← The Rubin Report
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- [00:01]
Amazon Music Announcer
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- [00:34]
Dave Rubin
Oh, hey.
- [00:35]
Gift Wrapping Host
Welcome to gift wrapping.
- [00:36]
Cheryl Hines
Whoa.
- [00:36]
Gift Wrapping Host
So is Saldana.
- [00:37]
T-Mobile Representative
Hey, can you wrap these please?
- [00:39]
Cheryl Hines
Wow.
- [00:39]
Gift Wrapping Host
IPhone 17s.
- [00:40]
T-Mobile Representative
You splurged at T Mobile. You can get four iPhone 17s on them. The new center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. It's the perfect gift for everyone.
- [00:48]
Gift Wrapping Host
I'm the worst. I only got my mom a robe.
- [00:51]
T-Mobile Representative
Well, it's better than socks.
- [00:52]
Gift Wrapping Host
So I have to trade in my old phone, right?
- [00:55]
T-Mobile Representative
No @t mobile. There's no trade ins needed when you switch. Keep your old phone or give it as a gift.
- [01:00]
Gift Wrapping Host
Incredible.
- [01:01]
T-Mobile Representative
In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my Aunt Rosa.
- [01:04]
Dave Rubin
Forget that.
- [01:04]
T-Mobile Representative
Aunt Liz will be jealous.
- [01:05]
Gift Wrapping Host
Sounds like my family drama.
- [01:07]
T-Mobile Representative
Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my abuela. I'll take reindeer paper with. Hey, where are you going?
- [01:11]
Cheryl Hines
To T Mobile.
- [01:12]
Dave Rubin
The holidays are better.
- [01:13]
Gift Wrapping Host
AT T Mobile get four iPhone 17s on us.
- [01:15]
Dave Rubin
No traded needed when you switch plus.
- [01:17]
Gift Wrapping Host
Four lines for just 25 bucks a line.
- [01:18]
Dave Rubin
And now T Mobile is available in.
- [01:20]
Gift Wrapping Host
US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits and four eligible board inside essentials for well qualified customers. Auto pay + taxes, fees and $35 device connection charge credits ended up if.
- [01:29]
Dave Rubin
You pay off earlier.
- [01:29]
Gift Wrapping Host
Cancel contact US Finance Agreement 256 gigabytes. $830 required. Visit T mobile.com I had been on.
- [01:34]
Cheryl Hines
The View a lot of times and the ladies on the View are very passionate about their views.
- [01:39]
Dave Rubin
They're one view.
- [01:41]
T-Mobile Representative
Your husband is the least qualified Department of Health and Human Services head.
- [01:46]
Cheryl Hines
It is odd to be in the hot seat for someone else. I was in the hot seat, fielding questions, sometimes just statements on behalf of Bobby. So that was strange. The left Some people are very emotional and upset. My experience with the right they have been accepting and warm. I had been through a lot of training for improv otherwise I would never have gotten that part on Curve youe Enthusiasm because like you said, there was no script.
- [02:15]
Dave Rubin
But were you ever worried that you guys were gonna step in it or there was gonna be any blowback? Cause somehow the show totally skipped Cancel culture.
- [02:26]
Cheryl Hines
Oh my God. He might say before the scene. You're gonna tell me that your parents are coming to stay for three weeks. I would know even from that information. Three weeks is a long time for anybody to stay with. You can only imagine that this is not gonna go well with Larry.
- [02:43]
Dave Rubin
How is your relationship with him now, knowing that, you know, he is kind of a, from where I sit, he's a crazy lefty. I'm Dave Rubin, this is the Rubin Report. And I am thrilled to be kinda sorta, hopefully not doing too much politics today, because joining me is award winning actress and author of the new book Unscripted, Cheryl Hines. Cheryl, how are you?
- [03:15]
Cheryl Hines
I'm good, I'm good. How are you?
- [03:18]
Dave Rubin
I'm just fine. As I said to you for the 10 seconds before we started recording, I'm thrilled to be talking to you. Cause I actually am a fan. We have, our worlds have sort of collided over time, sort of through Bobby, also through comedy and a bunch of stuff. So I thought it would be interesting cause I've played a bunch of the clips from your book tour on the show. And it's sort of interesting because the book obviously is mostly about Kirb and your career and everything else. And of course you talk about the Bobby stuff in politics too. But I thought it's been interesting watching you do media now where you're thought of as political because of your husband, even though that's not a. It's not really what the book is, but it's not really what you are. And I just sort of wonder now that you're a few weeks into the tour, the book tour, and doing all these interviews, how do you feel about that in and of itself?
- [04:06]
Cheryl Hines
Well, it is a different world because I've been married to Bobby for over 10 years and it hasn't really been the lead off to interviews before, but now it is and it's, you know, I just have to be ready. I have to be ready for whatever comes at me, you know, regarding him. So it's a different way to do interviews, I guess.
