
In honor of her passing, we are re-sharing Rob's 2020 conversation with the brilliant actress and comedian Catherine O'Hara. Make sure to subscribe to the show on YouTube at YouTube.com/@LiterallyWithRobLowe! Got a question for Rob? Call our voicemail at 323-570-4551. Your question could get featured on the show!
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Rob Lowe
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place. From H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. So sad hearing the news that Catherine o' Hara has passed. What a brilliant, brilliant actor and by all accounts, just one of the great humans that we had in the business. A mom and just truly, truly beloved by everyone. She's a Second City Television alumni, obviously. Her work on Home Alone and I mean, come on. Her work in the Christopher Guest movies. Come on. A true legend recently, obviously, she was on Schitt's Creek, the studio, Last of us. Funny and brilliant. Deeply missed. In her honor, please enjoy my conversation with her from back in 2020. Rest in peace. Hello.
Catherine O'Hara
Hello. How are you? Hi. Hello. How are you?
Rob Lowe
I'm so excited to talk to you.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, well, you'll get over that soon.
Rob Lowe
Welcome to Literally, It's Me. I'm very excited. I say that a lot, don't I? At one point you're gonna be. And he says that every single time I turn onto the show. But it's true. I wouldn't be doing it if I wasn't excited about it. And I have the great Catherine o' Hara on the podcast today. I mean, when you think of just iconic, amazing. And to say she's a character actor is diminishing because she's not. She's an actor. A great actor. But her character work is unparalleled. Whether it's her work in every genius Christopher Guest movie or the Home Alone franchises or her work at sctv or currently in Schitt's Creek where she just won an Emmy. Oh, nothing. She's a stud. And she's somebody that I've never met before. So you get to see me start a History with somebody brand new. Live in your ear hole. And that's about to begin right now. And I hope you like the talk as much as I liked having it.
Catherine O'Hara
I'm in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where my husband and sons are working on a show called Schmigadoon for Apple. My husband is production designer. He designed the sets, and one son is in construction and the other son is a set dresser.
Rob Lowe
So they got into show business against all your. All the barriers you surely, hopefully put in their way?
Catherine O'Hara
No. After they quit college, they're both dropouts, so we thank God we could get them work somewhere. Sheesh. I. The.
Rob Lowe
The. Yeah, I wake up in the. With cold sweats sometimes because one of my kids is in the business and then, yeah, the. The other is sort of flirting with it. With. But at least he's got a law degree, so.
Catherine O'Hara
But, you know, law degree. Congratulations. I know.
Rob Lowe
I don't. I don't know how that happened. I really. I suspect. I've always suspected that on one of those locations that, you know, and I love my wife, and I say this with all respect, but I do think that maybe there was something going on with a really smart pool guy. It's the only thing that makes any real sense.
Catherine O'Hara
There are tests for that sort of thing.
Rob Lowe
I know, I know.
Catherine O'Hara
But I think you trust her. I think you trust her.
Rob Lowe
I do, I do. But that said, if I were. If I were. Who's the redheaded prince who were convinced that Prince Charles isn't his father? That one, you know?
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, yeah.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, I would.
Catherine O'Hara
The redhead.
Rob Lowe
In what world has somebody not gotten hair out of that brush and gone to like 23andMe or whatever the fuck it is and figured it out? I mean, that would be worth some money, I'd think.
Catherine O'Hara
That's great, right? He does have his nose. He has his nose. Charles nose.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, but he's got that ginger fighter pilot face, though.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Does red hair immediately go to kids or. Go to kids? English is not my first language.
Rob Lowe
Does it go to. We all talk like Donald Trump now. Does it go to kids? That where they are with the.
Catherine O'Hara
No. Do children automatically inherit red hair? Is that better? Hmm.
Rob Lowe
No, I think it pops up. We're. I think it pops up weirdly.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, Oh, I think you're making that up.
Rob Lowe
I don't know. This is what this is. This is why I'm the worst podcaster in the history of podcasts. Cuz I get a genius like you with a. With a storied career and all I want to do is Talk about obscure DNA and red hair popping up. And people. Right. All across the country right now, people are getting off the treadmills and going, this guy's the fucking worst. I've. I've had it. I want Jason Bateman. Give me Dax Shepard, Rob a lot.
Catherine O'Hara
Let's talk about anything. But, but the obvious.
Rob Lowe
Well, you. I. I was. I was doing my little research on. On you, and I came across an interesting quote. You said your whole family was funny. How does that happen? No one in my family is funny.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes, they are. You must have beaten it out of them. Or somebody did.
Rob Lowe
But your family was actually funny. Everybody.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah, they really are. They still are.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, they still are.
Catherine O'Hara
Six. Six brothers and sisters. Well, my parents are gone, God bless them, but I have six brothers and sisters, and they all think and know they could be doing anything that I've done. Comedy. No, they are. They're funny. But, but it was always, I think we're born funny. And I think you either, you know, unfortunately have life beat it out of you or, or. Or you're. It's encouraged and you're fortunate enough to have it encouraged. And my parents, I think, was. That was the sexiest thing about them is them making each other laugh right to the end, no matter what they were going through, you know, and the longer you live, you go through a lot of stuff. And they did, and. And they just always found a way to laugh about it. Always. And my dad used to, like, you know, during dinner, he'd go in the bathroom and come back with a funny hairdo, come to the table.
Rob Lowe
Really? So he was silly, too, because there's.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, yeah, very silly.
Rob Lowe
I, I think silly funny is. Is very underrated.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah, not really. Well, yes, okay, I won't disagree. Sorry. But, you know, you look at the jerk or Dumb and dumber. Dumb and dumber. Or, Or. I mean, who else? Who else? Jim Carrey, Ace Ventura.
Rob Lowe
Ace Ventura. Pet Detective.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Silly, but intelligently done. Anything really well done is well done, I think.
Rob Lowe
But just having just the notion of your dad walking into the bathroom and coming out with a hairdo apropos of nothing is really genius.
Catherine O'Hara
That's the way it was. Yeah. I do a ridiculous walk at the end of Best in Show. Have you ever seen it?
Rob Lowe
Yes. Oh, I know the walk well, it's great.
Catherine O'Hara
I do a ridiculous walk. And the night before we shot this, Chris guest said, okay, well, you have to, you know, something has to happen. You have to fall so that Eugene can show the dog with his two left feet. And so we talked about you know, falling, whatever. And then I said, well. And he said, then what do you imagine afterwards we can ask him, can I do this? And I walked away from him, and he just said, yes, yes, do that. And that is my dad's walk that he would do, talking about my dad. But my dad would do that in a parking lot or wherever. He'd walk ahead of us and do that walk. So everyone in my family does it. Like therapy that I got to do it on film.
Rob Lowe
That's amazing. Well, listen, here's what I love about your dad, and I didn't get a chance to know him, and I'm sad about it, is he clearly didn't care what other people who were in the same parking lot were looking around. That poor man. What's wrong with him?
Catherine O'Hara
And speaking. I'm sorry. One more thing about my dad at parking lots is at one point, our car. I don't know what kind of car he was driving, but if we turned left, the horn would go off. So I remember driving out of a church parking lot, and he turned left and the horn went off. And my dad said, everybody wave. So we all waved out the window as if he was honking to somebody that he knew. So we all waved to everyone.
Rob Lowe
He's. But, see, he's Canadian, and Canadians are funny. You guys, you're funny.
Catherine O'Hara
Everyone is.
Rob Lowe
I. Would you like to come to Dayton, Ohio, spend some time at. Spend some time with the folks I grew up with. Really nice people. Not funny.
Catherine O'Hara
Are you there now? Are you there now?
Rob Lowe
No, I. My dad is still there. My dad's still practicing law, and he's
Catherine O'Hara
not funny at all.
Rob Lowe
I guess if it takes me that long to answer, the answer's no.
Catherine O'Hara
Do his friends think he's funny?
Rob Lowe
Which is even worse because there's. There's nothing. Here's the thing that makes my skin crawl. Ready for this as soon as. Oh, I got a great joke. You're going to love this. When I hear that phrase, oh, I. I literally start to jump out of my own skin.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, I've never set up a joke with, oh, is this ever funny? You got to hear, no, but they.
