Kristen Bell, Betty White and more Comedy Actresses on THR's Roundtable | Emmys 2013

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I remember doing Alice in Wonderland they think I was 12 and there was some sort of like crying scene and my parents were laughing in the front and I was like huh oh you like this oh okay and then just like started hamming it up and I just remember always kind of trying to make them laugh I think that's probably the first time where I was like okay I can I like this I like everyone looking at me and laughing so I've just always kind of tried to get back to that Houston Bunder lad moment how about the rest of you hmm I never really knew that I was funny at all I'm to be honest I'm not quite sure I'm actually funny but somebody's to work with honestly okay after the after this interview um I when you look like that you're not expected before well I had idea I went to theater school and had always been wanted to be a really serious actress and then when I first came out to LA I had only done serious plays and then like I remember the first thing I booked was this episode of the shield where I was I had been raped and tattooed on the face larrya as a consequence of the rape and like a fun show it was nice it was a good experience and then after that I booked Veronica Mars and I had no idea that it was more of a comedy than it was a drama and it just that door just kind of opened itself I guess like I didn't really even know what I was doing which was snarky was considered funny and then all of a sudden people were like well you're kind of a comedic actress and I was like I am that was very exciting I had like literally the same experience I never ever thought that I was funny and started auditioning when I was younger and kept getting all these like comedy auditions and people would laugh and I feel like it's really very um and then started sort of booking comedy role and that was that was like my abs like literally anything I'm just like I'm gonna do drama like I want to like now and get raped I want to like I wanna do the real yeah and then and then I ended up playing sort of like very silly hockey witty people and people seem to want me to do it more it's an awkward moment when your throat when you're you think you're doing something sincere and everyone's left laughing yeah it's not like moment and you have to adjust cuz you certainly like it because you have their attention but then at the same time you're like this isn't the reaction I was banking on what am I gonna do now and then you just go home you just gotta go with it yeah you know I I couldn't I could not get a sitcom until I was 40 years old and the only because I only dramatic films only dramatic roles on television dramatic series and plays in New York and Ellen Travolta who was playing who was with Joanie Loves Chachi playing the mother she knew me from a musical from gypsy at Muni opera same with me Robert and she knew I want Jessica of Walter to play this part and they had no idea you know they said come in and my daughter said she's about nice you don't think though we love that show we love the show so I waited and met these producers who were like 20 and only got the part because Ellen you know recommended me and from then all I you know started to get comedies and now I'm having trouble getting a drama it's all I have to say Betty I I think it was Edmund Gwenn who said drama is easy comedy is hard I think the tough part about comedy you get an instant review in drama you can act all over the place and everybody says oh look at her acting isn't it wonderful or what there's a lot of acting going on there but with comedy you get an instant review if you don't get the laughs you've bombed and so I I just loved it I was blessed with a mother and father who had a I was an only child and they had a marvelous sense of humor so that wasn't a straight man I mean that in their minds so we really around the breakfast table on Sunday we'd sit there for two hours me cracking each other up you know the store this is the line she referred to about comedy actually I think the story that I heard was that an actor was dying and his friend was in the hospital and he said you know I I I know dying is difficult and the guy said dying is never mind okay I did I ruined it but it was saying about some dying a TV comedy is hard I'm so sorry oh my god is different Gwen took that line like wherever it originated and I think I think he used it a lot it's a good line to write right I chose it it's true absolutely and how about you mind um let's see I actually I sort of remember there was kind of a moment I grew up in sort of a tragicomedy sort of house where I think there was a lot of sort of natural need for levity it was just kind of a crazy house and I remember I must have been about ten years old and I went to public school in Los Angeles and you know we had a bus stop and my bus stop was at Gardner Elementary and I was bust up to Wonderland Avenue but I would kind of do shtick for the other kids when we were waiting and one of my favorite sticks was there was um there was a girl who was very unusual in our class and I did a spot-on mimicry of her but I remember that I was not a mean kid I was not cruel at all and I was actually very friendly with her but I realized that there's that subtle line between being skilled at mimicking someone to the delight of other people because it's so spot-on without it being nasty and I think I remember it was this kid Chris Engle who I would make laughs and he was at my bus stop and I recently ran into him in an airport we hadn't seen each other in about 30 years I said do you remember I used to imitate that girl and he said yes I remember and I just I remember so vividly just literally standing at the bus stop like doing this kind of schtick again without wanting to be cruel but seeing what it's like to pull that laughter out of someone not because you're teasing someone's to do it yeah but it now it might be mean what's the best advice you guys have gotten received in your lifetime about being a comedic actress and doing comedy and who was it from well you know my husband Ron Liebman is a wonderful actor and he does comedy does really does everything and I've learned more about acting and life and love from him than anybody in the world and that with us it's a matter of we don't look at it as comedy or drama we look at it from the characters viewpoint what is the goal the character wants to accomplish what are the specific