you figure
that out, everything gets a little more focused in the.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
I see the path though, from nurse in a cancer
unit to second city. Now I can understand it because
it really the power of comedy or music or you know,
when we're young, we don't really get it, but it
really it saves so many people and brings so much.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
So true David, and my mom raised us with that.
I remember one time when one of our dogs died.
My mom, you know, she was a great musician, just
played the piano beautifully, cold play anything from the Rolling
Stones to you know, her Ring Berlin, and she would
play a song and tell us to sing it, and
I were crying. I remember crying so hard over the
loss of our dog, and she said, you know, just

(11:47):
keep singing, singing the song as loud as you can.
And my mom sang in the house all the time
and played music all the time. And you're so right
about the powerful healing of the arts. It's just, uh,
it's so important.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
So important. As a kid, did you perform in school plays?
Were you in the choir? Were you did you know,
were you a sort of you know artist in your

(12:22):
sort of middle school, elementary, high school years, but then
took the sort of practical path.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
No, I was mostly an audience. I had six siblings
who were all really funny, and my parents were fast.
They were very witty, and their arguments were even if
they were scripted, they were gold mines because they were
just so Humor saved us. It saved us from tough
times financially and emotionally tough times, and my parents gave

(12:50):
us their gift. My dad died really young, he was
fifty two, and my mom had seven kids, and her faith,
her humor got us through it. And so I think
that was just something. I saw how powerful it was
when my siblings would make my mom or dad laugh,
and then you just start to see like, oh, you know,

(13:11):
I want a little bit of that magic. And even
watching my parents watch TV, which I've told the story
a million times that when I'd see them watch like
a show like the Andy Griffith Show or the Mary
Tyler Moore show or All in the Family and see
them or Carol Burnett and just the calmness and the
escape and the humor and the joy. It's you know,
you're looking at the TV. You're looking at your parents

(13:31):
like this is magic. This is better than any medicine.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, this is lighting them up in a way that
I don't see in the day to day, right, It
just is to see that.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
I volunteered in a hospital as a candy striper and
I got in the local newspaper because I had the
most volunteer hours and I loved being with the patients.
I loved hearing their stories. I loved talking to them.
I loved sharing my life with that. It was so
such a big part of my life that my Dad's like, oh,
you got to go to nursing school. You know, you're a.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Natural, And yeah, it was a calling.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
It was a calling, right, and it still is.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
It's still fully left.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Who was that second city when you started there or
during your time there, because I mean the people that
have come out of there are just it's unreal, right.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
I Mean I was so lucky and I was a fan.
I mean I was going there all the time as
a young person and then they had this audition. There
was one position available for you know, they only had
at the time two women in every cast, and I
think four or five guys.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Uh wait, so so you get you find out about
this audition and and someone said you got to do
this or you were like, I'm going to do this?
And what did you prepare? What was the what was
the process? You just you don't really you can't prepare anything.
You get on stage and they just started asking your questions.
Oh my gosh, they don't want you to do anything.

(14:58):
They don't want you to come in with.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Remember what, David, you have to be sharp, right, that's
what they're looking for.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, that was the thing. And I do remember like
the first question they asked me is what makes you
think you can you're an improviser, a good improviser, and
and I said, well, I'm from a big uh Irish
Polish Catholic family, and you know, every Sunday morning my
mom was like happy family, take one and we'd leave
that house and going we're happy and everything's fine, and

(15:28):
you know, you learn to be you know, when one
of the uncles was intoxicated, it was like he has
an inner ear infection. You know, we there was always
some way to make everything look okay.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
To think on your toes, his ear is his bothering ya?
Why we parked the Carl on the curve inter ear infection?
Of course, there's always something.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
We always had stories for everything fast and uh so
that's I remember that. But it was like two hundred
girls showed up, over two hundred, and there was one
spot available, so we had to go come back every week,
and they kept eliminating people.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
So two hundred girls for one spot.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
It was over two hundred, I remember, and they just
kept eating them out, and I just did it just
because I loved being at the theater. I was there
every night. I would watch the improv sets were free,
so I would go for the improv set and I
admired everybody in the cast. It was Richer, Kaine, Dan Castlenetta,
My Cagerty, the great late Jim Fay, Isabella Hoffman. They

(16:36):
just it was it was the best and they were
the best, and I just was in awe of them.
So I was really and then I was hired as
the alternate. They hired another girl to get the spot,
and they hired me as the alternate, and then she
started rehearsing with them and she wasn't really getting the scenes.
And the director called and said, how well do you
know the show? And I said I know it my sleep.

(16:57):
He's like, can you do it tonight in like three hours?
I said yeah, yes, oh wow. Yeah. So it's one
of those showbiz moments, you know, like I was the
drug store and the lead had twisted their ankle, you know.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
I was like, I'll go in, and you just say
yes without even missing a beat. Right, this is an opportunity.
I'm doing it. Compellor high Water, next woman up.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Let's go pretty great, pretty great, very very lucky. Oh
my gosh.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
So that was how long then in Second City? And
that was while you were still.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Nurse.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
I was in a touring company first for a very
short time, like four weeks before this phone call came
to put me on main stage. And during that time
I took a leave from the hospital, but I was
calling in every day, and then when I got on
main stage, I was able to. I started working at
the VA Hospital, and I left Northwestern at that point

(17:52):
and worked at the VA. And yeah, I worked was
a Second City three and a half years and did
both for a long time. In fact, when I went
in my first TV series. When I got my first
TV series, when it was canceled on NBC, I went
back to Chicago, went back to my nursing job, thinking, okay,
that was, you know, great, But I did rain Man.