Rob Lowe
People do it all the time because
Catherine O'Hara
they laughed at it when somebody told it to them, and they think it's just going to come out of them the same way, and they'll be able to deliver it and get the same laugh. So they're going, wait till you hear this. That's coming through me now, unfortunately.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, I don't like the presale. Of the story. The other one is when it's like, oh, just one second. But this is such a great story. You gotta hear this. Never.
Catherine O'Hara
People get nervous or if somebody tells you pitches an idea for anything, you know, and they say, what about this idea? I get really nervous that I'm not going to love it. And it's just. You can hardly hear anything. I love it already.
Rob Lowe
Yeah.
Catherine O'Hara
What are you saying?
Rob Lowe
Here's, here's. I think we can stop this as a culture. Is the minute they say, oh, this is really funny, you just go, I'll be the judge of that.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes.
Rob Lowe
Just. Just hit him with it right away. We'll see.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. For you, it works for me. I don't know. Yeah. Or. Or if. If you're telling a long joke or if you've heard a long joke and you thought it was really funny and you'd like to repeat it, do you really milk it when it's one of those jokes that require a lot of milking of the story? Kind of by the end you're thinking, really, all of that for that punchline. But some people could really just make a meal out of it, as they say. Whereas I will just kind of get lazy and go. And at the end, this happens. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
And the doctor came in and said, here are the results.
Catherine O'Hara
I'm laughing. Oh, you're good.
Rob Lowe
I know. Aren't I though? Okay, so I want to ask you about this. So I grew up as an SNL guy, right? But all my friends were scared TV freaks. But I could never get sctv. I could never find it. And I wanted to find it so badly.
Catherine O'Hara
You didn't stay up late enough, Is
Rob Lowe
that what it was? Where the hell was this thing, this SCTV thing you speak of? Where was it
Catherine O'Hara
that you speak of? It was on a thing called a television.
Rob Lowe
Yes. Okay, good. All right, I'm with you.
Catherine O'Hara
Back when we all. Never mind. And it was on either before or after Saturday Night Live on a lot of stations, but more often than that, it would be on like after to the Night show or something and be on at 1am See, because I got
Rob Lowe
Don Kirschner's Rock Concert.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, yeah, the Midnight Special.
Rob Lowe
And the Midnight special. Yeah, that's what I got after snl. But I. Because I always wanted to see what everybody was taught somehow, people. But they're not. Right? They're not rivals. Right. Do you feel like it's a rival thing?
Catherine O'Hara
No, no. We were not in the same league. We were never in the same league. They were the prime time players. Right. On Saturday Night Live. And, well, most of them were our friends that had been at Second City. That's right, yeah. And we knew most of them, but we were so happy for them. And at different times, I remember they were talking to John Candy, God bless him, about doing it or so. And so they might sort of put up feelers. We're like, oh, yeah, yeah. But I think the SCTV producers, you know, they, of course, they tried doing a sketch television show years ago. It's called Tunnel. I want to say Tunnel Vision, but it's not. Chevy Chase was involved, Bill Murray and a bunch of Second City people. And. And it hadn't gone anywhere. I think they did it with the Lampoon people. And. And then so finally, because Saturday Night Live was doing so well, it's such a giant hit, then our producer said, wait a minute, we've had it. We have. You know, we have such a bank load of talent from all the years of Second City. Why aren't we doing this? And we just happened to be the cast at the time. We were there in the right, Right time, right place, and we got to do it. But, no, I don't think we could. No, we're no competition. No, I like the fact that we didn't have to do it with an audience. We could take our time and play with things and rewrite them, and we have more control as a cast, way more control than the cast has on Saturday Night Live.
Rob Lowe
So that would be. Would. Would make it much not. Not easier. It's. It's never easy to be funny. And those, Those. I mean, the people that came out of that farm team, I mean, I mean, you. You had Gilda there. You knew Gilda. You knew Gilda Radner, for gosh.
Catherine O'Hara
God bless her. Yeah, she and my. I met her through my brother Marcus. They dated and they were in a theater called Global Village Theater in Toronto, downtown. And we got to go downtown from the suburbs and see them. That was very exciting. It's very exciting, isn't it? And then Gilda got into Godspell and my sister Mary Margaret.
Rob Lowe
God. Wait, wait, wait, hang on. I just want to savor that. Can I just savor? Because that. I just was overwhelmed with 70s vibes just now. Gilda, did you ever see God's Got Into God's who didn't? It's the 70s. Who wasn't in it? Godspell. Oh, my God.
Catherine O'Hara
In Toronto, as Victor Garber played Jesus.
Rob Lowe
No way.
Catherine O'Hara
Eugene took over for a blader. Eugene was in the cast. Eugene had an afro Like Schreiber, Burns and Shriver. Nobody knows them. You're too young. Yeah, Eugene was in it. Andre Martin was in it. Dave Thomas was in it. Marty Short was in it. They were all these same Second City people. Yeah, they were all in Godspell. Mary Margaret, who's a great singer, and I auditioned. We got callbacks, but we didn't get in. And I think we even. I even copied what Gilda had sung for her. I think Zippity Doo doll, she'd sung for her audition, I didn't even get. And then Gilda got into Second City, and Mary Margaret and I were waitresses at Second City. We just followed Gilda everywhere. Yeah, she was lovely. She would come and hang out with our family on, you know, on the dark night on Sunday nights or Monday, whenever they were not working at Second City, she come and hang out. We have home videos of her doing improvs with my mom and dad, my sisters and brothers. And she was really sweet. When I turned 17, she gave me her gift. Was 17 coupons for me. I wish I knew where they were. One of them was, I will do the dishes for you. I will make you lunch. I will take you shopping. Cute little life coupons.
Rob Lowe
Did you ever. Did you ever cash in those coupons?
Catherine O'Hara
No, Are you kidding? Even then I knew, this is Gilda Radner. Hang on to this.
Rob Lowe
I would have stood up at the audience at SNL and said, hey, fancy girl, you gotta do my dishes.
Catherine O'Hara
I'm hungry. I'd like a little lunch, please.
Rob Lowe
Were you a good auditioner, a bad auditioner you auditioned for? I love finding out if people are good at auditioning because a lot of actors are not at all. And some are really good at it.
Catherine O'Hara
I'm not. Someone I think was. My brother Michael told me about a book called Audition. Do you know that book?
Rob Lowe
I'm gonna have to read it now.
Catherine O'Hara
Michael Shirliff, Michael Shirtliffe, he also does or did acting classes and really, really good advice on auditioning. And in his book, he said Robert De Niro was an awful auditioner. I thought, well, that gave me hope. But, yeah, I was really bad. And I actually auditioned for our Robert De Niro movie once. And he wasn't there, of course. And there was a, you know, bank of people there. And I'm sitting in a chair, and the scene I was reading, in that scene, Robert Dairo and his wife were in bed. So instead of sitting there reading the scene, I got down like this to look like I was in bed.
Rob Lowe
Oh, my God. It's amazing.
Catherine O'Hara
You can see it's a really flat. That is.
Rob Lowe
Well, I don't know how I feel about. I relate. I don't know how I feel about this because, you know, sometimes as a producer, I'm on the other end of the casting and I always feel nervous for the actors and I want them to do great. And I've seen actors come in and like there's a scene in a car, right? And I don't know how I feel about the actors who act like they're driving a car. A fake. They manufacture a fake steering wheel and move it. And I'm like, I mean, I get it, but I don't know. You know what I mean?
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Like I did with the bed, it doesn't work.
Rob Lowe
It's like you're doing the thing with the bed.
