cheryl hines opens up about his work and home life, and how they are intertwined.
the control your enthusiasm star, 56, was interviewed by Alec Baldwin for his here’s the thing podcast, and discussed how Larry David, her on-and-off TV husband of more than two decades, was behind her meeting with now-husband Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“He introduced us, just because we were at the same event,” Hines said. “But then Larry said, ‘That’s a terrible idea. No, no, no, don’t get involved.’ Cut to we’ve been married for eight years,” exactly; his anniversary is August 2.
Between them, Hines and Kennedy, 68, share seven children (she has one, he has six) and sometimes different worldviews. There was no greater example on the heels of the environmental activist and lawyer, who has become a strong voice in the anti-vaccine movement, compared COVID vaccine mandates to the Holocaust at the beginning of this year.
And while he didn’t touch on that subject, having publicly called Kennedy’s comments “reprehensible and insensitive” at the time, he spoke about how they learn from each other.
For her, it has helped her better understand the environment and the legal side of fighting corporations that hurt people. For him, “I think I’ve taught him to, I don’t want to say, be happy because it’s” more “funny and playful” than her public persona suggests, she began. “Hopefully I’m teaching him how to check it at the door. How not to bring everything home. He’s invested in so many important causes that it’s like, ‘Oh man.’ sometimes you just need to look 30 rock and take your mind off things.
He added, “Sometimes I get so frustrated and say, ‘Look, yeah, we’re all dying of everything. Whatever you think is killing us, it is. It is. So let’s enjoy the night.'”
Hines admitted that it was “intimate” for her to meet the Kennedy clan when she started dating her now-husband in 2012. However, she called them “much more welcoming and personable than you might imagine.”
Hines shared stories from her career, going back to her first job after moving to Los Angeles as an unpaid intern and going through headshots. She recalled her boss advising her to “get a boob job” if she wanted to be successful in business, but she didn’t follow the advice.
“At the time, I hadn’t even thought about it, and it didn’t seem like it was necessary,” he said. “I went home and started thinking about all the actresses I really admired and if breast size had anything to do with it. Like, ‘Goldie Hawn isn’t big.'” Those are the parts I’m looking for. I’m not dying to be in Baywatch.”
Hines found his niche performing improvisational comedy and sketches with the Groundlings, where the future Friends star Lisa Kudrow was her first teacher. She was also an assistant to director Rob Reiner for two years. So he control your enthusiasm The audition, which was looking for an “unknown actress” to play David’s wife, changed her life.
“I said okay, how old is that guy? Isn’t he…old?” she remembered her before she met David, who is now 75 years old. “I didn’t know anything about him.”
The audition wasn’t exactly easy. Just before he walked in, the casting director warned him, “Don’t touch Larry. He doesn’t like people touching him.” And also that the show was supposed to feel like a documentary. “‘So if at any point it feels fake…the audition is over.’ And…here’s Larry.”
Luckily it worked and they’ve been teasing each other for 21 years, and she’s looking forward to many, many more.
“I could do it every day, all day for the rest of my life,” he said.