relationships you know and it's light because it with the rest of development they wrote right so in a character specific way that it's not jokes it's character driven and and from the relationships and the characters come to comedy and that's how we sort of approach it and sex helps yes it definitely sex Katelyn what did you learn at Groundlings about comedy because obviously that's sort of a boot camp and a sense of sort you know improv and stage performance yeah I mean I think I learned a lot of a lot of technical stuff but it's just also subjective so really what I learned most there was to not really care too much what other people think and to make myself laugh and if I think that I'm being funny then I'm just going to trust that because you did you know okay you're not going to be funny to everybody so I don't know that anyone's ever given me like a piece of advice other than my cast on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia right now we all kind of have apparently shared that same belief and then came and we talked about it and it's the same thing with like how to make a show successful when they're talking about it that's like we're just trying to write the show that we think is funny I'm always just kind of trying do something that I think is funny and that's really the probably the best advice I could give I don't know if anyone ever told that to me but that's kind of when I learned along the way I a similar piece of advice from my husband Jack Shepard who is a comedian and who said don't ever try to make everyone laugh just make sure that you think it's funny because it's you'll never please everybody you'll never make everyone laugh and it is you have to accept that it's subjective and you're going to be doing something that's probably not very good if you're thinking oh I know what will make them laugh or I'm trying so hard versus into a different thing right and it's it becomes like too insincere yeah and then it's immediately not funny because you can sense that there's an in sincerity and yet you have to really just make it honest isn't it human nature being what it is it's that one who doesn't laugh that you worry about it's the one you're a Mac it's a economy if you're doing like like you know most stage play or something like that if the person in the first row is dozing off like that yeah Betty what is it that you wish at this point in your career the advice you wish you had gotten I think I kind of I don't think there is any I think I kind of learned I again was blessed with a mother and father with wonderful senses of humor but also common sense and they said don't ever let yourself look back on something and say oh I didn't realize that at the time but it was so wonderful my mother said if I ever hear you say that I'm disowning you she said you've got to taste it at the moment and I think that's where a lot of humor comes from is playing off a moment and sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't but it keeps you mentally tuned up also you know if it ain't on the page it ain't on the stage if you don't have the writing you know you just can't push it uphill its and trying makes it worse so you just have to go for the honesty you know in what is my character need here and you know what is the scene about and luckily for instance Big Bang Theory I did one of their episodes which was a highlight to me that writing and the way those actors work was inspiring I mean it really was it really was that's a great show Sasha you talked about getting feedback and auditions trying to do dramatic roles and then perceiving you as being sort of more comedic than you intended and the rest of you had feedback in an audition that you thought was utterly bizarre or strange it was not at all intent what you intended and how did you take that feedback and use it to your advantage moving forward I like so long ago when I was just doing pilot season and just going in and you know bringing my resume cuz no one knew who I was I had this audition for this woman who kept telling me to shoot it was for a comedy and she was like no you're you're really sad no you're really really sad do it over again you're really sad and I was like I'm just getting like sadder and sadder and sadder thinking this woman in a sense cuz it's a comedy so I'm like crying and sad and she's like okay thank you and then and I was great it was very sad uh she called my manager my manager called her for a feedback and she was like I think she needs to take an acting class she was not following the directional I was like she's like I really wanted her to just be funnier and like bigger boom good one your bro what is it it's to mean you said her and so she was saying you're playing it sad she was sick she wanted you not to play it feral what she was saying it's it's a grammatical problem on her I was like if you had used words that made sense to people who use words then I would have been able to do no it was backwards day that's how I was you should never go out for a not never never always Taylor not to listen to people that's the second part of my answer how about the rest of you any bizarre audition experiences Betty did you have any bizarre audition experiences when you were any visual but audition experiences oh well it's been I've been in this very white any white is not audition you guys know it was I've been I've been in this lovely business I won't say silly business and there's lovely business for it I'm going into my 66th year and so it's been a while since I've auditioned and usually they say oh oh not her no but but so I I have an audition err well but the stage fright I can still feel it here the stage fright and this is the spot that it hits and you think you'd get used to it in all those years but you don't you still get just as nervous if I walk on a game show I've got that same thing right here and I it's almost sadistic as it sounds you like it you know you don't want to not feel it I think it keeps you I think keeps you human you know I think the minute that you're it's like the idea of being able to walk off a set and be like killed that today I couldn't have done it better you know here if the stage fright is gone then I think there's an idea that you don't have any more growing to do which that you know as artists and as humans I think we we always can grow more and there's something about that fear that keeps it also keeps you in the moment you know it's very grounding and it keeps you very connected to everything that's happening I