Catherine O'Hara
It doesn't work. And also the weird thing about auditioning, but there's nobody's come up with a better idea. But the really wrong thing about it is when you're auditioning, all the focus is on you. And when you're on a set, the focus is on everyone. Everyone on the crew, everyone in the scene, everyone. You know, it's a shared occupation, you know, shared focus. But not when you're auditioning. So it's so unnatural in that way. It also took me until I was in my, I think, late 30s to realize that I shouldn't go into a meeting. I don't think I actually was ever good at a meeting as opposed to an audition. And then you get to a certain point in whatever career you might have and they think, oh, we won't make you audition, we'll just have you come in for a meeting. Right. But I was never good at that. And it took me till really into my late 30s to realize that maybe I shouldn't go into that meeting completely as myself. That maybe I should take some aspect of the character and, you know, how would I be that way or how would I think that way or see that way? I'd still be myself, but I would, you know, feed them a bit of, you know, my potential as the character. But until then I was just. No matter what the role, I would go in as the same goof ass. What are you good at? Meetings. You're good at meetings.
Rob Lowe
Well, here's my problems even worse. I feel like I'm good in meetings and I have a great time and I come out of them and I never get the job. That's. Oh yeah, that's even worse, I think.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah.
Rob Lowe
I mean, I'd rather know I was bombing in the room, so maybe I could work on it. Yeah, but I make a lot of
Catherine O'Hara
friends when it goes well. Yeah, you have no. You know, they'll say, oh, you're great. We love meeting. Yeah, we love meeting him. Why don't you tell us? Tell us what? What? You know, how did we blow it? Or why? Or had you already cast it before you brought 40 people in?
Rob Lowe
Well, you know, they say show business is the one industry where you could die from enthusiasm. Die of enthusiasm. You know, it's like it. It really.
Catherine O'Hara
It.
Rob Lowe
But you're. You're so right about giving them a little bit of. Of something. It's kind of like the thing. It's. You're. You're gonna do a net. You're gonna. You're. It's Westworld. You might be in West. The new season of Westworld.
Catherine O'Hara
Ooh. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
And so you go to meet with everybody at hbo, and they're not gonna make you. Not gonna make you. Come on, read for it. Of course, after all, it's season five. They might have. It was season one. But, but, but if I went in and chaps. Like, if I just rolled into Mr. Chow's for the lunch meeting and chaps. That's sort of what we're talking about, right? It's like, it's me, but there's a little something. Something about being a right. Or. No, that's two. On the nose. Cowboy hat. Jaunty cowboy hat.
Catherine O'Hara
I think if I was casting, I would think I would give you points for effort and for enthusiasm. Definitely. But I think it's more like, you know, if you're going to play one of those kind of robot kind of. I don't know what those people are.
Rob Lowe
On Westworld, you would order your meal like this.
Catherine O'Hara
There you go. That you would cut. Yes, I would like a salad. Sounds good. Hey, please give me a Caesar salad.
Rob Lowe
I met with Catherine, and it seemed like she'd had a stroke. It's the feedback you get.
Catherine O'Hara
I think I've got. I've got that critique a lot.
Rob Lowe
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Rob Lowe
Schitt's Creek is so genius. Everybody knows it. I don't need to tell you it's amazing and you're amazing.
Catherine O'Hara
So you have found that. You have found where to watch that.
Rob Lowe
Well, that's one of the things I wanted to talk about because that show's journey is one of the things that. Look, I spent a lot of time pissing on show business for good reason. But the other great thing about show business is you truly don't know when the next magical thing is going to happen. And that's what's so great about it. And that that show found its way into the zeitgeist against all odds is one of the great things about what we do. Really? Truly.
Catherine O'Hara
Now we are really. This whole Covid thing worked out really well.
Rob Lowe
That's right.
Catherine O'Hara
Everybody's stuck at home and people are watching anything they hear about. And the people who do watch our show were watching our show already, are so loving and kind that they badger everyone they know to watch the show. So then suddenly people are stuck at home. They go, okay, I'll watch it. So that and the fact that Netflix stopped that made a world of difference. The day Netflix started showing her show made a big, big difference. But people really are stuck at home. And also we turned out to be the Rose family in our show turned out to be a strangely good example for people of how to live with your grown children and get to know each other when you're stuck at home for like good length of time. We're actually, it's so in keeping with what so many people are living through. And you know, there's the whole lovely inclusivity aspect of our show and there's just a lot of it's really written with love. Like Daniel Levy wanted to create a world he wanted to live in and I'd like to live there too.
Rob Lowe
And I, I also liked a quote I read of yours. You said you wanted to help design a character that was going to make you interested in playing her for more than in one season. And boy, did you ever do that. I mean,
Catherine O'Hara
well, they allowed me to speak like an alien. That really helped. They were, they were there. Not a lot of people who just go along with it. And I'd like to wear a different wig in every scene, please. Okay. Said Eugene. Yeah, what about you? When you take on, you've done lots of series, when you start out on a roll, do you not get scared of, of creating something that you won't want to live with, let alone never mind what other people will think, but what you will stay interested in will keep you excited and. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
Yeah.
Catherine O'Hara
How do you go about that?
Rob Lowe
Well, I've kind of come to a place where I accept the challenge of that. If you're going to be on a long running television show that on TV you live a character and in movies you play a character. So movies, it's such a finite time. You know, you're going to go in and you're going to rap and you know what it is. But on a TV show, just the volume of hours you're playing that character over time, you're living it. Some days you're sick, some days you're happy, some days you can't wait to get home to see the kids. The days is a national tragedy unfolding on the news. But you're on the stage. But whatever goes on, you're going to experience it while you're playing the character. And that to me is what keeps it from being, what keeps it fresh, is that you're right. The amount of time you're playing that character, you're inevitably Going to experience a range of real life emotions because on a movie you can just put all that aside for six weeks or whatever, but you can't do it when you're lit, when you're doing a TV show.
Catherine O'Hara
No. And I think you're, you know, with good writing, you, you are allowed to have new experiences and find out about yourself. And you do go through changes if, if, if the writing allows it.
Rob Lowe
Yeah.
Catherine O'Hara
So you aren't actually, you're not actually stuck like I afraid I was going to be or what any of us were going to be when we first signed on. Yeah, you're not, you're not actually stuck. Yeah. Good writing.
Rob Lowe
So is it true that you modeled your character's look after my good friend Daphne Guinness?
Catherine O'Hara
Are you friends with Daphne Guinness?
Rob Lowe
I am. Well, that's great.
Catherine O'Hara
Well, she's wild.
Rob Lowe
Wild.
Catherine O'Hara
I don't know her personally, but her determination to look different and amazing and strong. Her jewel armor, like jewelry that she wears. Yeah, that's all true.
Rob Lowe
That's all who she is. So for those of you out there who are just discovering Google, Daphne Guinness, she's one of the great characters, extraordinary characters. Aaron Sorkin and I did A Few Good Men together in the West End and Daphne came to the show and we struck up a friendship and so I've known her ever since. What's she like exactly? She delivers on exactly what you want her to be like. Right, so she's very ethereal, very beautiful.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah.
Rob Lowe
Very ageless. Like she could be from any age or be any age.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah, yeah.
Rob Lowe
And I have a friend who talks about Daphne coming to visit them on the beach in Mozambique in the high heat of the summer and looking up the beach and seeing her in 7 inch black platform heels, black leather pants, bedazzled sleeves, and jewelry and hair and huge sunglasses. And that's, I mean, well, you know what she is, She's a female Karl Lagerfeld. There's a lot of that.
Catherine O'Hara
Right. I wore some Karl Lagerfeld fingerless gloves on the show several times.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, she's a big believer in fingerless gloves.
Catherine O'Hara
She's a def. You can see once you see her pictures of her, you know, how much she inspired me and our wardrobe department, Deborah Hansen and Daniel Levy, who had a big hand in it. Yeah, I, you know, signed on to do the role and then Eugene and Daniel invited me to lunch to talk about, you know, details. And I brought my iPad with. I, I looked at it recently. It was like 150 pictures of Daphne.
Rob Lowe
Kiddos, how did you know how did you know about Daphne? How did you find. How did she get on your radar?
Catherine O'Hara
I discovered it just some. Somebody blessed me with that. I was just looking for looks. I know somebody. Do you know Lisa Eisner?
Rob Lowe
Yes.