- [04:42]
Dave Rubin
Yeah. And you know, I saw you sitting down with our mutual friend Bill Maher and you said something that I thought was super interesting was that, that, you know, as you guys got welcome, you know, you're a Hollywood person, so now suddenly you're kind of welcomed in these right wing circles and that it was surprising for you to find that these people were kind of nice and kind and, and I went through a version of that myself 10 years ago when I was kind of evolving. And are, are you still kind of surprised by it that these Conservatives are usually pretty kind of nice and open minded and tolerant and decent and all that stuff.
- [05:12]
Cheryl Hines
Yeah, I am. I mean, that being said, I don't know what I was expecting. I guess I was expecting the flip side of what I'm experiencing with maybe the left. Because the left, some people are very emotional and upset. And then my experience with the right has been they have been accepting and warm and sometimes they'll even say, I know that we don't agree on politics or some things, but they seem more willing to find common ground and just accept you as you are. So that's been a little surprising, I.
- [06:08]
Dave Rubin
Have to tell you. And then I promise I started this by saying we're not gonna talk politics, so we're just gonna get it out. We're just getting all this nonsense out of the way and then we'll get into comedy and all the other stuff. I don't know if you were there, but before the election, there was the Restore the rally event in D.C. that Bobby headlined. And I spoke there and a bunch of other people spoke. And it was right after the Maha and MAGA thing kind of came together. And I kid you not, that was the day I really thought something special was happening here. Cause to see all of these kind of like old hippies that loved Bobby sud with the MAGA people with the red hat, I was like, man, this thing actually is unstoppable. So it's, it's just, to me, it's just very cool adventure that you guys have been on. That's not even a question.
- [06:50]
Cheryl Hines
No, but, but you're right. I mean, that's what I have liked about Bobby connecting with people is that he, that the ideas that he's talking about, about being healthier really hits with everybody. And it crosses party lines, which is nice. I mean, that's what we should be doing is listening and seeing issue by issue, what we respond to and what we connect to. And he has a way of doing that with people, which I think is admirable.
- [07:28]
Dave Rubin
Right. So I promise we're almost there. So is that a little. I can't stop myself.
- [07:32]
Cheryl Hines
But by the way, that's not. That's been child's play.
- [07:37]
Dave Rubin
No, I know, I know, but I could talk herb with you for like 17 hours. So I just want to get this stuff out of the way, you know? Cause also I watched you on the View and I was thinking, boy, you know, if Cheryl was on the View five years ago, you know, Curb's on the air and you just went on five years ago. To talk about Curb and Larry and comedy and all that. They would have been fawning all over you, and Joy would have been sitting in your lap and all the rest of it. And then I watched you on there, and it's like, I'm not a huge fan of Sunny Hostin. Everyone knows that. It's just like the need to go after you. Cause of your husband. It just feels like, what. What is that like sitting there?
- [08:12]
Cheryl Hines
It is. It is, you know, different like you're talking about. Because I. I had been on the View a lot of times in the. In the past, but I. I know that people and the ladies on the View are very passionate about their views.
- [08:35]
Dave Rubin
They're one view.
- [08:36]
Cheryl Hines
They're one view. So it is odd to be in the hot seat for someone else. I was in the hot seat, fielding questions, sometimes just statements on behalf of Bobby. So that was strange, kind of. But, you know, I'm used to it now. I get it. I understand it. That's what they want to talk about. That's what's on their mind. That's what's. You know, they had a lot of questions. So it's different.
- [09:17]
Dave Rubin
So now watch how I can then turn this towards career stuff. So while you're sitting there on some of these shows in that. In a slightly combative or whatever you want, you know, having to answer for your husband or whatever it is, which I thought on the View, you did a great job at one point when they were like, you know, his extremist views. And you were like, well, which extremist views? And then they all get quiet at the same time. But. So watch how we'll shift this. Were you consciously, like, kind of using some of the skills that you learned through Curb and working with Larry and all those guys where it was just like, you have to play through. There's no script here. I would imagine some of that must have come through.
- [09:53]
Cheryl Hines
Absolutely right. So. So I titled my book Unscripted, because Curb youb Enthusiasm was unscripted. It was all improvised. And it is a very helpful tool, especially when you're being interviewed, when you're talking to people, because you have to listen because there's no script. You can't be thinking about what you're gonna say ahead of time because you don't know what the question's gonna be or what someone's gonna say to you. So I think those improv skills do help me stay present and stay focused on the person that's talking to me.
- [10:32]
Dave Rubin
So when you guys shot the original Curb which was. Most people don't know. It wasn't the half hour show. It was like. It was sort of a mockumentary. What year was that? Do you even remember? God, be early. Like 2004 maybe, something like that.
- [10:44]
Cheryl Hines
You know what? You're going to be embarrassed when I say. I'm even embarrassed when I say it. We shot that in 1999.
- [10:55]
Dave Rubin
Oh, my God. I mean, that's.