didn't feel too good in there when I was getting my makeup you know I had an audition was it I do a lot of voiceovers and I do Archer which is a you know and I've done dynast through the show dinosaurs which was a and I went for an audition for Borden's milk it was a milk in New York a long time ago and I actually got past the first set then you go up to the ad agency and this was in the days when they did that and they said okay we want the Moo of a cow that's been happily married for ten years so I said so not 11 not nine you want ten okay and I moved of course I did get the part but I mean it's so bizarre some of the things that people want at auditions oh yeah okay you go okay and um as a character actress which is what it's called when you look like me and you're a comedic actress character actresses often get auditions where the description of the character is homely or fat and this is often like it's you know it's never fun and I have no problem with homely or fat people but it's very awkward to get you know that consist I mean consistently consistently for four parts and so this one part they use the words off dig which is the Yiddish word for plum yeah right healthy is what my parents used to say correct sorry so I go in and you know like I were kind of like a drawstring II dress like I made like a little effort she's like a secretary from fees off to secretary fine so I go in and this is a new thing that never used to happen they had you model for the camera before you even got to read your lines they asked for your height and weight they brought in a dude to stand next to me and I had to recite my height while the dude next to me who they know is 5/8 was so they wanted to see like are you lying about your measurements they had me turn to this and I felt like I was auditioning for porn they're like turn to the side and they did an up and down they're like turned to the end here I'm in my frumpy dress turn to the other side they did like an up-and-down shun them link you feeling dirty right so I did the audition and whatever it was fine like my five lines were fine so I called my manager after I was like you know they did this thing where they were like asking my measurements you know like I said you know I thought the part was like I didn't think it would matter she said oh you didn't see the rewrite she's no longer zaftig oh and he kid where I was in my frumpy dress was our film or TVs for why don't you see the rewrite wait what kind of an agent is that it might have that might even work was it for something that we may have seen um it not on things not yet now and it wasn't a huge profit I just thought whatever I felt bad in many ways anyway go back in I was just going naked Monday to naked taking shuumeikan wear this and you'll show them right just pasties nothing else what's the the thing Betty mentioned is it silly perhaps was not the right word to describe the business but what's the thing about Hollywood and in this business today that that bugs you that's how I just listed all of mine in that vision story it bugs you what bugs you about the business today we're more frustrating nothing bugs me about the business because it's it's actually really enjoyable and you meet a lot of fun creative people it's the sort of sub business that's been created around it like I just had a baby and the amount of decisions that I have to make on a daily basis when leaving the house about because I don't my baby is not a public figure and I don't know she wants to be a public figure and I'm certainly not going to make that decision for her and I don't want her picture taking because I don't know if she ever wants her picture on the Internet so it's a it's just there's so much maintenance that goes into the privacy and I understand it's like I want to know more about the actors and musicians and singers and people that I love but it's gotten to a point where that's the only bad part is that you you loo you you got to give up a lot of your sort of human rights but the first question people ask in an interview if they you know if they have an interview duty for is well in all your years on television of how is the business changed well I don't think the business has changed at all but the audience has changed when I started out it was I mean television was in New York but it wasn't in Los Angeles yet so then they moved out and I I was doing a show was the first time television was seeing locally and at that point everything was new and fresh and now though shortly there not too long thereafter they the audience had heard every joke they knew every storyline they knew where you were going before you even started so that's a hard audience to surprise yeah it's an exceptional thing like with the first scene that we ever shot for girls we shot in Tompkins Park on the street on a Friday afternoon and you know the middle of the day and like nobody people were walking but nobody could give that they didn't know who we were and then our second season we shot about a block away on a Friday afternoon and we were just surrounded by paparazzi and like if I'm sure you guys have experienced that noise of that camera is just like so incredibly distracting and there's nothing you can do about it you know they shoot through an entire scene and it's a really interesting thing to suddenly and then having people like grab from those photographs like ideas of what our plot lines would be and suddenly you're dealing with this entire other element of not just the industry or not just making something creative but like everybody else in the entire world and maybe you know they got an unattractive shot of you shooting a scene where you're eating and suddenly that's the talking point as opposed to is the show entertaining or not which is just interesting having to fight this whole other beast on top of everything else I was thinking for my am you started acting so young and we're a public figure when you were still a kid very oh there was hmm sorry don't be upset it's okay but there was your doing keep going whistling I'll keep talking while you take her to the water you went you know you took time off you went to school became very very educated maybe overly educated for being an actor I'm just kidding and I'm wondering when you when you went back to TV and went back into the multi-camera line oh you've done curb and another number of shows but what was the biggest adjustment in terms of making a multicam sitcom again that wasn't the case when you rob alone I mean I'm gonna