(18:12):
I got rain Man during one of my lunch hour
auditions from the hospital. I ran to this cattle call.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
And okay, your first acting job was rain Man.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yes, Richard Kind was in the cast with me and
I didn't have money to join the union. It was
I think it was like two thousand dollars or something,
and I'll give it to you, but you have to
pay me back in one lump shot. Can I give
you fifty dollars a time? No, I want one lump sum.
But Richard saved me a few times. He loaned me

(18:41):
that money and then I ended up. We were roommates
when I first came to La so.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
It was no idea.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Richard was one of the first people I met when
I moved to La.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
David.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
It was when you David was on the TV show
Blossom and I was a guest star on that show
and Richard was shooting was it was Richard on Herman's head.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
Or Roch and George did a pilot for called The
Bennett Brothers, That's.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
What it was.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
But Hank Azaria was on Herman like it was all
these people were shooting on the same lot. And I remember, yes,
and my friend at the time was very close with
Richard and Hank, and I just remember meeting all of
these funny guys like I was in la for I
think two months or something, and so Richard. I mean,
I just I just feel like they are my people still.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Night we were all out here unknown, trying to make it.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
I officially moved in nineteen ninety, okay, And you know,
it's just I just thought I came out here for
six months. I gave myself six months and I had
to go back to my nursing job. But I had
a great patient that said to me, because I used
to bring the whole cast from Second City to the hospital,
you know, when we would do the show there for
my one.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
On my floor.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
And one of my patients, Rudy Debrievich, said, when are
you going to go, you know, chase your dreams in Hollywood.
I said, Rudy, I can't do that. I'm too it
wasn't my late twenties. You know. I'm like, I can't,
it's too late, you know, and then I'd fail and
I have to come back and that would be and
He's like, take my hand and look me in the eye.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
And I said okay. And he said, you know, he's
facing the end of his life.

Speaker 3 (20:21):
And he said, the biggest regret of my life is
that I feared failure.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
So look me there and shake my hand.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Tell me that when I'm gone, you'll go to California
and you'll fail. Many times he goes, do we have
a deal, And I said, yes, we have a deal.
So yeah, a really big you know, he gave me
all of that perspective.

Speaker 2 (20:47):
What I failed many times. I failed many times.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
I fulfilled the promise.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
To fill the promise. Oh my gosh, you would bring
the cast of Second City into the hospital cancer unit
to perform Mike.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Myers, Richard Joel Murray. Yeah, we would. You know, whoever
would say yes? And everybody always said yes, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
How could you say no? I didn't even know that
was allowed.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
I neither was bringing in a VCR with videotapes.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
I did as well.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
With my whole life. I was single, I had a
little apartment near the hospital, and it was my whole life.
The patients were my whole life, and they gave me
such meaning. You know, it's a selfish fulfillment because when
somebody smiles when you walk in the room, or they're
comforted by your presence, it's it's powerful and you know

(21:40):
it's Yeah, it's definitely become something that you love to feel.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yeah, being of service in that way with nothing, I mean,
when the expectation of return is that maybe you get
a smile or I mean, it's it's so simple, it's
so human. It's just a a sort of fundamental human
right connection.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Oh. I remember one time they were shooting Nothing in
Common with Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleeson at the hospital.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
My patient's like, oh God, you have to go to
get pictures.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
You you have to go down there. So I walked
to I ran down on my break and saw Jackie Gleeson.
He was in the wheelchair and this is the scene
where Tom Hanks is going to push him down this
hallway in the wheelchair. And I walk over to Jackie Gleeson. Well,
he actually saw me and I was standing there in
a lab coat, and he went like this because I
was standing kind of near his eyeline but trying. I

(22:34):
didn't know what an eyeline was.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
I didn't know what.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
I just saw a camera and lights and a movie
and I was like, oh, I get to see all
movies made. And he said, are you in this scene?
And I said, no, I'm a nerve, but I'm an
actor too. I remember this conversation with Jackie Gleicer. I'm like,
I'm in Second City at night and he said, and
I think we were dark on Mondays. And he said, well,

(22:57):
I'm going to be at the Maroon Raccoon, this jazz club.
And I said, yeah, I know it. And you know,
Jackie Gleeson was everything. He was the Honeymooners, you know,
he was the Jackie Gleeson Show. And he was just
so amazing and he's the great one and and he
loved music and arranged music without even reading it, you know.
And so I went to see him at that club
that night, and it was a big deal. So I

(23:19):
was telling my patients about it. One of my patients said,
did you meet Tom Hanks. I'm like, no, the guy
from Bos and Buddies.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
No, I said, I saw him. I saw him and
I did.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
I said, I already felt bad enough that I had
walked like into the bubble of where they were shooting,
and I like got back to the floor and told
them the whole story. And one of my patients, oh,
someday you'll do a movie with Tom Hanks. And then
you know, I ended up playing Tom's wife and the
Green Mile, you know those.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Years later and so well, circle, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
You know, we don't know about our path or why
we're nudged in certain directions in life, but sometimes you know,
you look back and you go, oh, wow, that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Well, and for you it so many it was your
patients giving you this sort of courage and giving you
this this sort of big, big, big life advice.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Was that my mom was a life advice person. You know,
she was always ging us this gold like this.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
She was always kind and funny, but had expectations of
us and you know, rules and all that stuff. But
she'd always say to me, and especially when I was
reading my last this last series I did for Apple
Amber Brown, she said, always remind remember, Bonnie, the ripple effect.
You know, everything you put out into the universe has

(24:38):
a ripple effect, so be mindful of that. So I've
always kind of carried that with me and sometimes you know,
you just go, oh, I worry so much about that
all the time. But it does make a difference, and
it kind of it kind of gives you these bumpers
on either side of you that keep you on a night.
It's been nice. I've been very lucky and been able
to be a storyteller from my heart, and it's it's

