Cheryl Hines Interview, Waitress

MoviesOnline caught up with Emmy nominee Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm,” "RV”) at the Los Angeles press day to promote her new film, "Waitress.” An audience hit at the Sundance Film Festival, "Waitress” serves up a sweet, sassy and delicious slice of life tale -- as it reveals the power of friendship, motherhood and the willingness to take a chance. It’s the story of a small town woman who transforms her hopeless life into a hilarious and unexpected love story.

This vibrantly different romantic comedy is the final film from writer-director Adrienne Shelly. Starring in the title role, Keri Russell ("Mission Impossible 3,” "The Upside of Anger”) leads a dynamic cast as a diner waitress stuck in a lousy marriage whose only solace is baking out-of-this-world pies. When the awkwardly charming new ob-gyn, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion, "Serenity”), comes to town, she’s inspired to mix-master her life into something far more satisfying. "Waitress” will surely do for pie making what "Sideways” did for Pinot Noir.

As a favorite waitress at Joe’s Diner, Jenna (Russell) is also a "pie genius,” naming her tantalizing confections after the tumultuous events and emotions of her daily life. She’s hoping that one of her pastries, like her "Kick In The Pants” Pie, might even change her life – if she can just win that $25,000 pie contest. But when Jenna discovers that she’s pregnant, she immediately bakes an "I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby” Pie – a quiche of egg and cheese with a smoked ham center. After all, her husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto, "Thirteen,” "Six Feet Under”) is a jealous jerk that is essentially a child himself and the last thing they need to do is start a family together. But the pregnancy eventually changes the course of events in her life, giving her an unexpected and newfound confidence via letters to her unborn baby. "Waitress” also stars Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelly ("The Unbelievable Truth,” "Trust”) as Jenna’s quick-tongued fellow waitresses along with classic television star Andy Griffith ("The Andy Griffith Show,” "Matlock”) as the curmudgeonly Old Joe of Joe’s Diner.

Cheryl Hines is a two-time Emmy nominee for her role as Cheryl David on HBO’s Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning series "Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the brainchild of Larry David, co-creator of "Seinfeld.” The show is currently in production on its sixth and final season and has been nominated for numerous Emmy Awards including Best Supporting Actress for Hines, Best Actor for Larry David and Best Comedy Series.

Last spring Hines starred in the two hit motion picture comedies, "RV” directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and starring Robin Williams and "Keeping Up with the Steins” directed by Scott Marshall. She also recently filmed "The Grand” in Las Vegas opposite Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano and will be seen in the indie feature "Bickford Schmekler’s Cool Ideas” for writer/director Scott Lew. Hines’ other film roles include Walt Disney Pictures feature "Herbie: Fully Loaded,” "Along Came Polly,” the romantic comedy "Cake” directed by Nisha Ganatra ("Cosmopolitan”) and the Gada Films feature "Our Very Own” with Allison Janney, Keith Carradine and Jason Ritter.

Hines has broadened her experience in television to include producing and voice over. She executive produces the critically acclaimed improvised comedy series "Campus Ladies” for the Oxygen Channel – and in addition to producing "Campus Ladies,” Hines is also directing several episodes. Hines was also handpicked by Jeffrey Katzenberg as the lead voice in DreamWorks Television’s primetime animated series, "Father of the Pride.” As a member of The Groundlings Theater, Hines has spent a great deal of time writing and performing sketch and improvisational comedy.

Here’s what she had to tell us about her new film, "Waitress”:

Q: What would your pie be called?

CH: Oh God, I don’t know. Life’s a Joke? (laughs)

Q: And in it would be?

CH: Well there’s got to be chocolate and maybe some hot sauce just to throw people off. Spicy.

Q: Is that how you live life?

CH: Spicy? Yeah. It depends. I think you can’t take everything too seriously or you’ll make yourself crazy. So yeah, there are aspects of that.

Q: Is the thick Southern accent something of your own creation or something Adrienne coached you to use?

CH: Well, I grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. And my mom calls me and says (in Southern lilt), ‘Cheryl, it’s your mama.’ And I go, `I know.’ I grew up in the South and Adrienne and I had a discussion about it and she’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s perfect.’

Q: Your character was basically the comic relief. Was that something you wanted to do?

CH: Well, Adrienne wrote the script and it really didn’t change much from the time I read it to when we shot so this character was written that way. And Adrienne, when we were shooting it, was pretty liberal about letting me do what I thought the character should do and we worked together that way. It was written that way.

