of the most sought-after improvisational actors in Hollywood.
Back Stage: How did you go from driving around in your Toyota Tercel with your headshots to landing your role on Curb Your Enthusiasm?
Cheryl Hines: Well, I started taking classes at the Groundlings theatre, and from there I got an agent. I was actually performing in the Sunday company when I got Curb Your Enthusiasm. At that time it was just a one-hour special, so I really didn't think it would change my life, but I thought maybe I wouldn't have to, you know, bartend one night.
Back Stage: What appealed to you about the role?
Hines: I didn't know anything about it. There was nothing for me to read. What was appealed was it was a special for HBO, and it was playing Larry David's wife. But fortunately I really didn't know too much about Larry at the time. I knew that he was one of the creators of Seinfeld, but other than that, I didn't know anything about him, which was probably a good thing. [Laughs]
Back Stage: Were you given any background about your character or were you allowed to completely create her?
Hines: The only thing I was given was that she has heard it all from Larry and doesn't take his shit. So that's really all I knew.
Back Stage: Do you have any idea what the story lines are going to be ahead of time?
Hines: Well, the first two seasons I wasn't told anything. I didn't see anything. I would sit in the makeup chair, and I'd just say, "Does anyone want to tell me anything about anything?" And Larry would always say, "Oh, you'll figure it out." And I finally convinced him to let me at least read the story outlines ahead of time. So now he'll send me the story outlines when he's done with them, and I'll read them usually like four or five months before we start shooting.
Back Stage: Do you ever get tired of playing constantly disappointed? It seems like you've got it down to a single look with your crossed arms.
Hines: It was nice: One season I got stuck in the car wash, and that was fun because I got to do something physical and silly. I'm usually definitely not the silly one. I'm the straight man. Does it get tiring? No. I mean, that's my role on the show.
Back Stage: Sometimes those are the funniest moments, when you're just standing there glaring at Larry.
Hines: People come up to me, and they say, "Oh I just knew exactly what you were thinking when you were looking at him."
Back Stage: How did you come up with the catch phrase, "Now why would you do that, Larry?" Do you remember the first time you said it?
Hines: No, but I do think I say it every episode, don't I? Well, since the show is improvised, I never know what's going on in another scene. So what I know is what I'm hearing for the first time in my scene. So Larry will come and say, "I got in a fistfight with this 12-year-old girl during her concert." What do you say to that but, "Why would you do that?" In what world would anybody do that? I just want to know, how did that happen? I guess it's just an instinctual thing. I don't even know I'm doing it.
Back Stage: It seems like your character was more downright angry this season–for example, the scene where she sees Larry dancing around in Susie Greene's bra.
Hines: That's the difference between Cheryl David and Cheryl Hines. I would get out the video camera and put it on YouTube, you know?
Back Stage: What traits do you and Cheryl David share, and how are you different?
Hines: I think we're both tolerant people. Most of the time I really don't care what other people are doing. [Laughs] So I guess we have that similarity, because most of the time on the show I don't really care what Larry's doing until it creates a problem and it involves me. Then it doesn't make me happy. How are we different? I think that in real life I probably get into more trouble than I would like to admit.
Back Stage: What do you mean?
Hines: I'm from Florida, and I was home for Christmas, and my family had made a nativity scene from cookies, and everyone was walking around the house saying, "Nobody eat baby Jesus." And I immediately called him and said, "If you were here, of course you'd eat baby Jesus and my family would be so mad at you." And then we started talking back and forth on the phone, and he was like, "Yeah, we've got to do this as a show." I was telling him about the live nativity scene, which he had never heard of before. And so that's how that episode came about.
Back Stage: Why do you think Cheryl David puts up with Larry? Why does she stay with him?
Hines: Well, you know, Larry is highly entertaining. He's smart and he's funny, and, you know, that's pretty appealing. It is sort of a 49-51 split. I mean, he just barely makes it on the scale of good versus bad.
Back Stage: The money doesn't have anything to do with is, I'm sure.
Hines: No, no. Actually, you know that was a discussion at the beginning of the show. Larry didn't ever want that to be…it wasn't a marriage about money. So I've always hoped that people get the feeling that Cheryl David really loves Larry.
Back Stage: But then there was the scene after he dies, and your character immediately turns to the lawyer to inquire about her inheritance.
Hines: I had trouble with that scene. I was like, "Larry, I would never say that. Cheryl David wouldn't say that." And he's like, "Just do it, it's funny, and no tears. No real tears!" I'm like, "But you're dying!" That was a tough scene for me to shoot.
Back Stage: You have to d a lot of embarrassing things on the show. You mentioned running through the car wash as a result of the colon cleanse, t hen there was the episode where the Native American gardener asks you about your vagina—not to mention when Larry got one of your pubic hairs caught in his throat. Is that stuff sprung on you in the scene or do you know that it's coming?
Hines: Well, usually I know because it's in the outline, but I never really know how people are going to deal with it in the show. You can't possibly anticipate the conversation with the Native American asking me about my vagina. But what's really great about that story line is, now I'll have people every once in awhile come up to me on the street and ask me how my vagina is. The first time it happened I was thinking, like, "Why would this guy ask me about my vagina?" And then it dawned on me: Oh, my god, it's from the show. People like to quote lines from the show, and because my name is Cheryl in real life, that line really gets blurred. It's hard to know when people are talking to me because they know me from Curb Your Enthusiasm or people are talking to me because they know me personally, so it's odd.
Back Stage: What do you say to something like that?
Hines: I paused for a second and thought about why he was asking me, and when it dawned on me, I said, "No, it's good, thank you."