(25:00):
so fulfilling when you connect with people and it's not
about the success, you know. I write for connection, and
it's always served me.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Well. That's a powerful message though. What you put out
in the world comes back to you. I always talk
to my kids about that, even if it's you know,
if you smile and say good morning to someone, it's
a it's a ripple effect, right, Or if you slam
your horn and curse at somebody, it's a ripple fact
and you have no idea how far that goes.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Right, Yeah, And I think too, like I have a
our son is a really sensitive kid, and he's a
teenage boy, you know, and he's got this really sensitive
side and he is it's a really interesting.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Because he loves to put.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Out He's like, oh, no, I got such a funny
like he'll tell me a story about getting into the
elevator with that. Now, as seniors, they are allowed to
ride the elevator, and that's the big sort of thing
the seniors get to do the one year they get
to ride the elevator. But he kind of he's like,
but the other thing is the teachers are in the elevator.
Sometimes not that great because you have to kind of
socialize with the teachers. But he will come back and

(26:06):
tell me a story about, you know, making a teacher
laugh or something. And he's not like a clown or
a jokester in that way, but he'll crack at you
and he'll just say, oh, I could tell I got
a really good laugh, like that just made me feel
so And it's just that but this and on the
flip side of it, he'll say, yeah, I said hi
to so and so and they just kind of shrugged
it off, and he's so, you know, he's so sensitive

(26:28):
about it. So I do think that it's always if
you know your intention is putting it out there so
that you know.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Its it does come back. It does come back to you.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, and you do it with sincerity and you keep
a sense of humor about the days when you don't
have the goodness. You know, it's like those days where
you just go, oh, was I kind of a jerk today?
Or whatever?

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Right, but at least you're mindful of it. Right. Some
people don't even give it a thought.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Well, it depends on what family you're from. My family
very quick to tell you, right. They bring you down
to earth.

Speaker 2 (27:03):
I don't want to skip over anything, and Christine, please
take me back if I do, but just the working
with Tom Cruise in your first film and then Jerry Maguire,
because my gosh, that is one of my one of
my all time favorite films and probably most people's, and
you were so amazing in it. Oh thanks, Did you

(27:24):
guys know each other through those years or it was
like a reconnect?

Speaker 3 (27:29):
No?

Speaker 2 (27:29):
We did.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
I mean that was my That's the movie I got
on my lunch hour at the hospital. I love that
you got all these pictures next to their beds of
me and Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. You know, I
put them in little frames.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
And such a big deal. What was that first?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Before you even get into that too, you say that
you got it at your lunch hower and it was
a cattle call. Did you were they putting you on tape?
Was Barry Levinson in town? How did that work?

Speaker 3 (27:53):
No, it wasn't. Barry wasn't there, but he was looking
at tapes. But I remember I didn't know what auditions were.
I mean, I was auditioning constantly. I never till this day,
I don't think I've ever gotten a part based on
an audition except Rayman. All the other movies were it
was never because of an audition. I'm a terrible auditioner.
I'm terrible, and I love to act. I love to

(28:16):
be the ball. Put me in the scene, no problem,
I don't. You don't want to see any seams, just
let me be the person. But when it comes to auditioning,
there's something so insincere about it that I exactly I
want to start laughing. I want to go this is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
It's almost its own skill set, right, it has nothing.
It almost has nothing to do with the job. It
has nothing. It's just about being able to, in this
sort of small bubble create something that's completely manufactured.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
Right, And.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
I'm driving, and how do you stand out? But yeah, okay,
so you had no idea what an audition even was
when you say it has nothing to the part.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
Till this day as a director or executive producer, I
never audition anybody.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
I just meet with actor.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
I can't do it to them, bless you see.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
And sometimes I please let.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Me read and then I'll say okay, But for most
of where I'm like, just don't because I can't do it.
But yeah, I went in and I remember there was
a box of Kleenexes like on the side table. So
right before they put the tape on to run the
tape for me to do like two lines, I grabbed
a kleenex out of the box and put it on
my head so it looked like a waitresses.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
So ridiculous. Wait the waitress where the toothpicks dropped?

Speaker 3 (29:35):
The toothpicks?

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, and I got and he knows how many toothpicks
are on. That is such a powerful scene.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
And they kept showing it on the Academy Awards that year.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
It was like, oh my gosh, that clip.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
They kept showing it. I was like, I made it
to the Academy. Words I've done. I've got my videotape
for the nursing home for myself, show my children, my grandkids,
which I've never had I don't be big plans for
that one little part that I had. I just figured
that was it. That was all I would ever do.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
And Tom Cruise figures out that he's missing a few
that he's off and you say, there's three left the box. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:13):
The only scene written at the time because it was
a I think it was at the end of the
writer's strike when we were filming, and the only scene
was that he recognizes my name tag and knows the
phone number. So Tom Cruise has realized, how did my
brother memorize a phone book? But at some point, Barry
Levinson's like, I don't know if that's enough for the
audience to really get that he has this ability to

(30:36):
count and uh, you know there's the blessings of autism
where you have this very special skill and so on
the set it was like, you know, I could drop
something and then it just became dropping the toothpicks and.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
So that was just on the fly.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
I don't know if it was in a prior version
of the draft, because it was a very you know,
it was the writer's so nobody was right eight. It
was like a thought and yeah, it was great.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
So you get into that scene and as the first
I mean, you've been doing Second City with extremely talented people,
but these are full fledged movie stars, and I don't know.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
That the scene is just Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise
till I get there.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
Oh no, no, you guys.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
And then Barry Levin say says, we do one take
and he says hold on. He goes, you got to
hit your mark, and I said, oh, you know, of course,
And I didn't know what a mark was. So I
walked back in again and he cut. He goes, hit
your mark, and I said, okay, okay, and I walked
back and I'm literally feel like I'm in a faint.

(31:43):
I'm like, what's the mark? What's the mark?