Catherine O'Hara
Lisa Eisner, Yes. She designs amazing jewelry and she's just a great character. And she dresses really wild and strongly all the time. And so I was looking for her for outfits because I wanted to bring pictures of her to Daniel and Eugene. And I don't know, maybe I looked up black and white because I do love black and white. I look black and white, something or extreme dressing or urban or exotic dressing or, you know, whatever. And found a picture of Daphne again. It's like, oh my God, who is this woman? Yeah. And then brought them 150 pictures. And Daniel, you know, I opened up the iPad and started running through them. And Daniel went, yes, yes.
Rob Lowe
How great though, that you have a collaborator, though, in Daniel.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes.
Rob Lowe
Who is open to that vision and gets it.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. And makes it happen. Actually executes it, you know, because I'm sure you've had this where you, you know, you have meetings with wardrobe or the director, producer, whatever, before you take a role and then you show up for your first fitting and everyone says, yes, but it's amazing when you're talking anything creative that you're not actually seeing, even when you see it sometimes. But when you're talking creative ideas and everyone thinks they're on the same page and everyone goes, yeah, oh, yeah, let's do that. Yeah. Great. Okay. So then with wardrobe, you show up on that first day and there's a rack full of the most foreign looking things to what the conversation was just what? Was there anything here? Let's start with. Oh, maybe that skirt. I'll try just so. That's happened so many times. So it's one thing for me to come in with pictures of Daphne Guinness. I didn't have to shop. I didn't have to find everything. I didn't have to. I didn't have to put it together, accessorize it, anything. That was all Deborah Hansen and Daniel Levy. And we had to have authentic high end, you know, clothes from.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, you can't fake.
Catherine O'Hara
No, no, they did mix. They'll mix in some Zara and H&M1's in a blue Moon, you know, especially for Annie stuff. I think some cute little dresses and things. But overall, no, I was wearing like ten thousand dollar boots. But Daniel and Deb Hansen would shop all year online and have stuff in their dream carts waiting for Prices to go down. So. Because we don't have that budget. We didn't have that budget.
Rob Lowe
Did you keep any of you Must have kept some of the good stuff. I'm hoping.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. They were very kind about that. Keep waiting for a bill to be sent. And they haven't done it yet, so I'm gonna just go with. They've given it to me.
Rob Lowe
Here's what you need to do now. There's an Academy, a double Academy Award winning actress who shall go unnamed. And it's her rule that if she, as her character touches anything on the set, it's hers. So you guys can all do the math and try to figure out who this is. It shouldn't be too hard. But the rule, it's called the that's her name rule. And so I think you need to invoke that rule.
Catherine O'Hara
Well, I didn't have to. I worked with the Levy gentlemen. They just Canadian again.
Rob Lowe
Canadians.
Catherine O'Hara
Nice Canadians. Yeah. And at the end, you know, the racks and racks of amazing things, but I can't pull off most of it. I'm not my character. But there were so many beautiful pieces. You know, we were evacuated last October, thank God. Not this year, but evacuated at 3 in the morning last year. And as you do, you run through the house. If you haven't organized things like. Like I didn't. You know, you run through the house looking for passports and documents and, you know, pictures of your babies and, you know, baby pictures from the kids and just all that stuff. And I kept running by this rack of Moira clothes and as I was looking for the other things you're supposed to gather and I, I thought I can't. No, I. No, I'm not. So I grabbed like 8, 10 pieces of clothes and the Givenchy booties, they're just so cool. Along with the baby pictures. Of myself. No, of the kids.
Rob Lowe
Givenchy booties and baby pictures.
Catherine O'Hara
I was happy to have them because you never know. Thank God we were spared. But you gotta have some things that, you know, not just documents of passports, but things that. To remind you of joyful times. Yeah, easy said. For me, we were spared.
Rob Lowe
What evacuation was this? Was this the fires?
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah, the Getty. The Getty fire.
Rob Lowe
Oh, the Getty fire.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Because we're in Brentwood. Very close. It was very close up of Tigertail and.
Rob Lowe
Yeah.
Catherine O'Hara
Very sad. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
I know. What I also want to ask you about. You had a Paul Lind imitation. Is this true?
Catherine O'Hara
When I was 9 or 10. Who did? There you go. Yeah. I only did men for my dad make them laugh? Make them laugh? Oh, yeah. What was his. It was like this. Something.
Rob Lowe
Ow.
Catherine O'Hara
That's really good.
Rob Lowe
No, you don't understand. They're making a Paul Lynde movie, and I am so disappointed that I'm not playing Paul Lynde.
Catherine O'Hara
Really? Are you?
Rob Lowe
I feel like it's a role I was born to play.
Catherine O'Hara
That's quite clean. I know. Well, why aren't you? Why aren't you?
Rob Lowe
I don't know. I don't know.
Catherine O'Hara
Well, how do you know you're not?
Rob Lowe
Because I think I read someone was playing it. I want to feel it was a Greg Kinnear or somebody. I don't know. I. I need to get on this. I don't you think. I mean.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
Don't you. Don't you want to see a movie like that? Takes place up, you know, Mount Olympus, off. Off Laurel Canyon and 1976, with me as Paul Lynn doing whippets with pool boys and then rushing off to the Farmer's Daughter bar next to CBS Television City, getting fucked up and then going on. I mean, that's a movie I want to do.
Catherine O'Hara
And how happy would Paul Lynn be knowing you're playing him? How flattering is that? That would be wonderful.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, I think he'd like that.
Catherine O'Hara
I mean, I think you should let people know.
Rob Lowe
Center square.
Catherine O'Hara
Who else do you do?
Rob Lowe
Do I do. You know, I do some of the usuals. The Clinton, the Chris Watkins, you know.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, excellent.
Rob Lowe
I do Lauren, of course. Who doesn't do Lauren? I think I haven't gotten through it. We were almost gonna get to this podcast without me doing Lauren. This was gonna be the first one.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, really?
Rob Lowe
And now you've led me into it. You've led me into it.
Catherine O'Hara
The mouth is going already.
Rob Lowe
It's already starting. I once asked because I have a son named Matthew. I know you have a son named Matthew.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes.
Rob Lowe
So then I was trying to think of another name for my second son, and I was really struggling because, you know, names have meaning, and you're like, oh, I like this name. But I knew a guy in seventh grade who was a dick who had that name. So that name's that you go through all that stuff, and I was really struggling with the name. And I was on the phone with Lauren and I said. And he said, my advice, I think the King's names work best.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, he means it. That's great. That's great.
Rob Lowe
Isn't that the greatest?
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah, excellent.
Rob Lowe
He also said, I was designing my house because Rob the thing is, when you get older, you'll find yourself being drawn to wood.
Catherine O'Hara
Wood. Does he say it's that thing a lot?
Rob Lowe
You know, it's that thing.
Catherine O'Hara
It's that thing.
Rob Lowe
No, no, no, no. Don't misunderstand. It's that thing.
Catherine O'Hara
Really good. Geez. So you're actually doing Lauren. You're not doing Dana Carvey doing Lauren, or who's doing Lauren? Yeah, you're actually doing Lauren.
Rob Lowe
Did you go to the Tate Modern when you were in London? See the haystacks? They're breathtaking.
Catherine O'Hara
That's great.
Rob Lowe
I know. I. I'll never get him on the show now. He'll never come on. And I mean, he's gonna be.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes, he will. Sure he will.
Rob Lowe
He's. He's become the great white whale of the show. It started out as Bruce Springsteen and it's quick, quickly morphed into to Lauren. And like, once, if I ever. Then I can, like, retire from my ill fated podcasting career, get Lauren, you know, that'll be the end of it.
Catherine O'Hara
Did you already get Springseed?
Rob Lowe
No, no, I haven't gotten him either, but I'm.
Catherine O'Hara
I'm gonna
Rob Lowe
make him sound like a snake.
Catherine O'Hara
That's really good. He's doing a lot of stuff right now. He's doing a lot of interviews right now. I know.
Rob Lowe
The new album is insane. It's so good.
Catherine O'Hara
And the documentary where they're all in the studio. The studio of a thousand guitars. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
You know. You know you're Springsteen.
Catherine O'Hara
I've seen him.