- [10:57]
Cheryl Hines
I don't know if it aired in 99 or if it aired in 2000, but that was. That's when it was all happening.
- [11:03]
Dave Rubin
Wow, that is wild. So you shoot that our show, which at that point they didn't know was gonna turn into the sitcom. And I remember watching that even though I knew Larry through Seinfeld, really not through. You know, there wasn't a ton of him on camera before that. But I remember watching that, not fully getting whether it was real or not. And that's how good you guys were. I mean, really. That's true.
- [11:25]
Cheryl Hines
Well, thank you for that. And that's, you know, all credited. Credited to Larry because, you know, he wanted it to seem real. And there were real people on the show. Richard Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld was on that one hour special. And so you had real people. And when they cast me, I had heard that they were looking for an unknown actress, so that worked in my favor. But somebody that they, you know, could blur the line with that. You know, if somebody famous came on the screen, they'd say, oh, that's the actress from you know what? And. But. But because it was me and nobody had really seen me. Unless you saw Swamp Thing.
- [12:17]
Dave Rubin
I did see Swamp Thing, actually. I am a child of the 80s. Wait. But honestly, I don't remember that you were in it, but.
- [12:23]
Cheryl Hines
Well, no, because you probably saw the movie.
- [12:26]
Dave Rubin
Yeah, the movie.
- [12:27]
Cheryl Hines
No. And then they did a TV show based on the movie that was shot in Orlando, and I had a really great part in one episode.
- [12:39]
Dave Rubin
Oh, wow. So you were a big star before all of this.
- [12:42]
Cheryl Hines
Huge.
- [12:45]
Dave Rubin
The movie was actually pretty great. All right, I'm gonna hunt that episode down and see what's what. So you get. You get the gig as Larry's wife, but you were an actress, and you are an actress. Used to be reading lines. So how did you even. Did you want to do it that way? Did you like it? How crazy was that learning curve?
- [13:03]
Cheryl Hines
Well, I was already performing at a theater called the Groundlings in Los Angeles, which is all improv and sketch comedy. So I had been through a lot of training for improv. Otherwise, I would never have gotten that part on Curb youb Enthusiasm because, like you said, there was no script. And even when I went into audition, there's no script. They didn't tell me anything about the show, what I was auditioning for. So I actually really like working that way. It's really different, you know, as an actor, because all of my training before that was the answer is in the script.
- [13:48]
Dave Rubin
Right.
- [13:49]
Cheryl Hines
Everything you need to know about your performance is in the script. Every. Every comma, everything that other characters say about you, all the answers are there. And then once you learn to disconnect from all of that, and then you start. You learn that all the answers are in the person that you're doing the scene with.
- [14:11]
Dave Rubin
So I find.
- [14:11]
Cheryl Hines
And it's a really fun way to work. Yeah.
- [14:13]
Dave Rubin
So to that point, I've seen Larry talk about this on a couple interviews, but basically, he would just give, like. He'd be like, okay, we're in the bedroom. And you would sort of just know where it kind of has to end. And then you were pretty much, like playing around the whole time.
- [14:25]
Cheryl Hines
Well, no, sometimes we wouldn't even know where it has to end. But Larry would write a story outline, so. So we might. You know, he might say before the scene, you're going to tell me that your parents are coming to stay for three weeks. That's it. That's all he would say. But I would know, even from that information, three weeks is a long time for anybody to stay with. You can only imagine that this is not going to go well with Larry. But. So I would. I would kind of, you know, that's all the information I would get, and that's the information I would use. So we would do the scene. There would be no rehearsal. And as a matter of fact, I'll tell you, this made me laugh at the time. There was no rehearsal, which, as an actor, you usually have rehearsal for performance and for camera. But we had two cameras rolling all the time. And they were handheld, and it was just, you know, grabbing whoever was speaking. But this one actress, great actress, was guest starring. And we were about to do a scene about looking at a house.
- [15:40]
Dave Rubin
You guys did move a lot, which I remember. I remember hearing Larry. I saw Larry speak at the 92nd Street Y once. And one time he said, one season we moved just because they lost the lease on the house. The film company.
- [15:53]
Cheryl Hines
Yeah, we were always. We always had a different house, and we never even said why. But the actress before the scene. We don't talk about the scene. We don't rehearse it. If anything, we do gibberish just to let the camera crew know where. I might walk over here, blah, blah, blah. I might say something to Larry, then I might sit down. That would be as much as we'd rehearse. So before the scene started, this actress comes over and she says to me and Larry, how long have you two been looking at houses? And I said, oh, you know, not that. Not that long. And there he said, what are we doing? I said, oh, this is, you know, an actor's previous moment where the scene starts. And he's like, we don't do that. And I felt so sorry for this great actor.
- [16:46]
Gift Wrapping Host
For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job, and has trust issues with small town sheriffs. Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad free included with Prime Actress.
- [17:05]
Cheryl Hines
That'S just trying to, you know, commit to the craft.