echo what Kristen said what Betty said like that hasn't changed I mean especially going from like for camera to for camera the cameras are smaller now Chuck Lorre works different you know than anyone I've ever worked with but um there was no internet and when I was in Lawson there was no publicity I could look 14 when I was 14 and I could look 16 when I was 16 and even when the show ended and I was 19 I kind of looked like a normal 19 year old still you know now when I see what girls kind of are supposed to wear even to publicity things when they're 15 it's astonishing to me not necessarily even because of like sexual ization stuff just in terms of what's expected of you in terms of your presence so um you know forget about that like there was no internet when I was a teenager and on television no one cared what I look like really when I went out the standards were just so different hang in there don't you get the brand 91 and it's a much easier no but but to ride it through kind of those years and to have kids away from the industry was also really interesting I got back into acting just after my second was born and the the expectations the interest I mean it's really crazy and a lot of it you know part of it people say like oh poor you but you don't expect to give up that part of yourself when you choose to make people laugh for a living and so I think that's that's a huge thing but in terms of sitcom the one thing I remember is when I was on blossom and back in the day you know of sitcoms of the 80s and 90s there was what was called a booth do you member this one the right the producers and the director would be in a booth and you would get your notes announced over a loudspeaker in front of the live audience you'd get your notes shouted out like the voice of God like that wasn't funny my um try it again and the whole audience hears all the notes now the way it is is directors are on set and so you get your notes kind of privately and whispered to you but when you know when actors like when I tell Jim Carr Sivan he can't imagine that you had your notes shouted over a loudspeaker during a taping in front of 300 levels on the top but exactly we can see your underwear across your legs the other way okay what bugs me about this business is having been in it not quite as long as I worshipped us how bout her feet but I hope to be is there's sort of a lack of respect for actors doing their work giving a person five pages of dialogue five minutes before you're supposed to shoot the scene having learned the scene the night before off of a computer you know I've been around it never was like this you'd get a script if you did an episode of which in the old days there were 39 episodes to a series then there were 26 then there were 22 and less less less less and and you'd get a script two weeks ahead and you could make make it organically part you to work in the in the process that is most beneficial to doing a good show and it's it's it's gone they then they don't do it like that anymore and you have to adjust you just have to adjust but it's it's not it always to me it's like this much for being what it should be how is it changed the way you have to learn your lines because I'm sure everyone here would agree you're expected to know stuff changes in front of the live audience and I mean so that's the thing I mean everybody has a different process you know I don't know that there's rules to it Jim is a very kind of diligent actor which I'm not I mean it'll come to a Tuesday afternoon when she's only tape and sometimes there's stuff that I still haven't solidified I don't know but when you're on a show like ours where they change stuff you kind of always have to you can't commit to anything too much I don't know it's just how it is bro I think on a multicam I'm having done several it's that way but to me on a single camera when they do that and it's five no audience don't know you know but five pages here you go I I'm not happy with it but I can you tell what are you doing what difficult is doing both the motor cam shows and and the single camera I love the motor camps because you can just go ahead and do and they're going to catch you whatever you're doing and the audience is kind of going along with you on a single cam I mean you're there and then you have to go back and do it for the close-up and then you have to go back and do it for the medium medium shot we're doing comedy by that time you've beaten the poor joke to death I just I I don't like doing single cameras that's why I love theater in a way because when all is said and done the curtain goes up beginning to the end it's yours nobody's in there you know cutting or saying do it do - wait a minute it's frustrating but they're almost relieved - it's frustrating when you're doing theater there are all those people in the audience and the show is much too good for them you know I would sit it Ron and I my husband Raleigh but we did a Neil Simon play out here actually was out here rumors and was at matinee sea of blue hair you know and and suddenly we were the only people on stage and I heard uh FL which one is I'm late Minh we were the only two people I think oh my god anyway what do you do when you have a script in front of you and you realize the line that you're supposed to say isn't funny make it funny change it oh my hello can you ask Caitlyn do you have an inside sort of track to maybe getting stuff change on your show just I think it's just a different thing I haven't really known much other than what you're talking about and I I really love it it just it keeps it more alive to me and we're constantly just like playing with each other and I think that our writers are great I happen to really like my show even if I wasn't on it I think I would really like it so it's number that I think something's not funny but there are definitely times where most the time where I'm like hmm how can I just like tweak it a little bit but we just I have a luxury of doing that on on my show and it's that's not a common thing so I I feel like I'm really fortunate I'm fortunate in that and it also like that it's an extra level of responsibility and play I'm not funny you know that's my fault I don't I can't feel like well they didn't write well for me this episode if you play it as honestly as you possibly can you don't play it forever you'll play up forever as honestly as you can the audience makes up their minds that's right worse is the honesty they respond to it's right in the reading for me it always just