Rob Lowe
I've seen him.
Catherine O'Hara
Did you ever see the show Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow produced years ago? You guys know what it is where he plays Springsteen and everyone's gone home and he's cleaning the floor. He outlives everyone.
Rob Lowe
That and of course, Ben when he does Tom Cruise, who I also do.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, yes.
Rob Lowe
In fact, my early. There was. When I. When I started on Parks and Recreation, there was a minute and a half where they were writing my Tom Cruise impersonation into Chris Traeger. But it didn't really take. It wasn't really. It wasn't. It didn't really fit what we were doing. But. But Mike Schur, who created Parks and Rec, was very enamored with my Cruise impersonation, which really, you know how like, sometimes you only have one bit and your entire impersonation is literally, it's one bit. You have one move and that's it. But it's a good move and it works. Right. So mine was Tom ordering water at a restaurant that Was my entire Tom Cruise. Because it was true. I mean, I vividly remember this as 18 year old kid going, oh, oh, that's a thing. And it's just the notion of like having a nice conversation with somebody over the table and then the waiter comes up and says, you know, what would you like? And you're like, haha, wait, I was like, water. I would like it in a glass. I would like lemon in it. I would like to be room temperature anyway and just like super intense and specific about something like that.
Catherine O'Hara
Not for a laugh.
Rob Lowe
Oh, no, no, no. Super intense.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow.
Rob Lowe
Yeah. So there was a minute where my character did that kind of stuff and
Catherine O'Hara
then we're like, that's great, that's great. Wow, you're good at this. Sheesh. Have you ever played the game Marty Short used to make us play us all the time where you give each other people to do that you've never done and you have to try to do them. That's really scary. Ooh, I did it once on the, on the Tonight Show. I got Jay Leno to agree to do it. And. Oh, and the other guest shite was. Oh, lovely guy. That was in the. He's Australian actor Hugh Jackman. No. Hugh Jackman. No, nobody is.
Rob Lowe
Russell Crowe.
Catherine O'Hara
That's good, that's good. No, he was in the movie about the Olympics that Spielberg directed. He's a really good actor.
Rob Lowe
Oh, oh, Eric Bona.
Catherine O'Hara
Thank you. Eric Bona was the other guest and I guess he was out first because he was there. And then I came out and Jay Leno had agreed to do this and I said, okay, we'll give each other names to do and we have to, we have to impersonate. And I gave somebody to Jay Leno and he made a great attempt. Gave someone to Eric Bennett. Made a great attempt. I did the anti improv rule thing. They gave me somebody. They gave me Liz Taylor and I said, well, I've done her. No. And then they gave me somebody else.
Rob Lowe
No.
Catherine O'Hara
Give me somebody living. It was just so bad because I knew what I wanted to do and I said, could I give me someone living? And Eric Ban had just worked with Scarlett Johansson. So I said, okay, Scarlett Johansson? Yeah. Is it okay if I say Puck on tv? And Jay Leno said, of course. And. And I said, okay, here's Scarlett Johansson in the morning before she puts her teeth in. Oh, I love that. Eric Van.
Rob Lowe
That is the most. That's quite genius.
Catherine O'Hara
That's really cheap. That is such a, such a safety, safety guard going in my mind. That's all back. So.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, that's a really good game, but it's really good if you're playing with, with, with you and Marty short.
Catherine O'Hara
No, I'm not good at it and it's so scary. Especially if you've never tried doing so many before. Just to have a sound come out of your mouth, just to make that first sound is such a leap. Leap of faith. Okay, I'll give you something to do. You don't have to give me anyone.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, no, I know I'm up for this challenge. I'm very competitive. Very competitive. The minute you said game, I was like, ah, let's go. Give me one. Okay, well, here's the thing is I, I really have to like. It's a podcast, so they're not getting half my, my artillery is, is the visual. But I'll just know that that's, Just know that going in.
Catherine O'Hara
That's true.
Rob Lowe
You're grading on a curve.
Catherine O'Hara
Great though. Your voices have been great.
Rob Lowe
Eh. All right.
Catherine O'Hara
No, Are you kidding? You know, hit.
Rob Lowe
Hit me with one. Hit me with one.
Catherine O'Hara
Hit you with one. Yeah. Okay, so I'm good. I did say red buttons, but that's too old a reference.
Rob Lowe
Red buttons. Oh my God. I, I would, I. It would be a scene from the Poseidon Adventure. That's all I ever saw. Red buttons in.
Catherine O'Hara
That's great.
Rob Lowe
Is it red buttons?
Catherine O'Hara
No, but beside adventure, do Gene Hackman.
Rob Lowe
Okay, See, but I, I want to do him hanging from. I want to do him hanging from this, the screw before he drops into the flaming water. God, if you don't let these people get through this upside down world. In this upside down boat, there is no God.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow.
Rob Lowe
How about that?
Catherine O'Hara
You better put that in your, in your kit.
Rob Lowe
That's going in the One man show. And we'll be right back after this.
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Rob Lowe
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Catherine O'Hara
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Rob Lowe
So here's something interesting. Christopher Guest, who is a certified genius and you're shaking your head yes. Everybody knows it.
Catherine O'Hara
No, I'm nodding, I'm nodding.
Rob Lowe
Nodding your head. Nodding your head. I didn't mean shaking your head. No, I meant shaking your head. Yes. Here's what I've witnessed about him that I found really fascinating.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes.
Rob Lowe
I was able to observe him at a party surrounded by some of the funniest people on the planet. Whether it was Steve Martin, Marty Short, Tom Hanks, I think Ron Howard was there. I mean, funny, smart people. And everybody, whenever anyone told a joke or told a story or anything, before anyone reacted, they looked at Chris.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, you were gonna say that. Oh, I knew you were gonna say that. Yeah. Yes. He's the, he comes off as the toughest critic in the world. And he's also really smart and really funny. When we improvised the scenes in the movies that we did or that I was part of with him, everyone else kind of repeated a joke here and there, you know, from take to take, not the whole thing, but, you know, he thought, oh, there was a, you know, there was a, something happened with sound that take is Dead. Okay, well, I might. I might just. True that I came up with that joke. I'm going to try some. I'll try to get it in there. Again, Chris Guest never repeated a thought from take to take to take. And his characters just so ridiculously inventive and creative and funny. So yeah, you just. And he's very dry. Really dry.
Rob Lowe
Look, to him, you need to create a different story for. I mean, dry doesn't begin to. Yeah, he's the Sahara.
Catherine O'Hara
But are you friends with him?
Rob Lowe
I know him a little bit through. I've known Jamie, his wife, Jamie Lee, forever and ever and ever. And so we would run into each other and I like him very much, but I wouldn't say that we're very close. But he's obviously amazing.
Catherine O'Hara
Well, I'm not really close either. I don't see him. I've only seen him when I worked with him. But once he does let you in as a friend. He's so affectionate and sweet and he laughs and laughs and he's so lucid. It's just the rest of the time he just does not suffer fools and everybody wants to be his fool.
Rob Lowe
That's a great phrase. You're right. He doesn't suffer fools and everybody wants to be his fool. It's really.
Catherine O'Hara
Hey, I'm improvising. Eh. Eh.
Rob Lowe
Oh, you're good at that. Oh, you really do he. Okay. Corky St. Clair
Catherine O'Hara
with a backward pants.
Rob Lowe
I mean, I don't know. In the pantheon of great characters that for me might be because I feel like I've been directed by Corky St Clair multiple times in my career, then you're lucky.
Catherine O'Hara
Someone very loving and supportive and encouraging and just wants you to be the best you could possibly be. That's what it was like. And then there was Bob Balaban's character who looked at us like, how did you get here?
Rob Lowe
Well, you're right about Quirky Sinclair, but the other part about Corky Sinclair is he's completely without talent. That's the other part.
Catherine O'Hara
Says who?
Rob Lowe
That's. There's something so endearing, infuriating about someone who's so energetically, lovingly, like, supportive, who has no clue what they're doing and aw, he does.
Catherine O'Hara
Isn't directing. I love directing, nurturing and taking care of people and considering what everyone's going through and empathizing with everyone.