- [17:08]
Dave Rubin
So to that point, did you find that some of the cast of characters enjoyed that more than others? Like, to me, it always seemed like Susie, like, really must have freaking loved dropping those f bombs. And you know who I think was like the unsung hero of the show actually was Super Dave Osborne. I mean, he was. It was almost insane how funny he was, actually, because it was so straight and dry and he was just unbelievable.
- [17:35]
Cheryl Hines
He was so crazy and funny, like you said. And then sometimes we'd be doing a scene, and in the middle of the scene, he'd say to Larry, oh, remember when Cheryl and I went away together for a week? And Larry's like, what are you doing? He says, what are you talking about? And he's like, no good. Larry's like, how would that fit into what's going on here? But, yeah, he was always very, very funny.
- [18:17]
Dave Rubin
Did some of the guys like it more, the crazy improv stuff? And some not. Or some get in there and just not be able to do it the way you thought they could?
- [18:25]
Cheryl Hines
Well, that's a good question because a lot of people had to audition, even if they were established actors, because it is a different way of working and some actors don't like it. Some actors are they, you know, like I said, they're trained with to read from a script and get their information once in a while. I was in the casting sessions especially, especially probably the first five seasons or something, but an actor would come in to improvise with, you know, us, the cast members, and sometimes that Would throw actors off the bat because you usually, as an actor, are not going in to audition with the people that are in the show. And then I remember one guy who auditioned. He was a young guy. This is after the show had been on for a little while. And, you know, once again, there's no script. And he was doing an improv with Larry, and he could not stop laughing. And Larry said, what are you doing? He goes, I don't know. You make me laugh so much. I cannot. And Larry's, well, you have to do the scene. I mean, you gotta get through the scene. And they'd start the scene again, and he would laugh so much. And then, you know, Larry, everybody's laughing, but Larry's like, I can't cast you. You can't even do the scene in the audition. He's like, I know I can't. Don't ask me. I won't be able to do it.
- [19:56]
Dave Rubin
And he didn't get the gig, I take it.
- [19:57]
Cheryl Hines
No, didn't get the gig.
- [19:59]
Dave Rubin
I mean, that's funny. How did you feel in the sort of season and a half when you were in it towards the end, where you were in it much less because of the divorce and everything? Cause I thought, even though I'm blanking on her name, the black actress, that was his wife at that point.
- [20:14]
Cheryl Hines
Vivic Fox.
- [20:15]
Dave Rubin
Vivica Fox. Thank you. Even though they were great together. They really were. The obvious thing was the love between you guys and the good cop, bad cop thing. And when that was gone, I do think it shifted the show a little bit.
- [20:27]
Cheryl Hines
Yeah, it was hard. It was hard because I love Larry, and I loved Larry and Cheryl together. And I remember. I don't know what season it was, but I remember a scene. So this must have been. Yeah. After we got divorced or separated or something. We were in. We were at a party. This is in the scene.
- [20:57]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [20:58]
Cheryl Hines
I think John Legend was singing, if that makes sense. And I was dancing with the guy that I had met on the. On the plane when I thought the plane was going down. And I called Larry to say goodbye and I love you. And the Tebow guy was there, and he couldn't talk.
- [21:15]
Dave Rubin
Right, right, right.
- [21:16]
Cheryl Hines
That's what sparked the divorce. Yeah, the divorce. But I remember I was dancing with my guy, and he was dancing with Vivica, and I looked over at them dancing, and it got to me. And then I drove home thinking, why am I so upset about Larry dancing with Vivica? This is a TV show. I need to bring it down. It's okay. It's okay. But it did make me sad, you know.
- [21:43]
Dave Rubin
Did he sit you down and say, hey, you're not going to be in it as much, you know, for this next season and a half or whatever it was?
- [21:50]
Cheryl Hines
Well, I did get a call from him saying, well, I've got, you know, I gotta tell you something that you're probably not. It's not gonna. You're not gonna love it. I said, okay. And he said, we're gonna do another season, but you're not gonna be in it. I said, okay. He's. And he said, I want to date on the show. I feel like I have some. Some funny stuff to do. And so I'm gonna. They did a season in New York.
- [22:24]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [22:25]
Cheryl Hines
And I wasn't in it at all.
- [22:26]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [22:27]
Cheryl Hines
And then after that, I didn't know if I would. If I would ever be in it, you know, because he. Because of the storyline. But then the season after that, I was. I was in it. Not. Not as much as it was, but. But it was nice to go back.
- [22:43]
Dave Rubin
How is. How is Ted Danson going back to that acting thing for a second? Because here's a guy who comes out of, you know, traditional, like, sitcom. We're going to tell you when to laugh, laugh track stuff. And you're working with all these guys that have come out of the standup world, really. But he seemed pretty great to me.