goes back to how insecure my character is and like how that makes her like fight for things more but you're right the most real you know the real or the better that that actually kind of brings me to my answer to your question which the thing I hate most about or that bothers me the most about this business as auditions because I just feel like when I'm really comfortable and I'm working with great actors I'm I'm I'm a listener and so I'm working with them and I feel really comfortable about what I'm doing auditioning for me is it's a bummer because I'm I have that the nerves that you're talking about that yeah get that I'm alive believing don't make me funny I get a little bit more self-conscious I'm not as comfortable so that's that sucks because I want to like do it a few times I want to do it with an actor who's giving me stuff back and so that's kind of the thing I I struggle with also there are people that are great auditioners and then they come to set and nothing and vice versa people that are really uncomfortable auditioning are really brilliant when they get comfy on the set yeah it's crazy and don't you always kind of get a little crush on your leading man I mean you know when you're supposed to I married mine I married one something yeah of course I've had leading men that to die from I've had James Garner I've had Clinton Cletus we Charlton Heston so this is this is way before your time gals but yeah major crushes all those stairs with all of them no Affairs no no no no affairs just big crushes because they were also wonderful people all right what's the craziest thing you've ever done for a laugh or it could also be a craziest thing you did to get apart to like something where you just sort of threw it out there you didn't care reckless abandon you didn't care how silly looked most of the things I've done to try to get parts I that have been crazy I haven't booked it but maybe that's because I was pretty crazy yeah I made a bad shirt I don't know I mean you try it you go and you try to put a lot of effort in and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and way more often than not it doesn't so you know or maybe conversely how did you know when you had totally bombed something that you were trying to just you were just killing yourself to make funny and it just just died it's a deafening silence okay this is this doesn't happen to you guys are often well no I mean that's the loudest sound you can hear is that silence when you especially when you really think you've landed it I mean I'm not a confident I'm not a confident auditioner or performer I have a tremendous amount of anxiety which I have so much respect like especially for when I see people like from The Groundlings who really have that like as long as I'm funny it's all good no III don't I mean that it doesn't work for me at all so for me like that is so it's so debilitating you know that silence when you want to land something I sometimes start to cry like I you know when you like start and I mean that's happened to me during tapings during you know auditions for sure but even during run-through even on a cast that I'm part of it's a very thats though but that's what makes you get up and do the next scene it's what makes me come to work the next day not stronger not better not more confident just that's but that's what drives me that's that really really not funny anxiety that drives a lot of comedians I guess you know what ticks me off is that sometimes the young newer actors who come in and they complain about this and they complain about that and this is wrong and that's all my god and you're what they're talking about somebody over here and find me a couple of times I've lost it and I've said do you have any idea how many people on this planet would give their their lives to be doing what we're doing don't have the guts to complain about it get into another line of endeavor it don't sit here on this set and take upright I'm leaving whether I find that to be so true though especially for what I think makes me comfortable and then in turn what makes me feel confident to be funny is the vibe or the zone like and it's I think it starts for us for me at least in the hair and makeup trailer like in the morning when you're in there with a group of people that are great and lovely and happy you start off your day right because you have you know however long in that trailer before you hit the set and then when you're on set when you're bantering with people sort of in between takes I mean some people like to be completely engulfed in their character and they don't break character some people want to work in between takes I personally like to like pal around with people because I feel like it keeps me light and happy and it keeps me feeling like I can deliver comedy organically you're doing shtick with people yeah yeah if you were to lunch with exactly and that for me keeps me where my head needs to be but if if I walk into that hair and makeup trailer a walk onto that set and there are a bunch of Debbie downers that are either complaining about everything works like wow you really think we have it that bad cuz we don't we really don't it's it's very troubling to be around in it it sets my vibe off and I'm just I think it's also because it is such a like we're in the most voluntary profession like there is nobody I mean I don't know maybe like save stage mothers and things like that but like for the most part of like people absolutely 100% choose to do this job and it beats working so like why why not be happy about it you know like the fact that you would you would have this chance that a million people would kill for and you're on set complaining because of the answer those answers that come in for like a five lines or something and they they don't know them they don't they mess it up every time and and your some of your stuff is dependent on those five lines now or maybe on the frustration grip haven't read the script have not read the stats on that song forgivable but they do they'll come in I've only got five lines of what time am i coming on and they have no idea what the script is about Merry Christmas a few of you have mentioned the stage fright piece and that being something that that happens and perhaps drives you how do you deal with it are there tricks that that you've come up with are there ways that you've figured out for yourself to get through that get past that I don't know I need it I mean it's just to me it's just like you know just like you brush your