Speaker 2 (31:46):
I don't know what a mark is?

Speaker 3 (31:46):
And I thought, oh, on your market? Said go. He
means when he says action, you run in on your market,
and that's all I could think of that jump rope,
you know, analogies.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
It was just like you know. So he says actually,
and I run and he goes cut.

Speaker 2 (32:03):
He goes, what what what do you? What's the hurry?
I go, I'm gonna hit my mark.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
You know, I'm trying to got the lingo down and
he goes, let's go again, and he's thinking, what the heck?
And I walk back and there's a guy people smoked
down the set. He's like sitting on an apple box
that's on its side, some crew guy. God bless him.
And I looked at him and I go, excuse me, sir,
I go, what's what's hit?

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Mark? Hit?

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Mark?

Speaker 1 (32:28):
Mean?

Speaker 3 (32:28):
What does it mean? And he goes piece of tape,
piece of tape said, he goes, step on it.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's how you learn.

Speaker 3 (32:37):
Oh my god, I made love to that man. After that,
I was so grateful and then I, oh, that story
is in. I mean I was going ass the camera.
I was. I was probably my head was cut off.
I mean it was an every time I see Verry
loved said, well, I just love him so much. I

(32:58):
mean he got me into the Union and and gave
me that that sweet, that sweet role.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
All Right, so you have your day that I assume
it was a day of on raidman.

Speaker 2 (33:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:16):
I think it was two days.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah, two days.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
I don't remember it, just I was there. I was
in Cincinnati for three or three days.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
If the movie comes out, you're all over the Oscars.
You've made it that's it.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
That's it.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
So what then what came next? And to David's question
too with Jerry maguire, since there was this was not
Tom Cruise calling you and saying I want you to
be in Jerry maguire, was that another audition?

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Was that?

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Well you said that you did an audition? Was that
you talking to Cameron?

Speaker 3 (33:45):
I think it was Robin Williams, was Jerry McGuire, then
Tom Hanks was Jerry McGuire for a.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
While Williams, I had no idea.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
Are pretty sure if my memory serves me, Yeah, I'm
pretty sure. And and then when it was Tom Cruise,
I remember Cameron either I went in and you know
who was the reader for all the Tom Cruise dialogue
off camera when people were coming in to read an audition?

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Was Owen Wilson. Okay, yeah, no, it's big.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, that is such a fun fact that why is
that not circulated more.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Working with Jim Brooks because you're doing Bottle Rocket or something,
and why he was producing Jerry maguire. But yeah, So anyway,
I ended up I think when camera said, you know,
would you play the sister, which was a pretty small
role in the script, And I think a couple of
actress had turned it down, thinking it was too small
of a role, and I was pretty heartbroken about thinking

(34:45):
that maybe I would finally be the lead girl. But
I loved the story, so I said, well, yeah, I
love the story, you know, I want to be a
part of it. And then when we're shooting the film,
it was like, do you want to be in the
kitchen scene tomorrow? Why didn't you? A lot of stuff
was improvised me. There's scenes where I'm looking out the
window and she's getting in the car. Whe all did that. Afterwards,

(35:07):
I was you know, I was like, yeah, I can
just you know, they're just roll and I would do
what I what. Cameron was kind enough to let me do.
So there's a lot of improvisation in that movie. Like
at the end of the day, cried, don't cry at
the beginning of the day, cry at the end like
I do. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
The classics, the classics and the sister relationship, I mean,
it was a major part of the movie, how you
cared for each other.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
You know.

Speaker 3 (35:37):
Yeah, but you have to have that gift of the director, writer,
director who lets you, gives you a take, you know.
I always do as scripted, of course, but then I'll say,
you know, they'll say you want one, and I'm like, yeah,
and that was that's so.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Great in the movie.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
You're so thrilled.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Yeah, you are so special in that movie. I mean,
I don't of course Jerry Maguire's Renee and Tom, but
there's no Jerry Maguire to me without you in that
in that film like that, you are the heart and
soul of that film, and and the anchor of you know,
of her, the family that cares about her, that doesn't
want her to call me an anchor.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Relationships oh stop, so okay, So that and that, So
that sounds like that was such a fulfilling experience and
that you really got to play.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
You have a lot of sort of like classic classics
that throughout the nineties and in the two thousands.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
Atoven was I was twenty nine and Charles Groden was
fifty eight.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Oh and you were married. That's funny. Yes.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
And the girl that played my daughter, I would have
had her when I was like fourteen, but it was
you know, it was meeting Charles Groden and the greatest
I was supposed to play the Patricia Heaton role, which
Patricia heat and David Acoveny were the annoying yuppie couple. Yeah,
so that's the role that they originally hired me for.
And then I said something to Ivan Rightman in one

(37:06):
of the meetings, like, oh, you should you know, you
might want to make the mom a little smarter, and
he's like, excuse me.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
I'm like, oh, you know, I have.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Some ideas if you want them, you know. And so
they brought me in and I was writing with this
other writer who I saw years later at at dinner party.
He said, boy, that was the fastest five hundred grand
I ever made. And I thought I wasn't paid. I
was just coming in, you know. I was thrilled to
be included to see the process. But then I started

(37:36):
improvising with Charles Groden, just to practice some work on
some scenes that they were rewriting. And that's when Ivan
Rightman's like, you know, maybe she should be the mom,
and I was like, I can't be the mom. My
mom My mom and Dad came home from the Heartbreak
kid when I was uh, you know, ten nine or ten,
and I remember them talking about Charles Groden.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I can't me his wife. Yeah, But the funny way
the funny wins out right. People will suspend the disbelief
of the age if it's if it's working comedically and
story wise, right, Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
I think maybe it was, you know, Ivan's way of
paying me for, you know, bringing material into the film.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
It was just so nice and Charles Groden was a
friend and hilarious and funny, and I had sold my
first sitcom shortly after that, and he would come to
the tapings and be kind of in the background, in
the shadow, and then would call me afterwards to tell
me what he thought was worked and what didn't.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
And he really believed in me.