Q: Were you able to improvise any lines – there is one I thought might have been yours?

CH: Ha, ha, that’s interesting. I don’t think I did improvise any lines, but I’m curious to hear which one you thought it was.

Q: About the 5 minute condom.

CH: No, it wasn’t. I’d like to take credit for that, but…

Q: What was it like working with Andy Griffith?

CH: He’s amazing. We were shooting this little independent film in the middle of nowhere in this diner and in comes Andy Griffith. He was just so great at what he did and watching that scene that he did with Keri Russell was really mesmerizing. I was just standing there thinking, ‘Oh, I’m watching a legend right now.’ It was pretty amazing.

Q: We heard the film was shot on a low budget in 20 days. Was there anything you learned from this film?

CH: Well, Adrienne obviously had a very clear vision of the tone of this movie and when we were shooting it, I wasn’t really aware of the exact tone of this film until I watched it. So, to me, if anyone does any sort of creating or directing, I thought that was a very good lesson. I don’t know if I’m articulating it right. The film has parts that are very stylized that you don’t realize how the finished product is going to be until because you’re just showing up and shooting your scene so you don’t know what the big picture is going to be. So it’s just interesting watching that, I suppose.

Q: Was it a financial or an emotional decision as to why you took the role?

CH: It was not a financial decision. It was an emotional decision. I read the script and loved the role that Adrienne had created. And I thought she did such a good job not only creating these characters but capturing the complexity of life and the choices that we make. The idea that life isn’t black and white; sometimes you make the wrong decision but you might be having the time of your life while you’re doing it (laugh) and then is that wrong? I thought it really captured some very interesting concepts?

Q: How was she to work with as a director?

CH: She was great. She was a very intelligent, funny, intense, passionate person. And she knew what she wanted and at the same time, she was somebody that you wanted to hang out with at the end of the day. So it was great.

Q: Do you think it was Curb that led to all this movie work for you and anything from the big Robin Williams comedy to the little Bar Mitzvah comedy?

CH: Absolutely. Curb has been my introduction to the world. I mean, probably if I wasn’t on Curb, would I be getting a role on RV with Robin Williams? Probably not. It would be who’s Cheryl Hines? It’s been a great opportunity for me to be on a great show, to be a part of it, and be associated with it.

Q: Will you be sad to see it end?

CH: Oh you don’t even know…I’ll be so sad. I keep telling Larry that it can’t be over. [Laughs] Maybe I’m in denial, but I don’t think it’s gonna be over.

Q: Do you think you’re finally in the driver’s seat in terms of your career now, as opposed to people telling you what you should do?

CH: Yeah. That’s a good question. I don’t know if an actor ever really feels like they’re in the driver’s seat (laugh) but I do feel even like with Waitress, one of my representatives read it and said `you should read this, I think there’s a great role in there for you’ but people do pass scripts to me and now I am at a point where I can read something and say, ‘you know what, I don’t love it and I probably don’t want to do it.’ Listen, as an actor, to say no to anything, is so hard because for so many years you’ve lived in an apartment without a refrigerator ‘cause you couldn’t get arrested. So to be able to say ‘no’… My husband makes fun of me all the time. I will read a script and it might not be very good at all, people are offering me roles and it’s nice and amazing so when someone offers me a role, I might go ‘the movie’s not that good, the part’s not that good but she has that one line’…. My husband is like, ‘Cheryl, pass!’ It’s so hard for me to pass on anything, but now it’s getting easier because there are more scripts that are coming in. Now that I’m very fortunate to have been working with people like Larry David, Robin Williams, and Barry Sonnenfeld, Adrienne Shelly and the cast of Waitress, I think they’re all so amazing, you start working with these people and then you want to keep moving in that direction. What was the question? So am I in the driver’s seat? Well, OK, yes.

Q: So you don’t think this will be the last year of Curb?

CH: Well, listen, don’t tell Larry that I said that. He said he’s 99% sure this is the last season, so I’m just hanging on to that 1%. Can’t blame me for that, right? And I think I’m in a little bit of denial too because I can’t possibly imagine my life without Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Q: Would you have a sense of closure though if it is that 99% chance?