teeth in the morning like that's just wait that's what that's what my body does when when I get ready to go on sometimes I wish it wasn't there when like I feel like my heart you know is like stuck in my throat and I can like feel it you know pulsating I don't know to me it's just it's it's there for a reason and it's motivating me you know deep breathing is good but I don't know I think being prepared with your with your work you know knowing your lines always helps so that there's not extra anxiety but I think especially when stuff is thrown at me last minute that's when it feels like you know that kind of that storm but I don't know I just feel like that's part of my you know inadvertent process I think you you use it you use it it's sort of at least the way I work anything that that is happening right before the scene whether it have gotten into an argument with somebody or whatever if I could use that in the scene and use that that fight for energy - it energizes me actually and I don't know what it would be like without it I honestly I think it's just part of the whole process that's how flirting with your leaving man works for me keeps your attention sometimes I do feel like it can run away with you especially if you're having like a majorly insecure day which I have often and I feel like no matter how prepared I am it that lump in the back of your throat will not go away it's like you've swallowed a ping-pong ball and you can hardly speak and this is going to sound so dorky but um but I started meditating sodor guys should I go oh I started meditating and it honestly like it sets my brain at a play it's just 20 minutes that I'll do before like when I have a scary day on set or something that I'm anxiety ridden about and it takes my brain to a completely like palm and like creatively cracked open space and it lasts for like ten hours like I feel like it's like taking a really really good nap thought she's gonna say drugged really really good nap and I feel like it was the kids call it these days yeah and then I don't know that helps me I did that too because I am I mean I haven't done a lot of dramatic stuff I feel like when I have I've been able to use use that I'm not able I'm I just am much funnier when I'm calm and confident and I'm playing around and I'm not so stuck on okay I'm gonna do this here and then I'm going to take a sip of water here and then like I just I feel more comfortable when I'm like happy and relaxed and confident and open to like okay if you're gonna say something different great I'll say something different but then and I do that to meditate deep breathing a great song that you love turned up really loudly just reminding myself of like because I think I mean I can't speak for everyone but I would guess that most actors are pretty insecure people shave down everyone kind of came to this place from like somewhat yeah I got a like remember that you know what it's it's not that important you know I mean like don't take myself so seriously so that wasn't the best British accent you've ever done no one's like talking about it but they will you'll talk about it they'll go home and talk about it read about it you're Irish accent will be perfect you know that's what you were saying you were and it's like you know it you have to let it go like you have to reel in to like even if people say that you are the worst actress that has ever like you know sometimes they do and sometimes they might but like it's the great thing about what we do is that it's like so subjectivist are you funny son and if someone might think a joke that you tell is the funniest thing they've ever heard and someone else could be like who is this but look what it's that's I kinda so which one are you gonna focus on and it's a great thing of like remembering that no one's dying yeah like you know we're not heart surgeons like what we do is fun and that's why we do it that's like the key to survival - I think like you're focusing on your self-worth and your excitement about being alive and being in this business is coming from like the work you do and like oh this is going to be fun today and then you just can't like in the theatre there's like when I was there there was a rule that you you can't read reviews because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones because everybody's got an opinion and if you just throw that all away and you're like did I have fun on set today did I feel like I did a good job everything else is irrelevant we have a situation coming up on Hot in Cleveland that I'm looking forward to I'm thrilled but we're doing the show live in this month and and Valerie Bertinelli is panic-stricken I she said what would I do if I screw up I said you will make the audience so happy why watch live television if somebody isn't gonna screw up you know also scrubs often create the funniest scenarios were the most touching were the most human you know that's the great thing about theater is like everyone loves the outtakes more than you don't know the biggest laugh I ever got was in rumors that's very safely was a Broadway and I had a big phone call was just Ron and myself as a big phone call and I picked up for dr. Greene dr. green and and the you know the cord this was before remotes 1988 the cord had you know was not on the phone it dropped out and there I am talking and of course there's no connection the audience is the biggest laugh we ever gotten the show you know the when those things happen I'd like to know for each of you who is your comedy idol someone whose career you want to MU hello Betty you whose your comedy idol oh bow is out of you oh man oh we've got a we gotta take this girl in hand do you know do you know do you remember this that in about 1962 the Northland Playhouse in Detroit Michigan we were in who was that lady yeah Ashley were saving that for this I was saving yeah oh I love it that was fun because summer stock before that that was summer stock but yeah and it was this huge rubber dome of a theater and everybody said it looked like the world's biggest diaphragm but before that we we took voice the coaches foot went from a man in New York Bert map and I wouldn't wait till she key with she would come in as I was leaving so we we liked each other a lot but we never got a chance to hang out wow he did all that stuff with the tongue depressor and a la lalalala was for our musical careers that's why the Metropolitan keeps pestering me do the rest of you Betty notwithstanding obviously she's we all look to her for