Cheryl Hines, the Emmy-nominated actress well known for playing Larry David’s wife on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has written a memoir called “Unscripted” that traces her journey from small-town Florida to Hollywood and beyond. Her story follows a winding path — from bartending at a Los Angeles hotel to discovering improv through the Groundlings, where she trained under Lisa Kudrow and learned the lessons that later landed her the Curb role.
“Unscripted” also explores the strains of public life and her enduring marriage to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This interview has been edited and condensed.
Can you share what it was like growing up with your parents and the love and support you received from them, and from your siblings Chris, Becky, and Michael?
Oh my gosh, Becky helped me with every word of that book. Yes, you’re right, I grew up, we didn’t have a lot of money. I was on free lunch at school and bought my prom dress at Goodwill, and we were really happy. I’m sure it was stressful for my parents, as far as money was concerned, but we played games, we put on shows for the neighbors, we laughed a lot, and that was the foundation of my life, that it didn’t really matter what we had or didn’t have, it was never the focus, but we had each other, and that gave me the strength to just do anything in life.
Later in the book, you describe your daughter leaving for school and realizing your parents must have felt the same when you left Florida to chase your comedy dreams.
When I moved to LA, I didn’t have anything,… I had a friend who was living there that I went to high school with, and got a bartending job. It’s funny because when I was writing this book, I bartended at this hotel, the Intercontinental, for probably six years.
That hotel, by the way, was where they sequestered all the jurors during the O.J. Simpson trial.
Oh, yes, yes. I mean, really, you couldn’t write this script. If somebody wrote this book as fiction, I would say: “That’s too much, you know, you got to take out some of that, it doesn’t sound like it’s real.” But yes, the O.J. Simpson jurors were sequestered there.
But you couldn’t breathe a word of it?
No, it’s a secret, we weren’t allowed to tell anybody they were there. But I also found great support there, at the hotel, with other people that I was working with. I found out about this improv comedy theater called the Groundlings, where they teach improv, and I went to a show, and it feels like you’re watching “Saturday Night Live” in person, in a small theater, because it’s that same energy. …
I felt like I found my people, that I need to be with these people. But I didn’t have any money. I was really poor, I didn’t have a refrigerator, I didn’t come with an apartment. But that’s all I would talk about when I would go to work, is the Groundlings. You wouldn’t believe this sketch, you wouldn’t believe that improv, you wouldn’t believe this performer. I talked about it so much that on my birthday, they all chipped in to pay for my first class there. … And Lisa Kudrow was my first improv teacher there.
So then you got an agent, because you were studying there, working there, writing, performing.
Exactly, so everything was leading to the next thing. So when Curb Your Enthusiasm came around, Larry David was just doing a one-hour special on HBO. It wasn’t meant to be a series. And he was looking for an unknown actress, which was great for me, because at that point I was an unknown actress. And he wanted to do like a mockumentary. He wanted it to look like a documentary of him returning to stand up. Larry David created “Seinfeld” with Jerry Seinfeld, so he had this amazing career already, and now he was going to go back to his stand-up roots and do a one-hour special. So I was performing a sketch that I had written, and the director of the one-hour special saw me in that sketch, and invited me to come audition to meet Larry David, because he thought my sense of humor and Larry’s might be a good match.
So when I went to audition, there was no script. They didn’t tell me anything about it. They just said, “It’ll all be improvised. It needs to feel real, because we want it to feel like a documentary. And don’t touch Larry when you get in there, because he doesn’t like for people to touch him.” So then I went in, I met Larry for the first time, and he shook my hand. So I realized, OK I see what I’m working with. He doesn’t want people to touch him, but he’ll shake your hand, so OK. And he said, “Let’s do an improv and just imagine that we have kids, and I don’t eat chicken anymore.”
And it was very important that you never said “no,” you had to always keep pushing the envelope with him.
Well, you’re right, because he told me, I don’t eat chicken anymore, and that’s all you need to know. But don’t agree with it. That’s all they gave me. So then as an improviser, I have to use that information in whatever way I think would be best for the scene, right? So then we start talking, and he said, “What’s for dinner?” And I said, “Little potatoes and green beans and chicken cacciatore.” And he said, “I just told you, I don’t eat chicken anymore.” I said, “You don’t have to eat the chicken.” And that was basically the improv back and forth.