Rob Lowe
It is true. You gotta have that. The great ones all do, right? Don't you think?
Catherine O'Hara
That's quirky. That's Corky Sinclair. I mean, what a great character. But also took himself so seriously. Corky took himself so seriously.
Rob Lowe
Could you choose your favorite Chris guest movie or no?
Catherine O'Hara
All of them, I don't know. I don't know. They were all just amazingly challenging, scary and fun to do. But the best was just watching everyone else work but waiting for Guffman. The night before I shot for the first time. They'd already shot for a week or so when I got in. And Chris just said, I just tell you one thing, don't try to be funny, just be in the scene. And you know, we shot 90 something hours of improvisation for those movies based on a. On a really clean and great and well written outline. You know, all the scenes that are in the outline ended up being the scenes in the movie. They're exactly as, you know, as structured, as originally structured, but the dialogue is improvised. And so, you know, we'd improvise 90 something hours, whatever. And they cut down to. Chris would cut it down to 92 minutes, I think so. So you knew once you got going that there was going to be a lot of stuff that just going to disappear, which takes a lot of weight off of, you know, the pressure, trying to be funny. But that was. That was scary, but really fun. The thing that was fun about that waiting for Kaufman is we kind of moved around in a group. We were all together, Parker Posey and Eugene and Fred Willard, God bless them. And you know, we're all. We were together to group as the. With the other movies, we sort of. We were playing very different characters in their different worlds and then who came together, you know, for the event at the end. But we had our different lives going on. So it was really fun to sort of be introduced to the world of improvising a movie with that group there all the time, you know. Yeah, Eugene got really good at luring himself out of a scene if he was going to laugh so they wouldn't blow the take. There's a. There's a car seat, a car, a car dealership where, where Corky's showing us how to do his dance, which I don't know if you remember, just pushing his pelvis forward and we're all trying to imitate it. And Eugene could not control his laughter. But instead of blowing the tape, he lowered himself out of frame. There was another scene in the library. We're doing another kind of rehearsal thing and Fred was really making Eugene laugh. So Eugene just snuck behind one of the library shelves, got his laugh out of his system and came back in the scene. Really fun. Sorry, I can't pick a favorite. I don't know. I don't know. They were all. They were all. Yeah, I love them all.
Rob Lowe
I mean, it's hard. It's. For me, as Guffman, best in show. I mean, they're. They're perennial. Those are movies I have to watch once a year for sure. For sure.
Catherine O'Hara
And for your consideration, it's turned into a very good, you know, how not to. How not to lesson for Eugene and me. We keep reminding each other, you know. You know, awards season, you know, to get into that world, and people are talking about whether or not you're going to win, and we just keep reminding each other of the characters and for your consideration. Okay, just. Let's just keep a perspective.
Rob Lowe
Well, listen, you won. You won the Emmy this year.
Catherine O'Hara
We didn't think we were going to because we were trained by that movie, so we did not expect it. That was nice surprise.
Rob Lowe
You won the Emmy this year. What was that? What was that like? Tell me, because I've never won one. What? What?
Catherine O'Hara
Well, you should have.
Rob Lowe
You've been nominated. I don't know. I don't know.
Catherine O'Hara
Surely you've been nominated.
Rob Lowe
I have been. I'm a perennial bridesmaid.
Catherine O'Hara
Did you get sucked into the game when you were nominated, as Tom Hanks
Rob Lowe
calls it, the trophy run? This is my favorite. He said that with no irony, he said, because, yeah, no, it's, you know, around the holidays, usually, it's kind of involved in the trophy run, so. And I thought, wow. Wow, that is the greatest. The trophy run. And he has been many times, and he has been. It's like Ty Cobb said, it ain't bragging if you done it. And he done it many times.
Catherine O'Hara
That's great.
Rob Lowe
What was it like? Did you think you were gonna win?
Catherine O'Hara
No, I honestly didn't. And I felt like I was getting set up because my agent kept sending me things, pieces that said I was going to win. And I thought, no, I've seen this. I won't name names, but I've seen this happen to too many people where they're set up, you know, And I kept thinking of. For your consideration, the movie. So no, by. By Tom. It was going to be announced. I convinced myself, no, I wasn't going to. And I wanted the show to win. I thought that would be so great for Eugene and Daniel. I really did want the show to win, but I did not, honest to God, didn't expect it, and was so happy to be with everyone. You know, we. I think Daniel talked Eugene into having something and so it was going to be a barbecue in Eugene's backyard. Then there was a whole Covid thing. And then they had, I think, 50 people invited two days before, and they moved it to where we were. Casa Loma in Toronto. It's kind of an event place. It's Old Castle. And then two days before the Emmys or before the party, the Ontario premier changed the law so that it was maximum 25 people outdoors, maximum 10 indoors. They had to uninvite or disinvite half the people. And they were all people who'd been nominated for the show, and of course, everybody we wanted to see and be with. So that part was sad. But then we got there, and then I looked around, we're all dressed up, and we got. I thought, how do we have stylists for a zoom thing? What are we doing?
Rob Lowe
You could be naked from the waist down. Nobody would know.
Catherine O'Hara
Well, apparently you do find out.
Rob Lowe
Yeah.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, dear. What was he thinking? Yeah. So we. We got all dressed up, and when I got there, I thought, oh, this looks like we think we're gonna win. This is almost too pretty and too fancy and too lovely. And we had this lovely dinner party, and they had two producers in a big screen, and you could see the other nominees. And. And then they said, okay. And we all got tested. Of course we're safe to be with each other, but we wore masks. And they said, but if you win, you're going to go up to a microphone. Oh, come on. That looks like we think we're going to win. Could we just stay in our seats if we win? And I'm not thinking we're going to. They said, well, everyone else is going to go to the microphone. Okay. So then I look like I can't walk. Okay. So I have to go if I. If I do, but I won't. So good. And they say, okay, we're about to start and your category is the first one up. Just because it makes you feel kind of sickly. But. But then Jimmy Kimmel and Jennifer Aniston did that ridiculous bit with the fire burning up the cart, and not for a second was, I think, oh, hurry, get to it. I was just laughing, you know, silly bit. She kept. She was so good with the extinguisher. Just like, yeah, I better go at it again. Yeah, this looks bad. And then he read my name and I have that card now. JB Kimmel sent it to me. So great. Half burned away, but my name is still in there. Yeah. And then. And then, sorry, I've gone on Way too long, but. And then Eugene won, and then Daniel went for writing, and then it got to Annie, and she's sitting beside me, and I said it was about to, you know, announce her category. Now you have to win. Sorry. You actually have to win.
Rob Lowe
That's right.
Catherine O'Hara
Now. Yeah, now you have to. And she said, who do I apologize? Do first. So sad. It was insane. It was insane. And it just. It. It. You know, that we got nine in a row.
Rob Lowe
That's amazing.
Catherine O'Hara
And that's unusual for a category to be lumped, but. But they don't usually lump all the, you know, one category together, do they?
Rob Lowe
No.
Catherine O'Hara
No. So it really became UN Canadian and greedy after a while for us. And it. So we got through the nine awards, all the comedy, and then they. Then they cut off our feed, and then we're all just kind of stunned, screaming, looking at each other. And Noah Reid, who plays Patrick on the show, said, you realize no other show's won anything yet. I was like, oh, this is wrong. This is too much. It's just too much. That.
Rob Lowe
Yeah. Cause that was the year that they, like you said it was comedy, and then they went to drama instead of alternating back and forth. So you guys just steamrolled everybody.
Catherine O'Hara
That was. Yeah. And of course, we expected all of that, didn't we? Yes.
Rob Lowe
Oh, of course. So let me ask you this. If you're. If you, God forbid, are ever evacuated again, what do. And you can only take one thing. Is it the Emmy or the.
Catherine O'Hara
Or.
Rob Lowe
Or is it your Order of Canada?
Catherine O'Hara
No, I think it'll be passport. The kids pictures.
Rob Lowe
Oh, that's so boring.