- [22:58]
Cheryl Hines
To add it, but he's so great and he's a great actor anyway because he does really listen. But the thing that he does so well is he knows what will bother Larry. So when we were shooting the Seeds, he knows exactly what would bother Larry. You know, if we. If Ted and I were in a scene and we're sitting on the couch, you know, and Larry's in mid sentence, Ted might reach over and hold my hand and rub my leg or something. Just little tiny things that he knows will bother Larry, but he's so great at that. And he always knew what his role was on the show. His role was just to drive Larry crazy. I love. One of the episodes I loved was the anonymous.
- [24:00]
Dave Rubin
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With the fundraiser. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [24:02]
Cheryl Hines
I'm anonymous.
- [24:03]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [24:04]
Cheryl Hines
We go to a fundraiser and everybody's making. And Larry had donated a lot, and then this anonymous donor had donated. And everybody's making a big deal about the anonymous donor because, wow, they didn't even want credit for it. This is amazing. And then, you know, Ted comes up and says, I'm the anonymous donor. He's like, why are you. Why Are you telling us if you were anonymous? You know, and I'm like, wow, that is amazing, Ted. I love that. And then, of course, the more we talk about it, the crazier it makes Larry, right?
- [24:41]
Dave Rubin
And then he's getting beat up by those guys at the end, and he can't get in. Cause he's anonymous, but they don't believe him. It was just so. It was so brilliant. I mean, were there episodes that you guys would be doing and somehow, for whatever reason, he would change the end? Or was the end just kind of always, Always basically there?
- [24:58]
Cheryl Hines
The end was always there. The end was always there. But you know what's interesting? When I watched the finale of the series, the series finale, because I had not seen it until it aired, I kept thinking, I wonder if there's. I wonder if there's an ending to this that I don't know about. Because we all get on a. We're all on a plane, and I thought for one second, is the plane gonna go down? Are we all just gonna die at the end of this episode? Because that seemed like something that Larry might do. But I won't spoil it for anybody that hasn't seen it.
- [25:40]
Dave Rubin
I'm pretty sure anyone watching my show has seen it, or I've referenced every episode, you know, a hundred times or whatever. But how much do you think the fact that. And I thought the ending of Seinfeld was great, and I know Larry, I think, liked it more than it was received, I guess. But do you think that was really, like, ringing in his head that people sort of turned on it at the end of Seinfeld that then he had to do the ending a little bit different? Because when you. Because when you guys all got on the plane at the end, I actually thought they were just going to recreate it again and that the plane was going to start crashing or something like that?
- [26:13]
Cheryl Hines
I think by that time in Larry's career, he did not give a flying puckerball what anybody. But that being said, you know, we did do a season with a Seinfeld reunion. And that was part of the joke in the storyline was people kept saying how bad the ending of Seinfeld was, which is, you know, was, of course, insulting to Larry. And he's standing right there and he's like, it wasn't that bad. Yeah, it was bad. It was bad.
- [26:51]
Dave Rubin
Let's.
- [26:51]
Cheryl Hines
Let's do this better. So we, you know, But. But that's, you know, Larry's gift, because he can laugh at himself really funny.
- [27:00]
Dave Rubin
Were you ever worried about Any of the racial. Obviously it was a ton of racial stuff and a ton of making fun of mentally handicapped people and Jews and Muslims and Christians. I mean, everything, everything, everything. But were you ever worried that you guys were going to step in it or there was going to be any blowback because somehow the show totally skipped Cancel culture.
- [27:20]
Cheryl Hines
I don't know how. I really do not know how, but I wouldn't say I was worried. But it was pretty interesting that it seemed to skip over. I'll say us, but it was really Larry, you know what I mean? But it is surprising. But maybe by the time Cancel culture.
- [27:51]
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- [28:22]
Cheryl Hines
With Prime Rolled Around, Larry had already made fun of right everybody. And so people knew he wasn't targeting one group. And he makes fun of himself so much that I guess he got grandfathered in.
- [28:41]
Dave Rubin
Probably. What was it like working with Richard Lewis? Because if I could just tell you for one second, truly one of the best moments of my career was I interviewed Richard Lewis when we still lived in la and he came to my house and I loved, obviously you can see how much I love the show. And I've loved him since I saw him on Young Comics on HBO in like 1982 or something. And at the end of the interview, we had such a great time together and obviously he was a germaphobe, sort of. Larry's got a lot of that and I'm sure he probably didn't touch you that often. And when he walked in, he gave me the fist bump, kind of the Larry David fist bump. But at the end, as he was walking out of my house, he goes, dave, I want you to know, you know, you're a really great interviewer. And he put his hand on my face like this. And it was just like this like bizarrely nice moment. I was like, I can't believe it. He doesn't touch anyone any like this. And I was like, I'm always going to remember that Richard Lewis touched my face. What was it like working with him?
- [29:39]
Cheryl Hines
Well, I do write about this in my book because I loved Richard. Oh, and like you, I was a huge fan of his before I got to work with him on Curb. And when I was younger, I used to have the biggest crush on Richard Lewis.
- [30:01]
Dave Rubin
Really?