And then I left, went to the elevator, and then the casting director came back and said, “Will you do one more scenario with Larry?” And I said, “Yes.” So I go back in, and he said, “Can I talk to you about something?” He said, “I don’t think you put enough milk in the kids’ cereal bowl.” I said, “Well, I cover the flakes.” He said, “Can you fill it up to the top with the milk?” I said, “I cover the flakes, and that’s good enough. It’s a waste of milk to fill it up to the top.” He said, “Well, why can’t you just fill it up to the top?” I said, “Because what’s the point of extra milk? If they want a glass of milk, they can drink it.” And that, once again, was another improv. Just that simple. And then they called me later and said I got the job.
What was interesting, when you talked to Larry about it later, he said that some people wouldn’t bring up the chicken at all, because he told them he’s not eating chicken. So then they’d make something else. But you knew as an improviser there was a reason he told you that he’s not eating chicken, and that must be part of the scene.
One of the lessons that you learn in improv, is to trust yourself. Because you don’t have a script. You don’t know what you’re going to say. You don’t know if it’s going to be funny, if it’s going to be stupid, if it’s going to be silly, if the other person is going to like it or not. But you have to trust yourself that it’s going to be perfect. Whatever you said was the right thing to say. So it’s a good life lesson, doing improv, because you learn to trust yourself.
You were not familiar with the Kennedy dynasty at the time you were introduced to Bobby by Larry David.
I never grew up with the Kennedys. They were not familiar to me. We were just country people living in Florida ,so that was just something unfamiliar with me. When Larry introduced us, we didn’t even start seeing each other until three years later. I fell in love with Bobby, not some Kennedy dynasty.
Tell me what occurred when President Trump was almost assassinated.
So Bobby ran for president, and he was still running at the time when the assassination attempt on President Trump happened. And President Trump wanted to talk to Bobby. And so Bobby flew to Milwaukee — the Republican convention was going to start that day — the morning of the Republican convention. And I flew to Milwaukee because I was going to talk to Bobby when he got out of that meeting. And then when I landed, security said, “Oh ma’am, we’re taking you right to the meeting.” And I said, “Oh, I don’t need to, I don’t need to be in the meeting.” And they said, “No, we’re going to the meeting.”
And then suddenly I’m walking with Secret Service, and everybody is down the hall through the back hallways of a hotel. To this day I don’t even know where we were because you went through a garage, you’re going through tunnels, you’re going through service elevators so you don’t see anybody. And then they opened the door and it was President Trump. It was my first time meeting him. President Trump, Bobby was already in there, Suzy Wiles, who is now chief of staff, the first female chief of staff, which is impressive, she’s an impressive person. And Amaryllis Fox, who is my daughter-in-law who was running Bobby’s campaign. And I met President Trump for the first time, and he was very kind and warm to me.
You had a crazy allergic reaction when you met Trump.
Right. There was a lot of stress involved. Bobby was still running, there was just an assassination attempt on President Trump, and we met with him and he was very pleasant, very engaging, and they had a great connection, Bobby and president Trump. And then when I walked out of the meeting, I just broke out into hives. And then they told us we were going to get Secret Service protection but only for him. It’s usually for the family, but in this case it will just be for him. And so I feel the hives keep coming.
And then later that night, I feel something happening with my face. I asked my friend Stephanie, “is something happening with my lips?” She said, “Yeah, you should go look at that.” And my lips were swelling, swelling so much to the point I felt my bottom lip was going to burst. And there’s a picture in [the book] that I hesitated putting in there because it’s bad, it’s hard to even know that that’s me. But I was having such a reaction, I had to go to the emergency room. And the doctor asked me if I was allergic to anything and he said, “I think it’s from stress. Are you under some sort of stress?” I said, “I think I am.” He said, “OK, stop being so stressed.” Ok, thank you for that.
Please explain the infidelity allegations against your husband Bobby Kennedy.
Our joint appearance at the solemn funeral and memorial service for my mother-in-law was heavily scrutinized by the media as people looked for signs of marital discord amid the “sexting scandal.” The scandal almost ended our marriage and we locked ourselves in our room to drill down on the truth of the allegations. We worked through the challenges in private. I felt disconnected from him during this period.
You happened to fall in love with this guy. You did. And you married him and you’re still in love with him today. And if people can’t accept that, that’s their problem.
Thank you, Armstrong.
Armstrong Williams (https://ift.tt/i2I4umf; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also a part-owner of The Baltimore Sun.
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