Catherine O'Hara
Well, you said one thing. Come on. What kind of mother. Human would I be?
Rob Lowe
That's true.
Catherine O'Hara
Mother first, human second.
Rob Lowe
Which kid would you take? Let me ask you that. You only take one kid.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, my God. Kathy's choice.
Rob Lowe
Kathy's choice. Kathy's Canadian choice.
Catherine O'Hara
Which kid would you take? Oh, my God, can you imagine?
Rob Lowe
I know. Oh, no, Listen, I'm open to being lobbied, though. I mean, I fully, fully, like, am. Like, would have no problem saying to my boys, look, I'm only taking one of you. What's in it for me?
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, I would say you decide.
Rob Lowe
Ooh, let them decide.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, that's sickening. What a horrible thought. No, that's it. My kids are never living with me again. I want them to be somewhere else, safe.
Rob Lowe
I like it.
Catherine O'Hara
Do you know that trick with kids with kids when they want. When they're mad about who's gonna get the bigger size of something? Candy or the Most of a drink.
Rob Lowe
No. What trick is this?
Catherine O'Hara
You say, okay, one of you will pour or divide it and the other will choose.
Rob Lowe
Wow.
Catherine O'Hara
And it makes every kid be fairer than they've ever been in their lives. Dividing up whatever that is.
Rob Lowe
Oh, the meticulousness that would then transpire. What a good. What a good thing. Where was that when I needed it? When I had these 8 year old and 6 year olds running around my house?
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Fighting over stuff. No, they did. Did they get along? Did they love each other?
Rob Lowe
They did. Yeah, they really did and still do. And now we're all back in the house. We're all still living like it's your Schitt's Creek is the ultimate version of what we're living. I like to think of it as we're living in a failed sitcom. Cause to me it's like every sitcom that doesn't work and yours did work where they're all back together. But. And it's been great. It's really been great. And everybody gets along and it's been really fun and we've been catching up on great stuff on Netflix and you know.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah, yeah. Watch you guys like in the show. I think adult children are getting to see their parents as humans, just adults. It's not like you have to be best friends, but you sort of, you know, you. I think I've stopped lecturing as much as I used to. When I saw the once in a while it's like, you see the once in a while, it's like, I want to tell you everything I know about life right now. You know, I have five minutes with you, but, but when you, when you get to spend those days together, nights together, you relax and you just sort of, in a, in a much healthier way start, I hope, anyway, start letting each other be, you know, even kids let their parents be.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, there's. There's. When you're, when you're going through what everybody has gone through and continues to go through, it just, it just gets so real. It's real. It's like there's no, there's no putting a brave face. There's no putting any face on it. It just is. It is what it is. And they. I think it's been good for everybody to see, you know, the warts and all, you know, of. Because they, you know, I think kids look at parents and think, you know, parents are these unknowable figures, you know, and our kids are also mysteries to us in ways. And a lot of that's good. A Lot of that is good, is as it should be, but a lot. Boy, you want to take the mystery out of something. Live with people 24, seven for nine months. Right.
Catherine O'Hara
But if you could survive, if you survive it, that's. Yeah. And if you can actually let each other be. Give each other a little space. If you're lucky enough to have some space. Yeah, it's good. I think we're all looking at how life could be different from now on. Not with or without Virus. Just. I think we've really found out what things work and don't work and how many people can actually work at home. Wow.
Rob Lowe
Well, I've been shooting my show, 911, Lone Star. We're back. And, you know, Disney is our studio, and the protocols are the most unbelievable. You know, the famous shots of the astronauts walking down the gantry to get in. That's what it looks like coming from craft service.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow.
Rob Lowe
Cassette.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow. And it's all boxed. Right. You can't just go and order what you want. It's all. You order ahead of time. And. Oh, these are real problems, aren't they? Could you order your food ahead of time?
Rob Lowe
You can't order ahead of time, but no, you can't go in, like, certain. Like there's a certain. Everybody goes in different doors. Everybody's, like, quadranted off. It's. We have to wear two masks. We wear the, you know, the mask mask and then the face shield.
Catherine O'Hara
Right.
Rob Lowe
And I'm. I'm deaf in one ear anyway, so I a can't hear much. And then I realize I've used. I lip read so much, so I just. I have no relationship with anybody anymore on my show at all because I can't. I can't communicate.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, my God. Lip reading. I thought of this. Yeah. What happens with masks and lip reading? You just do it. People speak louder. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
And you get tired of doing that, and eventually you just. You just check out. And that's the really sad part, is it really is too hard to. To. To. To communicate. It's. It's really rough, you know, But I'm sorry, what I'm like, huh?
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Then they lift it up to speak and you.
Rob Lowe
Oh, no, you can't. No. Then. Then the, The. The sort of COVID police jump in.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, yeah. How often do you have to get tested for your work?
Rob Lowe
I get tested every three days.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow.
Rob Lowe
And honestly, my nose is starting to feel it. Like, I definitely have a permanent. Like, I'm aware of my nose.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. Permanently. You get the swirl, though, not the stick in the brain.
Rob Lowe
My nose hasn't felt like this since 1986. And you know Nels in Lower Manhattan with Andy Warhol?
Catherine O'Hara
No, I never did that.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, that stuff.
Catherine O'Hara
Saw too many people be stupid.
Rob Lowe
Couldn't get it in Canada. Believe me, tried.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, no, it was everywhere.
Rob Lowe
I shot Youngblood up there. I know, I know what was going on up there in 1984. I know it wasn't going on, unfortunately.
Catherine O'Hara
Wait, as. Are you producing the show? Because as an actor, you can't wear two masks, right?
Rob Lowe
Yeah, as a producer, I'm wearing two, but I'm rarely on the set when I'm not acting. But we wear the. We wear the masks for everything but actual shooting, so the rehearsals, like I said, are, like, really problematic. It's like. What? Yeah, it's very tough.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow. Yeah.
Rob Lowe
But at least we're working. Look, we're lucky a lot of folks aren't working.
Catherine O'Hara
We're alive. We're alive.
Rob Lowe
We're alive.
Catherine O'Hara
You're working. You're working enough for all of us.
Rob Lowe
And. And, you know, my. My nose is happy to be getting attention again after so many years of falling into disrepair.
Catherine O'Hara
I have permanent damage from getting tested. The stick up the brain from a sinus infection years ago. Oh, and I have. Yeah, I've like, perpetually. Just slightly runny nostril on my left side, and it's terrible. It's terrible for working. I'm always asking makeup artist, do I have anything? Poor girl has to look.
Rob Lowe
Yeah, no, it's. You know what the phrase for that is? Are there any bats in the cave?
Catherine O'Hara
Ew, gross. It's not bats, though.
Rob Lowe
This is gross.
Catherine O'Hara
This is a very clean, clear, tiny bit of liquid. That's all it is. Okay?
Rob Lowe
That's all it is.
Catherine O'Hara
Bats in the cave.
Rob Lowe
Hey, any bats in the cave? Ew. Well, this has been great. I love this. I love talking to you. I've been a fan forever. A lot of people. I get on you too.
Catherine O'Hara
I'm sorry. I'm a fan of yours forever too. Not as long because you're a lot younger, but.
Rob Lowe
Nonsense. Listen, we both love Paul Lynd, so what else matters? Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna leave this. I'm gonna call our mutual manager and I'm gonna say, you're fired. Unless you get me the role as Paul Lind.
Catherine O'Hara
Absolutely.
Rob Lowe
And Catherine, who would. Okay, we'll end with this. Who? I want you to be in it. What character can you be? Can you play Sandy Duncan in the Corner Square? Would that be a thing?
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, that's great. Oh, no, I don't know if you're Robin, if you know Robin Duke. She. She played a role. Okay. She should play.
Rob Lowe
No, she's beyond a Sandy Duncan.
Catherine O'Hara
Sure, she looks like her.
Rob Lowe
Okay. Who would you be?
Catherine O'Hara
Would Joey Heatherton. Would Joey Heatherton be in there?
Rob Lowe
I like Joey Heatherton.
Catherine O'Hara
Slightly older Joey Heatherton. Who else is in that period?