our idolatry did you have other women you grew up watching whose careers she thought like wow if I can achieve a shred of that I'll be happy I don't know that I thought career-wise sorry I mean Lucille Ball for me Carol Burnett when I was growing up I mean there were also male actors you know John Ritter there were actors that I liked too but yeah but in in terms of women I remember as a kid Carol Burnett I think that was the the broadest most kind of complicated comedy I mean much as I loved Lucille Ball I think I really felt like the variety show aspect also of Carol Burnett really appealed to me because I was this like character II kind of kid I really like that she played different parts and she could look different ways obviously her career like longevity-wise I wasn't thinking about that I was more thinking about Tracey Ullman I remember had a huge impact on me when I was a teenager I couldn't believe I just couldn't believe that she existed so yeah those are those are mine too both of the both of and Gilda Radner but all kind of for the same reason I felt like they were women who really weren't concerned with what they looked like while they were acting they were just concerned with like doing it from the inside and it was so exciting to watch and inspiring she thought it was really funny and and not because she's here but my husband and I still watch Golden Girls was when it comes on precise I'm serious it said you know that show and doctors talked about this earlier has not aged it so every joke is still just so good Betty how did you do it how did you make Golden Girls funny every single episode I mean it's it's like told human I started out with The Mary Tyler Moore Show and with that group of people it was such a privilege to work with those people then the Golden Girls and my Lord to work with with it was just unbelievable we all adored each other and no it got hot and Cleveland with them yet another group of wonderful women how lucky can you get once maybe twice maybe but three times in a career and I'm sitting here with all of you that ain't bad did y'all ever get into golden palace the spin off Don Cheadle hello Mary short little pictures of that all the time on set how about you Kristen who did you grow up watching who you really admired I mean other than Betty and I spent a long time and still am very obsessed with Catherine O'Hara the Christopher Guest movies had such an effect on me when I was growing up I saw spinal tap and like my mind was blown I was like when they were sitting in the hot tub doing the interview and they both had cold sores I was like this is it was one of the things that made me want to get into this business because I thought it was so funny and it was just so under the radar and waiting for Guffman is still like my favorite movie of all time and so I really really like the whole Christopher Guest crew but Catherine O'Hara in particular I think just man she goes for broke on everything she has done some crazy and I love it if you guys weren't on the shows that you currently are on what's the show that current show that you died to have a part in Arrested Development oh say Arrested Development told me what you said oh I knew there was a reason I liked you I do it you know what show I want to be on that I mean that I I want to be on house of cards I it's not a comedy but I love it I'm so hooked on that show what it was over yeah I started to watch I thought well let's see what Netflix is doing because our show rested developments aren't gonna be on Netflix the only reason we got Netflix which were erected Avella but and I started to wash a line then it I became a binge watch her III and then when it was over add withdrawal I can't wait we can't know but isn't it great to feel that way yeah something and homeland I love homeland - I'm currently doing that with Game of Thrones like whoa that I was I want to wear one of those cloaks I want to have a dragon baby I want all I want everything uh-huh and I've like and I now have like just gotten so into the series you can go on and you can do like interactive stuff or you can look at the maps and like see where Winterfell is in relation to Westeros and get you far is really you don't well when you have even maybe you better figure out I take a stuff to keep I remember didn't what about you ladies what would you die to be on right now yeah I wasn't allowed to watch TV growing up we grew up on like old old movies and old British television shows and so I'm not really a TV watcher now like I don't own one I watched anything i watch on the interweb um but I think I was bored and on my trailer one day and was like I know I'm just gonna see like I'm just a sail watch a show and I started watching Nashville and became like unhealthily obsessed um I also I think Connie Britton is is just the most amazing female human specimen and I want to work with her and now I want to be a country singer so I think I want to be on Nashville I think that would be the show that I would pick I just think yeah you know my boyfriend comes home and I'm like you will you don't understand what happened today I have to tell you what happened and then I'm like I'm I'm not human that's saying these things about a television show but my adult life is like her childhood I actually don't watch television it's very it's um I don't want say I have shame about it but it's very awkward to be so part of the industry and be so out of touch my watching yeah I just um it's anyway I had kids you know and like that was my life for a long time and I was out of the industry so um anyway I'm trying not to feel shameful about it but I I don't watch television so sorry I'm sorry but I go right along with you because of time you come home and your grandmother by the time I get around uh sitting down after catching up with a male and all that sitting down to turn the set on it's news time so I watch the news and you know maybe watch Jail don't you know where the Makos but I don't watch the television that I should and it's a it's a sin because it's open well that's cuz you work like a firecracker Betty I mean you are on everything at all times sound a safe route or not you're booking I'm like it's like you work so much it doesn't surprise me that you don't have a lot of she also does for the animals she does you know what I think every animals look but Pope thank you very much but you're trying to get rid of me and you can't I ain't going you know I think because what betty was saying and and you were saying about