Speaker 3 (38:37):
And I still have notes that he wrote me. Just
there was so much respect, and you know, that was
huge for me. That's huge when people believe in you,
you never forget the kindness.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
There's so many hard moments.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
In show business where you feel so rejected and misunderstood
and frustrated and cheated out of stuff, but then you
know it's so far outwayed by these this kindness that
comes along. And so that was a big deal. That
was and only you when I got to go to Italy,
because remember Norman Jewis and saying to me. You know

(39:12):
how Italy is, I said, Italy. I've only been to Wisconsin.
I mean, I had never traveled.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
Anywhere, so that was huge.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, the opportunity or in Marissa Tomay and I in
Italy for four months.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
You know, Oh my gosh, that's like dream job. I've
been jokes that, you know. When his mom h I
think I think he talked. He tells the story about
wanting to go like backpacking after you know, did UCLA
for almost a year and then wanted to just come
and like make films. When he was like, I think
I'm going to go backpacking, and he tells this famous

(39:45):
story of Van Mira, his mom saying, get it, get
cast in something in Europe.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Why go backpacking? It's the way to do it. She's
a genius.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Was that is so true? Because I never saw Europe
the same again, if I weren't. I mean when I
wrote and directed Return to Me, this movie I did
in Chicago and Italy with David Dcompany and Minnie Driver.
I wrote the scenes in Italy on purpose because I
said I have to go back with the movie because
it was the best.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Of course, you have to do it that way, right,
you get too spoiled about.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
Ben doing that variety show like that was all. I
just remember I met Ben in Chicago when I was
at Second City and thought he was funny and charming,
had no idea who his folks were, and of course
grew up loving them, respecting them. You know, they were
in Chicago too in the in the fifties and like

(40:42):
the sixties, and Ben was at the forefront. Remember that show. Yes,
I mean, come on and hen I say videos all
the time. He and Jeff Conn they would do these
videos that we would just watch.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
They were like.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
Exactly, yes, well, well, I think also Chicago was where
he started, where he where he did made Elvis Stories,
which was one of the first videos that sort of
helped launch the vent Stiller show. But he talks about
that whole Chicago crew and.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
He did it.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Oh it's such a small world. So after was it
at what point did everything shift for you? And was
it Jerry maguire where then you just started sort of
getting offered things or or you started sort of like saying,
I'm going to write my own stuff now and.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
Because you had ever happened, amen to that.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
But really, truly, there's those moments where you sort of hey,
this is and then just opportunities change and shift. And
that was a period of time in movies like I'm
looking at where you you were in sort of hit
after hit And by the way, we haven't even gotten
to your voiceover work, like you were the voice in

(42:04):
our household in cars, Sally I Will like, I mean
I've heard all the all of the Pixar movies.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
I mean you have.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
It was just sort of NonStop work.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Yeah. I think when I started writing for myself was
after I did a series I was. I did a
series called Grand with Michael McKeon and Pamela Reid. This
was NBC. It was Carci Warner. They had caused me
on the air Roseanne, and it was a really funny show.
When I went into audition, the script wasn't completed, but
they told me about the characters and they said, we

(42:39):
don't have an actual scene for your character. We have
these other characters. And I said, well, I can the
character you described to me. I can play her in
a scene with the other characters. And they said, well,
those actors aren't here. I said, well, I could do
all three characters if you give me three chairs. But
I believe me if they had script and material and
I auditioned, they never would hired.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
Me because I look so bad at auditioning.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
So they put three folding chairs in this little office
at Radford and I kept moving from chared to chair
and I did the scene between these three main characters
on the on the series, and that's how I got
that job. So I was really lucky. But then when
that show was going to be canceled, there was a

(43:23):
show called Davis Rules with Jonathan Winters and Randy Quaid,
and then there was Designing Women and Delta Burke was leaving.
So Designing Women comes to me and offers me Designing
Women at more money than I made in a year
as a nurse.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
I would make in one week. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
And but the show it wasn't the same as and
I got an offer for half that amount of money
to be with Jonathan Winters and Audrey Meadows as my
parents on the show Davis Rules, and my agent. Actually,
I'm pretty sure that's when they dropped me when I
turned down the Designing Women. Because design Women offered me
the cover I'd be on the cover of TV Guide.

(43:59):
I be able to go to the Emmys and present
at the Emmys, and you know, I hadn't done anything
except this one little show. But it just wasn't my
I enjoyed designing them, and I was a fan, but
I was it wasn't. I just saw Jonathan Winters and
Audrey Meadows, I have to do that show. And I'm
so glad I did. I'm so glad I did. And

(44:20):
it was a big deal at the time that I
said no to designing Women, and uh yeah, people were
very disappointed in me, and I remember feeling really sad,
like I had made a horrible mistake. But Jonathan Winters
and Audrey Meadows my friends till the day they died. Guidance, Support,
love humor. You know, Audrey saying, after taking let's go

(44:41):
out for a high ball. You know, she want to
go over an old Fashion or a Manhattan or she
always wanted her dream.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Audrey Meadows, coming back to the Jackie Gleason beginning.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
I mean that takes a lot of Winters.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
You know, it takes a lot of guts to turn
down that, to turn down that kind of money and
the promise to be EMI presenter and TV Guide covers.

Speaker 1 (45:04):
And lead the lead the you know what I mean
filling the shoes. I mean, I think that's the other
thing too, is you sort of knowing deep down inside
like design like this Delta Brooke that was sort of her.
She created that, So how do I step into this
and make it?