CH: Well, not really. You have to understand that every season that I shot this show, Larry has said this is the last season, since season one. So every season when we end the show, I have this pleading process…well, the first few seasons, and after awhile you’re like, ‘OK, I’ll probably see you next year when we start shooting again.’ But we never really have any tearful goodbyes or anything like that. Larry is a friend of mine so I’ll see him. But yeah, there’s never really a sense of closure with it. I don’t know. You’ll see.

Q: Do you have aspirations behind the camera?

CH: I do. As a matter of fact, I produced a show last year and I’ll be producing two more shows this year. And I wrote a new series that we’ll hopefully be shooting, I won’t be in, but created and wrote it and producing it so that’s exciting.

Q: What kind of show?

CH: It’s a half hour scripted show, hopefully that E will be doing about personal assistants.

Q: Do you have your own production company?

CH: Not really. My husband has his own production company so I usually produce with him. Does that make sense?

Q: Has improv sort of entered a new phase because NBC is doing their show, Thank God You’re Here? It seems a lot more people understand that concept now.

CH: Well, they do seem to understand more now. You know you have shows like Whose Line Is It that really introduced people to improv and then the success of something like Borat, and Reno 911 is improvised and Curb is improvised so people are understanding it more and I think people really like the feel of it because it seems real to people as opposed to scripted shows sometimes.

Q: Is it different getting on a set knowing there’s a set script than doing improv?

CH: Yes, it’s much different. When there’s a script, there’s usually blocking involved, it’s been talked about a lot, every word has been thought out, a group of people have thought out the words, a group of people have gotten together and changed the words, so it’s different animal altogether. When it’s improvised, we don’t talk about the scene before we shoot it, there’s no rehearsal, it’s the opposite of that. You don’t want to talk about what you’re going to say or what you’re going to do or how you’re going to feel or where you’re going to walk so cameramen really have it difficult. But yes, it’s a different vibe.

Q: So when Curb starts up again, are we going to see anything different happening?

CH: Um, yeah. It is a bit of a different season. You’ll see some things that you haven’t seen before. That’s all I can say.

Q: With you character?

CH: Quite possibly.

Q: Does it pick up from Larry’s near-death experience, or does it begin at a new point?

CH: Well, it’s pretty much starting from a new point. You would think that would have changed Larry some, but it really didn’t.

Q: Do you give him suggestions or ideas?

CH: Yeah, a lot. The episode when my family comes and they make a manger scene out of cookies and he eats the baby Jesus, that came from when I went back to Florida. I was staying with my family, they made a manger scene of cookies and they’re walking around the house saying ‘nobody eat baby Jesus.’ And I called Larry and said, ‘OK, if you were here, you’d eat the Jesus cookie and my family would be out of their minds mad at you’ and then we just stayed on the phone and talked for hours until we got to the point where I was like, ‘Yeah, they have live nativity scenes’ and he’s like, ‘What??’ ‘Yeah, people dress up like Joseph and stand on the lawn’ and he’s like, ‘WHAT??’ So yeah, there are definitely moments. Actually in this upcoming season, there’s a storyline that comes from me.

Q: Do you ever get input from the real Mrs. David?

CH: I don’t. I’m sure he does, I don’t know. It’s funny because when I started shooting Curb, I hadn’t even met her before so people ask me if my character is based on her but it’s not. Besides being an environmentalist, it’s not.

Q: If you had one thing to say about Waitress, what would you say about this movie?

CH: I think this is a movie that everybody should see because they will be truly transported into another world. At the very least, they will be entertained by it. And at the most, it will leave them thinking about life, who they are and who they want to be.

Q: Do you think we’ve been missing some of that pure entertainment from movies these days?

CH: Yeah. I do. I know I’m in a good movie when I’m not looking at my watch to see how much longer. And this movie, all of my friends have told me when they watched it, they didn’t want it to end. They wanted to keep watching these characters and see what they were going to do next. And I think those kind of movies are rare.

Q: The end of this movie, maybe because we knew the back story to it, made me misty-eyed. Do you think the public wants movies that make them cry or at least feel some emotion?

CH: Well I think when you go to the movies, you want an escape. You want to be in a different world and yeah, you want to be touched by something. The idea that the material that somebody wrote that was so personal to them that’s now reaching you, I think is a very touching human experience.

Q: If Adrienne Shelly was here right now, what would you want to tell her about working with her and the outcome of the film?

CH: I would just tell her that I am extremely proud of her and I feel very grateful that I had the chance to work with her and the cast.

Q: Thank you.

CH: Thanks guys.

"Waitress” opens in theaters on May 2^nd.