Cheryl Hines, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" actor: Mr. Media Interview, Part 1

Cheryl Hines has one of the most challenging acting jobs on television: she plays Larry David’s long-suffering TV wife on the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” now in its sixth season.

For years, many people have assumed she was David’s real wife, and further complicating the premise this year is the news that David and his wife Laurie have divorced. What does this development mean for the show?

Joining us today is the lovely Cheryl Hines who, hopefully, can shed some light on where all this is going -- or maybe not.

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BOB ANDELMAN/Mr. MEDIA: Cheryl there’s been a lot of chatter lately about whether Larry’s real-life separation from Laurie David would be incorporated in the show. If so, that would seem to threaten your livelihood in some ways. So I wondered what your thoughts about this might be.

CHERYL HINES: Well, here’s the thing. We shot this season long before Larry and his wife got divorced. See, you have to just bear that in mind while you’re watching this season.

ANDELMAN: You’re asking a lot for people who can’t separate reality from TV.

HINES: That’s true. You got a good point, yeah. Yeah.

ANDELMAN: Now you’ve already shot the whole season.

HINES: We have, yes.

ANDELMAN: Right. Now I actually talked to Jeff Garlin a few weeks ago, and he said, to his mind, this is the last season. So it would seem that actually the discussions of whether or not the divorce is gonna be incorporated is kind of superfluous.

HINES: Yes, it really is superfluous. However, that being said, I would not be surprised if we shot another season.

ANDELMAN: Oh, really?

HINES: Yeah. I talked to Larry, and he -- it’s not out of the question, let’s just say.

ANDELMAN: Okay.



HINES: So that’s kind of exciting, but ever since the first season, Larry acts like it’s always our last.

ANDELMAN: Well, last season, I guess, was supposed to be the last.

HINES: Last season was going to be the last, but he lived.

ANDELMAN: Yeah.

HINES: He died, but he came back to life.

ANDELMAN: Now, whether or not Larry’s divorce makes it into the show, one of the storylines, at least in the early episodes this year, has involved some flirtatious behavior between you and Ted Danson. And I wondered if maybe that was reflecting reality at all or if that was just more good fun.

HINES: I think that’s more good fun. But, certainly, Larry’s very good at finding, at commenting on human nature so it’s in what we do and as a society what we do. So I think he just thought it was very funny that married people can’t really openly flirt that much so our contact with each other is just hitting each other on the shoulder and that’s how we flirt with each other. As he says, that’s as close as we can come to having sex with somebody else.

ANDELMAN: Now men are often portrayed as being flirtatious in these shows, but married women usually don’t get that opportunity unless it’s going all the way through.

HINES: That’s true.

ANDELMAN: I mentioned when we started talking about people having confusion issues between reality and TV, and I was reading in the Curb Your Enthusiasm book that Larry’s own parents were very upset and a little confused in the episode where Larry’s mother died.

HINES: We talked to Larry before he wrote the outline for that show, and he said I’ve got a funny idea. “What if my mother dies, and I don’t go to her funeral? I miss her funeral.” And I said, “That’s not funny,” and he said, “Oh, really, you watch, I’ll make it funny.” And then, of course, he writes it, and it is funny. But I’m sure his parents have had moments of confusion.



ANDELMAN: Have you had other moments over the years, now I know you work from the barest of outlines, where you’ve had something, and you said that just doesn’t seem funny to me?

HINES: Well, when he died. He died, and he said before we shot that scene, “No tears,” and I was like, “But you’re dying. I’m supposed to watch you die, and it’s not sad?” So he has a way of really finding the comedy in everything.

ANDELMAN: You make a great point because, watching that, I kept looking to you thinking, okay, she would be crying now, right?

HINES: Believe me, I had to fight my instincts because it was sad. It was sad. I forget what actually made it into the show, but when we were shooting the scene, the idea was right after Larry dies, I turn to our attorney, and I say, “Can we talk about the will?”

ANDELMAN: Right.

HINES: And I was like I don’t feel comfortable saying that. Don’t make me say it.

ANDELMAN: You would think you would at least be out of the room where the body is.

HINES: Yeah, but I think some of that did not make it to airtime, but it did make it to airtime that Jeff and I start talking about the cost of the car, haggling over the cost of the car right after Larry dies. So there are moments of this that are just like oh, I have to fight my natural instincts.

ANDELMAN: One of the most well-known developments in your character was originally, she was seen as probably going to be Jewish, but then over time, it was clear -- I guess to Larry, clear to you -- that you weren’t going to be Jewish. Were there other developments in your own character that you were particularly either proud of or found most interesting over time?

HINES: Well, certainly, my character is involved with the NRDC and the environment, which mirrored Laurie David’s involvement with the environment. So it’s been very cool for me because it’s been educational. I’ve learned a lot, and I drive a hybrid car now.

ANDELMAN: Oh, do you?

HINES: Yeah. So that’s been interesting to me. But it’s funny because I think in our first season, I’m said to have been an actor so I did “The Vagina Monologues” the first season and then we never spoke of my acting career again. So it’s interesting if you really watch the episodes like what we carry through and what we just sort of drop.





ANDELMAN: But I do remember, and I’ll get the line wrong, but as I recall, your vagina is big in Canada, right?

HINES: My vagina is huge in Canada.

ANDELMAN: That’s it. See, I knew I was gonna get it wrong.

HINES: These people enjoy asking me how my vagina is, because of the wandering bear episode. Yeah, I’m having some problems because Larry wore a long-lasting condom inside out. It made me have some problems so the Native American Indian that’s helping us get rid of poison oak comes up to me and asks me how my vagina is. Just another day at work.

ANDELMAN: The thing I thought was interesting to me the first season or two was reading that you guys shared a trailer, and I wondered if going forward from here, if you do another series or something, if you would recommend that to your castmates.

HINES: I actually loved it. We had a great time together. I loved hanging out together. You sort of have that experience when you do theater because everybody’s in the green room just hanging out because you only have one space. So I really liked it, actually. I remember when Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor did the show, and she was pumping at the time. She was still breast-feeding, and we’re all in one trailer, and she would have to go in that tiny bathroom. I was like, oh, this is probably not good for every occasion. So, yeah, it has its ups and downs.



ANDELMAN: Now you came into that situation where Jeff Garlin and Larry David and Susie Essman had known each other for some time. I imagine it was probably good for you to be in that situation of close quarters from the beginning because you probably got to know them and become part of the group a lot faster than if you were all going your separate ways after every shot.

HINES: Absolutely right. You’re so right, because sometimes you work on projects, and you really never have a chance, sometimes you don’t even see the other people in the show or in the movie. So it’s interesting that you say that because I never thought about it, but you’re right. It is a fun way to get to know each other personally, and since it’s improvised, it would probably make a good carry-over feeling that you could bring to the screen.

ANDELMAN: I would think it would be that much more valuable especially since the whole, not the whole, but one of the big aspects of the show is the improv, and so these three have dealt with each other and know each other. You’re being thrown in. I guess you can’t really overstate the importance of improv on that show.

HINES: All of the dialogue is improvised so Larry writes a story outline, and then we improvise dialogue. So, yeah, you’re right. It’s kind of a miracle to think that I was cast in this show because these guys already all knew each other. I don’t think Larry knew Susie, but Susie and Jeff had worked together and certainly Larry and Jeff, so I guess I was the odd man out. But I clicked immediately with Larry. We just got along so well from the moment I sat down next to him. So I don’t know. There was an ease to it all somehow.

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©2007 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.