Speaker 3 (45:19):
The other thing was the offer at Carcy Warner was
they offered me the Jonathan Winter that this show because
Jonathan was not sticking to the script and it was
making the record the tapings go longer and longer. So
they said, we would like to hire you for this purpose.
And I said, what's the purpose? They go, when we're
going to put you in scenes with Jonathan and when

(45:39):
he goes off script, you improvise and bring him back
to the story.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
So oh yeah, I mean that's right in my wheelhouse. Yes,
I'm like, so it yeah, that was And it was
and he loved me for it, and I loved him
because I got to bring my own personality, my version
of this care her. She was kind of like, uh,
she was tough broad compared to what I played on

(46:05):
Grand which was this wealthy, very feminine sweet lady. Uh.
But it was a joy and it was it was
a challenge. It was a challenge every daping and I
loved it. I mean he would throw that ball in
the air, and you know, he would go off on
a tangent and I was able.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
To starting to jump. Your second city training the best
served you, well yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Yeah, oh oh yeah. I mean second city training, it
trained you for everything. I mean when I first got
to a nursing school, I worked two years in a
trauma center and as a nurse, and you know, I
just remember taking those classes at night and be able
to spoil and workshop. It was her studio. She wasn't there.
I think she was long gone at that time, not
teaching anymore. But yeah, it makes you think fast on

(46:51):
your feet, It helps you and everything.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
And then you so so you know, this was all
nineties and then you go into the two thousands and
cheaper by the dozen, and that you know working with
I mean, I look at the people you've worked with.
I mean comedy legends.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
I mean I've been so lucky, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams,
Steve Martin, Danny ak Royd.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Not to mention the directors, the directors that you gosh.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
I mean, I mean Sidney Pollack.

Speaker 3 (47:27):
You know, I remember him grabbing you by the shoulders
when I thought I was having a bad day, and
He's like, no, by on your worst day, it's not
a bad day. And I played that over my head
for so long when I felt so down because I
kept losing. I just kept not getting hearts. I just
was a terrible auditioner. But then I would be so lucky.

(47:47):
It's like somebody like Sidney Pollock to believe in me
and let me be on the set with him.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
And what movie was that director?

Speaker 3 (47:55):
Random Hearts? Harrison Ford Christian.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh. One of the rtustat and
a great actor too.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Oh but he was everything that I strived for because
he would fix it in the moment, run it on
the fly, always appreciate your humor. I remember there's one
scene where I was supposed to be crying and offset
and I get myself to tears and I'm doing the
scene and we're shooting in New York in a restaurant,
and a semi went by and it was like, huh,
this loud hoart and I said, there's my ride, And

(48:25):
I got up and walked out of the scene and
the whole end of the tape. But Cidy would play
it on the set, you know, the video playback just
to laugh. He's like, I can't believe you just did that.
I but you.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Know, and those are the directors you said you love
when they let you play a little bit, that's what you.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
Respect the materially and do it as written because I'm
a writer and I never want to let a writer
down either, you know. But but it's really fun when
you can explore a heightened a character. And when I
did my first show, Christine, after I did Davis Rules
and I the frustrating thing was watching Davis Rules and
seeing on the winters improvise comedy gold And then you'd
see the show air and I would see half the

(49:05):
stuff was edited out. Oh, and it would break my heart.
So then I started to see there's this balance between
scripted material all of a sudden not looking as shiny
and as bright compared to this man's mind.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
So they couldn't balance it.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
So I thought, Okay, I got to write a show
where I hire actors from Second City and I script
the show, but they have freedom, and we go through
the show straight, no retakes, and the audience is there
in real time, and I choreograph it so that the
audience comes in and there We're done in an hour.
And that's when I wrote and produced the building, which

(49:42):
I wrote the show, sold the show to CBS, got
a thirteen episode commitment, shot the pilot, and then they said, well, you.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
Have to get up.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
You have to get somebody to produce the show with you.
I said, well, I just did it. I just did
the whole thing. And that's when I sent the tape
to Letterman and said, you know. He goes, well, I
don't know, I don't know how to I don't know
what to do. I'll put my name on it.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I think it's great. I said, yeah, that's all you
need to do.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Put your name on it.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
And then I went marked to CBS and c I
got a partner and he's like, okay, fine.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Had you done Letterman a bunch of times? And were
you okay? So you were friendly and you I mean,
he to me, he's still the best of the best
in that world. He was my all time favorite.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
I mean, but just him putting his name on it
allowed you to just do the show that you were
doing anyway.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's the show was already sold,
it was already in place that I would do these
thirteen episodes, but they wanted me to have a producing
partner at a time. I was the first, not only
the first woman, but the first person, which Bob Bright,
who worked at CBS, told me, nobody has ever done this,

(50:56):
and he said that's why they're having a hard time
with it. I said, done what he said. Nobody's ever
written and starred in their own television series. It's never happened.
I said, well, Kyl Reiner did it. The Dick van
Dykstra goes no. Carl Reiner wrote himself as the lead.
They shot the pilot with him as a lead, and
they said, no, no, you can't do both. So they
hired Dick van dyke reshot the pilot and Carl played
an ancillary character. And so he said, they're just they

(51:19):
you can't do this. So that I had to go
to the director's Guild and a big meeting and they
were all around this table and I had to tell
them how I could do it, and then I just said,
I ran an emergency room. You know I can run.
And then I used Sidney Pollock as an example that
he was writing and directing and being in the scenes.
And so finally they let me do it, but I

(51:40):
was Yeah, I was the first person to do that,
but I had no clue that I was. And then
that's when it became a big deal and I had
to go to all the unions and explain how I
was going to pull this off. And then eventually, with
Life with Bonnie, I was able to write forty four
episodes and direct forty three.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Oh my gosh, I mean you wrote, directed, and started
in Life with Bonnie. Yes, that's unreal. That's all on.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
Lake and I wrote together the series and I executive
produced and directed. I directed forty three of the forty
four episodes, and we were nominated for Emmis and we
had we had you know, we had so much fun.
It's just we did great shows. I'm so proud of
all of our work because I was always the team.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
It was a team.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Everybody brought their best. I would always ask my crew
is this funny? And the camera guy, I think it's funny.
If she does this, I'm like, that's perfect.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
You know.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
I was open and the crew was a part of it.
The energy of the crew is everything.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Well, that's that is always your best audience. I mean
that's when you know you're reaching especially when they're there
for hour after and you're still getting the laughs and
then you know you're doing something right and for you
like you're so egoless. I mean, that's what's so amazing.