- [30:03]
Cheryl Hines
Oh, my gosh. He did a show with Jamie Lee Curtis, and I would watch the show every week and just think Richard Lewis. So when I got to work with him, it was. It was, you know, next atmosphere. I was so happy. And he, like you're saying, he had a very sweet, soulful side to him. And he. Even though everybody's always doing comedy bits on shows, especially on Curb, everybody's funny and everybody's doing bits. Richard would, you know, he would pull you aside and say, hey, I really love you.
- [30:54]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [30:55]
Cheryl Hines
I love what you're doing, man. You know, you're the best out there. It was so sweet.
- [31:01]
Dave Rubin
Yeah. Did you know, not to get too personal, but did you know that his health was really failing at the end? Because clearly when you watch the shows, he wasn't himself anymore. And obviously, you know, Dave Osborne also passed away during the show, and I think. Did Shelly Berman also pass away during. Yeah. So a few of the mainstays of the show passed away while you guys were shooting.
- [31:24]
Cheryl Hines
Well, he never talked about a specific health issue, but we had worked together for so long. We had worked together. I mean, the. The span of Curb youb enthusiasm was over 24 years.
- [31:42]
Dave Rubin
Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy.
- [31:44]
Cheryl Hines
It's so crazy. So we could tell, you know, that he. He was struggling in some aspects, and he just. We just needed to take extra good care of him.
- [32:03]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [32:04]
Cheryl Hines
So you could tell it was harder for him towards the end.
- [32:09]
Dave Rubin
So now I'm gonna. I'm really going. I'm going. Doing my catalog of who else was on the show over the years. And this actress you did not have a scene with, and she was only in once, but I'm hoping that maybe you met her, because my three favorite shows of all time are Curb, Seinfeld, and Golden Girls. Did you get to meet Bea Arthur when she played Larry's mom in that heaven scene? Please tell me.
- [32:29]
Cheryl Hines
Yes, I did not, which is too bad. And it's so funny that you mentioned that, because when I was writing this book, I went back through, because I write about Curb a lot in the book, and I wanted to make sure I have the right dates and the right episode. And. And I watched that episode again. When Larry Dies for a Moment Goes to Heaven. Yeah. Yeah. And Bea Arthur is his mom. His mom, right.
- [33:05]
Dave Rubin
Yeah. His mom. Yeah. I'm not through with you, buster.
- [33:10]
Cheryl Hines
It was. That episode is so crazy. I mean, Sacha Baron Cohen.
- [33:16]
Dave Rubin
Yeah. Dustin Hoffman.
- [33:20]
Cheryl Hines
Dustin Hoffman were his, you know, spiritual guides in heaven. I was. It was killing me watching it again. But I write about it in the book because just being on. On Curb and, you know, once again being a trained actress. But there's no script when Larry dies in that episode. And we're all standing around his hospital bed, and I'm holding his hand, and I watch him take his last breath, and he closes his eyes, and I got so teary. And after the take, Larry said, what are you doing? I said, it's sad. And he said, don't cry. No, don't cry. I said, well, you just died. He said, no, no. Go right to Jeff. Ask him about the money that he owes you for the car, because he didn't pay enough for that car. And you're. Okay. Okay, you're right. I'm just gonna. I'll skip over the tiers and go right to you owe me money.
- [34:32]
Dave Rubin
He just never wanted to do emotional. Right. Cause that shot that you're talking about when he dies, they shot it from above. It's really nice shot, actually, and kind of gets sanguine for a moment, but then, yeah, it immediately gets into everybody fighting. So he just never wanted any of that. Right. Even with Seinfeld, he never wanted that. Like the cheese.
- [34:50]
Cheryl Hines
No, no. And there would be times when, especially in the beginning, we. We had a lot of. This is going to sound much sexier than it was. We had a lot of bed scenes together. We were in bed a lot. Just like waking up or going to bed or whatever or not. You know, your typical hbo.
- [35:14]
Dave Rubin
Right, Right.
- [35:17]
Cheryl Hines
But I remember we were going to bed. We were going to sleep. We're going to bed. I said, good night. And I kissed him good night. And he, you know, after the take, he said, what are you doing? I said, kissing you good night. He said, yeah. Oh, we don't do that. Okay, well, people do that. You know, just so you know, there are couples out there. That's normal. Wait, we don't do it. Okay. So even that, you know, is just. He has a specific style.
- [35:53]
Dave Rubin
How is your relationship with him now, knowing that, you know, he is kind of a. From where I sit, he's a crazy lefty. I love him. And I always try to separate the art from the artist. But, you know, seeing you and Bobby now, has that created any weirdness or whatever? Well.
- [36:11]
Cheryl Hines
You know, I haven't seen him since we. Since we finished the show, so if I saw him, I think things would be fine. I think he might have something to say. About the current political landscape, because I know he's not. He. I know he's not happy with.
- [36:38]
Dave Rubin
Yeah, yeah.