time at you but you don't watch TV that's why I think that Netflix and these you know Hulu Eversole whatever are getting a bead on something because you can choose when you want to watch something and you can watch it whenever you want as many as you want or it's it's sort of I think there's something on both sides of that but uh that for the time thing you know you could just say okay I'm gonna want on a weekend or something but I have nothing going I'm gonna tune into my favorite shows and there they are I'm gonna watch Netflix well a nut flakes and you don't have to wait like you can do if you're really has a lot of the the television programs I think currently are the the level of quality is so high and I prefer to start a DVD collection versus going to the movies because I feel like sometimes the quality of movies I'm like a that was okay but again into a new DVD series and I'm like oh my god it's all I think about yeah and you can do like a four or five six hour what feels like movie watching you know the DVDs is what is what resurrected Arrested Development people we're not watching it on Fox at 8 o'clock and when it went off and they put out the DVDs that's where always and then people found it that's what it really was amazing and watched you to watch them ten times over I think especially with the immediacy that we get everything nowadays like the how fast our phones work and just like with all the social media with Twitter and Instagram and how instantly everything happens people want it all when they want it you know they don't want to wait a week and I do but everything that's happening so quickly I think often people's attention spans lose track they're not going to spend the time in a weird way it's a commitment to watch a show weekly to remember what happened before and stay emotionally involved in it so if they can watch you know 10 hours of Game of Thrones they will they read it they will and suddenly the dragons means I've never seen it so I don't know I hear that there are dragons and they're really important yes so one final question if you were not an actor what do you think you would be doing with your lives I'll answer first because we all know that well many people know you already are very cool well no I mean I was on a very different track I was on a very different track after blossom ended so yeah I probably would have been a research professor which is what I was going to do and now that I have two boys you know that's sort of my profession no matter what I do so that's it that's a good very good answer I always wanted to be a zookeeper growing up I wanted to be a zookeeper you almost are you do all these animals level zookeeper so I've I'm managing to do the two things I wanted to do getting show business and be a zookeeper and I've been in this business for 65 years and I'm doing both of them you can't get any luckier than that that's lucky yeah how about the rest of you did you ever have a plan like well if this acting thing doesn't work out I always can do no I never had a back-up plan and I was it's very specific about not having one because I felt like if I had a plan to fall back on I would fall back and so I wanted to kind of just throw all my chips on the table and think I mean thank God I did something worked out I always wanted to be a veterinarian and I was little but I think that that's kind of like everybody wants that but I feel like having a voice now I've been extremely fulfilled from being able to be a part of activism or philanthropy and so I feel like I might not have found that when I was 18 years old but that was where I would have ended up because it's so crazy fulfilling I think when you get to be a part of helping someone else I always wanted to be a secretary when I was little because I loved answering the phone and writing things down I just would do that all the time and that's why I told my mom and she was like don't you want to be the boss I was like no you're not getting it I want to be the secretary the boss doesn't answer the phone and take the notes that was a big point of contingent and then I was a secretary it's not all it's cracked up to be um what would I do probably something with kids like yeah I really I really like being a mom that's like my other full-time job so something with babies some kind of like philanthropy baby crossover maybe a secretary and anniversary gift they'll have a low down in each corner that's right answer phones and take notes for babies I don't know what I would do because I just had blinders on and it's funny my mother said you know Jesse wanted to be an actress from the time she was three and she saw Bambi which was a cartoon so I quite get it but that you know and then one of my I went to the 92nd Street Y you know for acting lessons in the when I was about ten and that teacher later on she was great great lady Muriel Muriel Sharon she wrote some Booker's I mean she said Jesse wanted to be an actress or die I have no other talents I can't do anything lovely I'm still hanging bearable how about you Sasha did you have a no I was the same way my dad always told me that if you have a back-up plan you'll fall back on it and and I was lucky enough to grow up in this industry as well which I love you know I spent my childhood on movie sets and I thought that it was I could care less about Disneyland but I thought movie sets were like the most magical place on earth and I just I just never wanted to do anything else and I felt sort of like if you gave 70% of yourself to an endeavor why on earth would it work out you know you got an you got to sort of go all-in and not try and make some enough just fall face-first because you know you think it's funny you know that her father is one of the great great American playwrights David Mamet you know that I hadn't it haha good good good stock well thank you all so much I think we're all done [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 462,011

Rating: 4.8468471 out of 5

Keywords: arrested development, betty white, Big Bang Theory, comedy actress, Emmys, girls, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, hot in cleveland, house of lies, it's always sunny in philadelphia, jessica walter, Kaitlin Olson, Kristen Bell, Mayim Bialik, roundtable, THR, Zosia Mamet, funny ladies, veronica mars, thr, lena dunham, fashion, lifestyle, television, uncensored interviews, comedians, female comedians, golden girls

Id: XqgVr7IyUtg

Length: 57min 3sec (3423 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2013