Speaker 3 (52:48):
I think it's just sort of people would say I
wanted to be in control, and you know, I was always, Oh,
she's wants to be in control. She wants to do everything.
She wants to do craft service, she wants to write
and direct and act. I wanted to see my shows
all the way through because I wanted to allow the
freedom on the set. Right, where there's talent, there's not
that fear, and when there's that fear of control, there's

(53:10):
usually questionable ability because you're afraid of.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
It and right and also to know, you know, just
from personal experience of seeing what they did with Jonathan,
is that you know that by having this control that
it will be the gold, the gems, all of those
things are not going to get edited out. That's where
all the good stuff is and that's going to get
to stay. In the Finnish Reds.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
When Davis Rules, which was a show I did with
Audrey Meadows and Jonathan Winters, when that was canceled, I
remember thinking, Oh, if I could just go into that
editing room, if I could just go in there, and
there's you guys. There was so much gold. Jonathan was
hilarious the audience and then they'd stop laughing basically when
we would go back to the script. Now that scripted

(53:56):
material wasn't good, it was of quality, but in comparison
to this essentially nominated go Ahead, he was an Emmy
for life with Bonnie Jonathan. I brought him on and
I wrote nothing except we came up with like five
different books by different authors, and we gave him the
role of an author with a person multiple personality disorders.

(54:20):
So he had five books out under five different names.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
But he didn't know the books until he came.

Speaker 3 (54:24):
Down and I would hand him a book, I go,
tell us about this one. And the whole scene is
improvised from start to finish. And Jonathan was nominated for
an Emmy and he was g more than and he
was so happy. He was so happy because it was
many years later that I did that series and be
able to bring him back. But David, I cut you off.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
No, that's fascinating. So many comedians say that Jonathan Winters
was their inspiration and one of the greats. But I
love that. You know, maybe the writers were precious, or
maybe they were threatened that they weren't writing material at
the level that he's performing. And then you said on
your show, if Grip gave you an idea, you took

(55:05):
it that.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
I love that, And I'd also put the crew in
the show, like if somebody was really funny, on the crew,
and I's why I write this guy in. It was
so fun so and the same thing with my talk show.
You know, I was including the crew all the time,
and I was always getting called by the studio saying.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Stop talking to the cameraman. Stopped. You know what is
like him?

Speaker 3 (55:26):
You know, we don't want to ruin the illusion that
this that there's anybody behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
But that's good stuff. It's the best, Yeah it is.
It's so fun so fun.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
So today because you do it all, I mean you
literally do it all, and you remind me and I'm
going to say it and this is probably why I
love you so much, is you remind me so much
of Ben, Like you do it all, and you do
it all so beautifully, and I so, what what is next?
Because do you want to direct more?

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Do you.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
You know, I know you don't want audition, and I'm
with you there, Oh no, I don't mind.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
I'll go into any meeting, and if somebody really wants
to see me read a scene, I'm happy to do it.
I don't say I won't do that. I've never said that.
I'm kind of like, oh, yeah, I'm lucky if somebody
is even interested in me. That's how I still feel. Always.
I always feel that way. Yeah. Do I wish I
got some of the roles that I see other women
getting till this day. Yeah, it's still kind of you know,

(56:31):
twinges your heart alone, sting, it stings. Yeah, I mean, Christine,
you get it.

Speaker 2 (56:36):
I so get it.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
That's you know. That's what we talked about that night,
like I would hire you in a New York minute.
It was so That's why when I sit next to you,
I'm like, oh, I hope I can call Christine and
say here, do this because you're so talented. But it's
it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. For me.
I love being a storyteller and I love being parts
part of good stories. That's what I look forward to.

(57:00):
But I don't know what's next because I took a
lot of time off after my talk show because I
had a brother in law who had gotten a brain
tumor during that show, and so I moved in with
my sister and my brother in law to be his,
you know, full time caregiver through his journey back to
mostly his former self. And we're blessed that he's a survivor.

(57:23):
But it's you know, it takes years. So you're going
by and I was home in Chicago, and it's good
because it well, you know, it's always a gift. It's
always gift when people let you in and you can
care for them. So at that time off, I remember,
and then somebody else in my family got sick, and

(57:44):
I was like, you know, what do I do? And
then I just said to my agent, oh, I can't
do anything right now. And then I didn't start. I
didn't keep saying somebody was sick. I just kind of
said no to stuff. And then I thought, are they
mad at me because I'm saying no? But I don't
I don't want to not be available, so I don't
want to say somebody sick because I'm afraid they won't
call me anymore. All the stuff that actors go through.

(58:04):
You know, you want to be a team player, you
want to cooperate, but you want to have some control.
And I was listening to one of your shows. I
listened to one of your shows and he was on
Scandal and he had to do some scene. Do you
know who I'm talking about?

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Oh? Dan, Dan? Yes, Yes, And Dan said.