- [36:40]
Cheryl Hines
Politics the way they are. So that would be. I would expect that, but I wouldn't expect him to, you know, come up and call me names or anything.
- [36:50]
Dave Rubin
I don't think it's.
- [36:51]
Cheryl Hines
I don't think it's that.
- [36:54]
Dave Rubin
Do you want to stay? I mean, is your goal right now, like, for. For the rest of your career, Is it that you want to keep sort of diving in and out of acting and doing some of this activist stuff and kind of being there with Bobby, or is there, like. Is one. Have you enjoyed being on the book tour and dealing with some of the nonsense that we kind of started with and all the rest of it?
- [37:11]
Cheryl Hines
I definitely have.
- [37:17]
Amazon Music Announcer
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- [37:20]
Cheryl Hines
Or creating your own mysteries, Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts ad free included with Prime. Become accustomed to it, you know, like, sort of merging my two worlds. Because at first it was very. It was. I mean, I'm not gonna lie. It was challenging.
- [37:44]
Dave Rubin
Yeah. Yeah.
- [37:45]
Cheryl Hines
Because I did not expect that. I didn't. I never expected politics to be a part of my life, but now I. I'm definitely finding a balance. I'm producing a film and. Which is very exciting.
- [38:06]
Dave Rubin
What is it? What is it? Oh, you can't. Oh, okay.
- [38:09]
Cheryl Hines
I can't tell you yet. I'll tell you.
- [38:11]
Dave Rubin
I'll tell you when we're off on the next tour. Oh, yeah. When we stop this.
- [38:14]
Cheryl Hines
Yeah, But. But I'm producing a film, and that's really fun, and it's going to be a fun film, and at the same time, it's. You know, I am. I. Listen. I am Bobby Kennedy Jr. S wife. So there's a way to do both, to do it all, but it doesn't. You know, some days are harder than others, I'll be honest.
- [38:38]
Dave Rubin
Are there any seed oils in your house right now?
- [38:40]
Cheryl Hines
No. No, there are not.
- [38:45]
Dave Rubin
Does he ever. Does he. I know that they somehow tricked him into eating a Big Mac, but does he ever waver on any of this? I think I've had two meals with him. It was pretty clean. But does he ever waver?
- [38:57]
Cheryl Hines
He does waver sometimes, but not very often, but, you know, he cannot help himself sometimes. We were just in North Carolina, and we were at, you know, some great restaurant where it's Southern cooking, and he had a bite of something. I forget what it Was, but it was not on, on his usual. Maybe it was a, I want to say fried okra, but that's probably not true because what was it fried in but was something along those lines. You know, it was not typical and he doesn't eat a whole plate of it, but he might pick and choose.
- [39:36]
Dave Rubin
Are you, are you fully on board all the Maha stuff? Like is that part of your, I assume it's part of your lifestyle at some extent but like health wise and all that stuff. Like are you just on board everything he's, he's pushing out there?
- [39:48]
Cheryl Hines
Yes, I'm not as disciplined about it as he is and, but you know, so much of it is common sense really. And a lot of it I've, I've always been doing especially ultra processed foods, you know, once you cut those out. But, but I mean I still put sugar in my coffee. There are still things that I, well.
- [40:23]
Dave Rubin
Now I know which clip is going viral.
- [40:26]
Cheryl Hines
It's just in. I wish that would be the biggest scandal we have out there. But yeah, I, I, I veer off more than, than he does. But I also have a. What's the word? I can, I can take, I can take or leave something and if, if I take a bite of something and it's really great, I can be okay walking away from it saying oh that was good. But he does not have that kind of personality. So if he, that's why he won't even take bite of something because if he likes it then he'll have to eat the whole thing. So I have a, I, a little more of we'll see. I mean I guess I could say discipline in that regard. Yeah, I'm more of. Yeah, I can. I, you know, some people can take whatever it is a bite of a donut and put it down and walk away. And some people cannot. People can, I don't know, take a drink of sip of wine and walk away. And some people cannot. But I'm one of those people that can. Oh, okay. That was good. I can walk away.
- [41:40]
Dave Rubin
Listen, I could do, as you can tell, I could do curb literally all day long. But I know you're talking to people all day long, so I will end with this because I think you'll find this interesting and it feels sort of full circle to me that when Bobby announced, he did my show about when he was running as a Democrat, he did my show about two weeks later. We had never met. We did it on zoom like this. And I said to him about 20 minutes in I said Bobby, I don't know if you are going to be a Republican at the end of this thing, but I know you will not be a Democrat. And his eyes, I can send you the clip. His eyes went like this. And I've told him this a couple times and he says, he repeats it every now and again now because it was so obvious to me what was gonna happen with that party and where his evolution was gonna be. But it's so incredible what you guys have done. And I mean that for both of you because the health thing, like it has nothing to do with politics and I'm healthier now. It's like a thing in my studio. After Bobby came here, we were all like on our glow up together, so.