Rob Lowe
Oh, could you play Wally Cox?
Catherine O'Hara
Yes. I'll do anything for you to your pony.
Rob Lowe
I like playing you as Wally Cox. I like to. I want to see you stretch those beautiful wings.
Catherine O'Hara
Oh, yeah. What's this? What's his voice?
Rob Lowe
I think he's just kind of. I think he's very nerdy. And he's got a mustache that's like this.
Catherine O'Hara
Very dirty, but he's right.
Rob Lowe
I don't really know the answer to that. Peter Lawford or whatever the hell his name is. Peter Marshall. Of course you don't. What do you know? You know nothing.
Catherine O'Hara
And who's the guy? Who's the guy? Used to be a match game. The old Match Game. That would.
Rob Lowe
Gene Rayburn.
Catherine O'Hara
No, the guy who was basically Paul Lynn. Oh, his delivery was exactly like that. Oh, Nelson Reilly.
Rob Lowe
Oh, Charles Nelson Riley.
Catherine O'Hara
Another one. Do you guys know who this is? Cause all his answers were like that too.
Rob Lowe
Charles Nelson Riley. He was also Hoodoo in Lidsville. And if we start going down my Sid and Marty Croft rabbit hole, then that's great. Yeah.
Catherine O'Hara
My husband designed Land of the Lost movie.
Rob Lowe
No way.
Catherine O'Hara
Yeah. That was all on stage. Oh, my God. The detail in those. The beautiful paintwork on those trees and vines.
Rob Lowe
And my favorite joke in the movie is basically an homage to your husband then, because it's Will Ferrell in the temple where all the crystals are. It's the Sleestack temple or whatever.
Catherine O'Hara
Sleestack.
Rob Lowe
And he says this looks like the set of a Telemundo telethon. It's my favorite joke.
Catherine O'Hara
That's great.
Rob Lowe
In the show.
Catherine O'Hara
That's great. And we. I swear, at least once a week, one of us will say to the other when we made a mistake. Not cool. Chaka.
Rob Lowe
Chaka. Theresa Taka.
Catherine O'Hara
Just from that.
Rob Lowe
Yeah. The fact that I know Chaka's language is deeply upsetting, even to me.
Catherine O'Hara
Wow, you're an encyclopedia of bad television. Of something.
Rob Lowe
Of something. That's what my wife says. The great Catherine o'.
Catherine O'Hara
Hara.
Rob Lowe
Thank you. Usually a lot of folks on the show, I know it and have a long history with. And this is the other part of the show that I love is when I get to meet someone I've always admired and started history. So our history began today. Just so you know.
Catherine O'Hara
Yes, please. I want to become as good a friend to you as Daphne Guinness.
Rob Lowe
Oh, darling, I've got great stories. I'm going to send you some stories. I'm going to try to find some photos and I'll send it to you through our mutual manners.
Catherine O'Hara
Excellent.
Rob Lowe
Of your muse.
Catherine O'Hara
And before you tell something funny, say you won't believe how funny this is. Wait to hear this joke.
Rob Lowe
Oh, this is such a great joke. This is. Wait, let me just. Hey, you're going to love this. I'm going to kill myself. Thank you, darling.
Catherine O'Hara
Thank you so much. God bless you. Stay safe, all of you.
Rob Lowe
Thank you. That was fun. Bye. Bye.
Catherine O'Hara
Thank you.
Rob Lowe
That was fun.
Catherine O'Hara
Thanks.
Rob Lowe
That was fun. I love it. And I am gonna go get on this Paul Lynde thing. I'm gonna get on it right now. By the way, I'm sure all of you listening have no interest in seeing me in that part. And I completely understand. Doesn't mean I don't wanna do it. I wanna thank Catherine. She was so sweet to take time out of her busy day to talk to me. And it's inspired me to watch waiting for guffman again tonight. And if you've never seen waiting for Guffman, get a life. It is beyond belief or best in show. But start with those because I'm assuming everybody's seen Schitt's creek, but trust me, you won't go wrong. And anyway, I will see you next week. Thanks for coming back. And by the way, if you guys, it'd be great if you give us a review on apple. We like that. It's helpful for the show. I read them, so be nice to me because my feelings are easily hurt. So go to Apple and give us some good stars.
Catherine O'Hara
All right, bye.
Rob Lowe
You have been listening to literally with Rob lowe, produced and engineered by me, Devin Tory Bryant, executive produced by Rob lowe for low profile. Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at team coco and Colin Anderson and Chris bannon at stitcher. The supervising producer is Aaron Blair, talent producer, Jennifer samples. Please rate and review this show on apple podcasts and remember to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Date: February 2, 2026
Host: Rob Lowe
In this re-released episode, Rob Lowe celebrates the life and career of comedy legend Catherine O’Hara following her passing, sharing their original conversation from 2020. The episode is a joyful, freewheeling, and deeply affectionate exchange covering Catherine's upbringing in a big, funny Canadian family, her journey through SCTV, improvisation with Christopher Guest, and her iconic role in Schitt’s Creek. The discussion features behind-the-scenes stories, impressions, reflections on family, acting, and touching remembrances of comedy greats. The chemistry is playful, respectful, and brimming with genuine admiration and laughs.
"So sad hearing the news that Catherine O’Hara has passed. What a brilliant, brilliant actor and by all accounts, just one of the great humans that we had in the business." (00:30)
“Her determination to look different and amazing and strong... that’s all true.” (29:10)
“I grabbed like 8, 10 pieces of clothes and the Givenchy booties. They're just so cool. Along with the baby pictures. Of myself. No, of the kids.” (35:50)
“I would like it in a glass. I would like lemon in it. I would like to be room temperature... just super intense and specific…” (41:55)
“All the scenes that are in the outline ended up being the scenes in the movie…but the dialogue is improvised… we'd improvise 90 something hours… and [Chris] cut it down to 92 minutes.” (53:36)
"No, I think it'll be passport, the kids' pictures." (61:04)
“I'm deaf in one ear anyway… I realize I've used, I lip read so much, so I have no relationship with anybody anymore on my show at all because I can't communicate.” (65:57)
On Her Parents’ Humor:
“They just always found a way to laugh about it. Always.” (06:33) — Catherine O’Hara
On SCTV/SNL Non-Rivalry:
“We were not in the same league. They were the prime time players… We were so happy for them.” (13:17) — Catherine O’Hara
On Gilda Radner’s Generosity:
“She gave me 17 coupons… ‘I will do the dishes for you, I will make you lunch…’” (15:21) — Catherine O’Hara
On Keeping Acting Fresh:
“On TV you live a character and in movies you play a character.” (27:30) — Rob Lowe
On Schitt’s Creek’s Success:
“The day Netflix started showing our show made a big, big difference.” (26:07) — Catherine O’Hara
On Moira’s Wardrobe:
“I brought my iPad… it was like 150 pictures of Daphne [Guinness]…Daniel [Levy] went, ‘Yes, yes.’” (31:26) — Catherine O’Hara
Evacuation Choices:
“I grabbed like 8, 10 pieces of clothes and the Givenchy booties. They're just so cool. Along with the baby pictures. Of myself. No, of the kids.” (35:50) — Catherine O’Hara
On Christopher Guest:
“He comes off as the toughest critic in the world…and he’s also really smart and really funny.” (49:09) — Catherine O’Hara
On Improvised Films:
“We’d improvise 90 something hours…Chris would cut it down to 92 minutes.” (53:36) — Catherine O’Hara
Advice from Lorne Michaels:
“My advice, I think the King’s names work best.” (38:58) — Rob Lowe (as Lorne Michaels)
Pandemic Family Lesson:
“I think I’ve stopped lecturing as much as I used to…you relax and start letting each other be.” (63:18) — Catherine O’Hara
This episode is a loving tribute to Catherine O’Hara’s brilliant, singular comic spirit, charting her journey from a joyful family, through iconic roles, to her late-in-life mainstream breakthrough. It’s a masterclass in how comedy, kindness, and risk-taking can shape an extraordinary creative career — and serves as an uplifting, moving, and often hilarious memorial to a legend.