Speaker 3 (58:25):
You know, it was really hard. I you know, I
want an actor and my set to say, you know.
And I even on my talk show when people leave
the show, because we were live to tape, I'd say
I have a couple of minutes if there's something you
want me to take out or you know, I just
want people to.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
Leave feeling okay and good, safe, protected.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
Yes, because you can still you when you are at
the very top of your game and you are respectful
and you are truly funny without shocking embarrassing someone else
at the mercy of someone else, you know, at the
at the deprecation of someone else. That's when I feel

(59:04):
it's true genius. You know, that's when I go, oh man,
that is good. And so I I just that that
I want that comfort on a set to that's something
that I can say, you know, that doesn't feel quite
right to me. My first sitcom.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
I remember they wrote this joke and I'm like, I
can't do it. I can't. I can't do the joke.

Speaker 3 (59:24):
And I remember was in the scene with me. He's like,
don't say anything. They can hear you. And I didn't
know that the group, you guys, I didn't know anything.
I had no training. I had no and I'm like,
oh my.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Gosh, you know this.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
How long did it taken me to write this joke?
It's so disgusting, I said, not even funny, it's just icky.
It's it's not funny, it's they're embarrassed. And all of
a sudden, they all converge down they you know, they
want to talk to me, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Like, oh.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
And I felt badly for the writer because I didn't
want him to get in trouble, but he wasn't. They
were like, you know, you're doing the joke and I said,
I can't.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
You got to shut those mics at lunch, man, and
when you get.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Room, you know that, David? Did you guys know that
on your shows, like when you were on Blossom and
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
Well, Christina and I did a show together, and I
don't know. I think they heard a lot of stuff.
That's when we first learned it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
I remember everyone saying, you got to start to turn
that off or unplug it or you know, and it's
you know, it's crazy to me that somebody that is.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Still a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:31):
Oh, Bonnie, we have to wrap. I can't believe this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
We've kept you for a full hour.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
This is like, I want to ask you so many
questions and.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
All I give is talk. No, that's what you're here for.
Can you just ask you about this? Despite your taking
time off and you're saying are people mad at you?
You're You're in a movie coming out with one of
the biggest movie stars on the planet right now, The Rock.
Is that true? Yeah? Tell us about that real quick.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Christmas The Red One, Yeah. JK.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Simmons and I play for Missus Claus and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Chris Evans and The Rock.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
It's got a good new Christmas movie coming.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
I love it and.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
I'm joining you now with Alison Janney that Jim resh wrote,
I'll be doing that in New Mexico. But no, I
didn't think anybody was mad at me. I just thought
the agents were disappointed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Right right now, I know she.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
Thinks she is turning all this stuff down my line.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
We walk between.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
We really do people pleasing and having agency. Right, Oh, Bonnie,
this was so terrific. Also, I have to say Ella,
our daughter, your daughter madly in love with you. I
think when when whenever you're in New York or we're
in LA, let's please get together. I would love for
us all to you know, give each other hugs because

(01:01:48):
I just love you so much and thank you so
much for us.

Speaker 3 (01:01:52):
You're the best. And David, You're welcome to join us, please.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Yes, anytime. This is so much fun. It was such
a pleasure to get to know you. So nice meeting
you Annie, Unnie. Thanks Bonnie.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
I love her her she is Isn't her story incredible?

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Her story is incredible and she's such an amazing person.
Like the way that she started helping people in a hospital.
She would bring the second City Troop into the cancer unit.
I mean, yeah, that's just I love her. I mean yeah, inspirational.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
I mean literally, like I said, those events, you can
get seated at a table where it's like just pure
like I'm anxious and sweating mold. But I was sitting
right next to Bonnie that and her and her beautiful
niece and we had like it was from minute one,
just bonding over family and all of it. And she
it just like to me, she is just she there

(01:02:51):
is a calling there. You heard her talking just about
even helping her her brother in law with a brain
like she shows up and she is just such a
caregiver first and foremost. But she is also that in
her work she cares about everybody around her and she's
I mean, she's just amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
It comes back to what she said about you get
back from the world what you put out into the world.
And that's why you look at the people she's worked with,
I mean that's not normal. It's the actors and the
directors that yes, she's over the years, she's put all
this positivity out in the world and it's come back
to her and she deserves that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
She's so toming and how she really talks about the
there's a lot of heartbreak and a lot of disappointment
and a lot of rejection in this business.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
But when you're seeing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:40):
The person like a Sydney Poulack who says to you,
you know what, this really isn't the worst day, like
this is actually it's a pretty good light. Like you
have one person tell you how good it is and
how much they appreciate you. That's all that matters. Like
that is all that matters because you got to let
the rest go so.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
True a lot of gratitude. She has a lot of
gratitude even after all it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Oh man, is she funny. And she's also just such
a great dramatic actress too. Like we didn't even get
to that because she.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
Talks talking about you know what I wanted to say her,
because she did talk about her second city training has
served her throughout her entire career. But like I've always thought,
if you are a great improv comedic actor, doing a
dramatic scene is like a walk in the park because
you've seen amazing comedic actors like Jim Carrey or Tom
Hanks who started in comedy and they go to do

(01:04:33):
the most amazing drama. But you don't necessarily see a
dramatic actor crushing a comedy.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
That's a hardly it's so it can really fall flat.
You're so right, you're so right. But she she just
really does it all. I mean, and really does it all.
Like I would like to be Bonnie Hunt when I
grew up. Even though we're only like a few years apart.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
I would love to. She said that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
She's like, I would hire you in a New York minute.
I'm like, oh yeah, let's go, let's do it. Let's
find something. Thank casting director would say, oh yeah, that
makes total sense. Oh gosh, all right, well that was
a great great.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Yeah, thanks Christine.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Yes, and we'll thanks for listening, everybody. We'll see you
all back here next week.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Yep, have a great week everyone.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and give us
five stars.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
And please follow us on Instagram at Hey dude. The
nineties called see you next time.