- [42:40]
Cheryl Hines
Well, it's funny that you say that because you know that journey of Bobby running that I also write about in my book. But yes, at the beginning we could have never imagined how that story would end.
- [43:01]
Dave Rubin
But even I tried to warn him.
- [43:03]
Cheryl Hines
I know. And even when he switched from Democrat to independent, when somebody, I think it was Dennis Kucinich who said, this is what you should do because you have no path forward as a Democrat. You know, the first time we heard that, we both thought, I don't think that's. I don't think that will ever happen.
- [43:30]
Dave Rubin
Right.
- [43:30]
Cheryl Hines
But you knew.
- [43:31]
Dave Rubin
Yeah, I just knew how radical they had become. And I knew he was sane and decent and the Kennedy that my parents loved, loved. And it just had nothing to do with those people. But wait, we can't end on politics. Let me ask one other Curb related thing. Oh, well, like this is. You must have answered this on the tour already or at least written about in the book. Favorite episode.
- [43:53]
Cheryl Hines
Oh, Well, I really like. There are a lot of favorites. Right. But I, I like the episode, which is based on a true story, where my family makes a nativity scene out of cookies and.
- [44:18]
Dave Rubin
Wait, that's the nail. That's the nail episode. Or is that the nail? No, that's not the nail episode.
- [44:24]
Cheryl Hines
This is. So my family makes a nativity scene and then Larry. And Larry eats baby Jesus and Mary.
- [44:37]
Dave Rubin
Yeah.
- [44:37]
Cheryl Hines
And then my family goes crazy and then he hires, you know, actors to do a live nativity scene. This is all. This was all based on a true story. Because that's what was happening at my house in Florida when I was.
- [44:53]
Dave Rubin
Oh my God.
- [44:54]
Cheryl Hines
And I called Larry and I said, if you were. And everybody was walking around the house saying, nobody eat baby Jesus. Talking about the cookies in the nativity scene. And I said, if you were here, you'd eat Baby Jesus. And my family would go crazy. And then he did the, you know, the Jesus, Mary and Larry episode.
- [45:14]
Dave Rubin
Yeah, right. And then he. Well, he gets into a fight with one of the actors.
- [45:17]
Cheryl Hines
Well, yeah, with Dave Koechner, who was hilarious. And I also just watched that not too long ago because the show was on so for so many years, I really had to go back through and watch it. But I forgot that that episode. This is also awful. Larry had a pubic hair stuck in his throat. So when I watched that episode, because I didn't remember that part, you know, but he's now getting in a fifth fight with Joseph, played by David Kickner. And, you know, he's like. And Davis says, what's going on? He goes, I got. I have a pubic hair stuck in my throat. You know how it is. You know, and he's dressed as Joseph. And then at some point. And then at some point he. The hair comes loose. And it's just, you know, a definite curve moment. But one thing that I want to say is I know that we've been calling, or I'll say you have been talking about Bob Einstein as Dave Osborne.
- [46:26]
Dave Rubin
Oh, right.
- [46:27]
Cheryl Hines
Because that was his.
- [46:29]
Dave Rubin
Super. Dave Osborne was the character. But he's Bob. You're totally right. And of course he's.
- [46:35]
Cheryl Hines
But just putting that out there. Cause Bob was so crazy. You know what one.
- [46:42]
Dave Rubin
And he's Albert Brooks brother also.
- [46:44]
Cheryl Hines
Yes.
- [46:45]
Dave Rubin
Thank you for cleaning that up for me.
- [46:46]
Cheryl Hines
Yeah. But Bob would. One of the things that he'd do that was so crazy, we'd be doing a scene where we're in the living room and it's right after a funeral and everybody's quiet. And some of the extras, that atmosphere, actors. Someone might be wearing, I don't know, too much makeup or weird tie or something that's just a little bit different. And in between scenes, Bob, would he yell to Larry, this is. This is your aunt. Look at. Look at your aunt right now. And you know, everyone's like. But just. Just no sense of editing oneself.
- [47:37]
Dave Rubin
But that was the magic. That was the magic.
- [47:39]
Cheryl Hines
That was magic. That was magic. Easy. She was great.
- [47:41]
Dave Rubin
Cheryl, I have seriously, thoroughly enjoyed this. Politics is driving me a little nutty. And this was a joy.
- [47:47]
Cheryl Hines
Thank you so much. I will see you next time.
- [47:51]
Dave Rubin
Yes, next time. If I. Oh, and I should also mention, you are a Florida girl at heart. You were born in Florida, right? I don't go back to LA that often. I'm not sure I'm welcome there anymore. So maybe you come this way.
- [48:01]
Cheryl Hines
Yes, I'M in Florida a lot. My whole family's in Florida.
- [48:05]
Dave Rubin
Excellent. I will reach out to you via private channels.
- [48:09]
Cheryl Hines
Okay. All right. Thanks, Dave.
- [48:11]
Dave Rubin
Thanks so much, Cheryl.