[IMG:L]Cue the tuba music – Curb Your Enthusiasm has returned to HBO for the almost-didn’t-happen sixth season of the cringe-comedy favorite, and stars Larry David, Cheryl Hines and Jeff Garlin talked to Hollywood.com to comment, enthusiastically and otherwise, on life making the maybe-final-maybe-not episodes – along with the occasional kvetch, rant and inappropriate remark.
Larry David, on whether the new season is the final season:
“Every season that I do is my last season. That’s the only way I can get through the season. If I thought that I had to come back and do it again, I would never do it in the first place. So the way I trick myself is to tell everybody that it’s my last season. And then after it’s over, I go ‘Oh, maybe I’ll do another one’ …I think that what will determine when the show ends is if I feel like I can do another season that’s as funny as the others… It has to be at that level.”
Jeff Garlin, on the secrets of the show’s success:
“Because we’ve had freedom from HBO, because of Larry David‘s great writing and because the show is honest and most things in the world right now are not truthful or honest on any level. So that’s what our show is. I think that people are feeling that and digging that.”
David, on whether he prefers writing or acting in the show:
“As hard as the writing is, that’s how much fun the shooting is. They balance each other out, the writing and the shooting. The shooting is great fun. I love it. The writing of course is torture.”
Cheryl Hines, on David’s Emmy-nominated acting:
“He’s a great actor…I think all the studying he’s done through the years with the personal acting coaches, it has really paid off. [To Larry David:] Because early in the day – this might make you mad – it would be a little embarrassing for you to feel like you were acting. Now I feel like you do everything.”
Garlin, on his role in the big picture of the show:
“My job on Curb Your Enthusiasm, what I brought to the show, is quality. Meaning that I work my ass off to help get Larry David‘s vision on the screen. I make sure that it’s up there. So it’s Larry David‘s vision that’s good. That’s what I bring to it. It’s not about me. It’s about Larry.”
[IMG:R]David, on why his career successes did not feel like it was pre-destined:
“Nobody told me to believe in myself. Even if they did, I wouldn’t have believed them. So I never believed in myself. I suppose I have to now to some degree, but believe me, it’s still not that easy. My mother said to me ‘You’re not special. You’re not special, Larry.’ She begged me to take a Civil Service test to work in the post office. That was her dream, for me to work in the post office, deliver the mail, and I thought ‘You know, maybe she’s right, not such a bad job’. But I didn’t take the test, and I don’t know, one day you know, I was funny, and somebody said, ‘You should be a comedian.’”
Hines, on the blurring of reality between Cheryl Hines and Cheryl David:
“It’s odd enough that people know me as Cheryl. Like when the show first came out, that was my character’s name and my real name, and so that was hard enough to get used to. I thought that they would know me personally, like maybe I was roommates with them.”
David, on fan reaction when they encounter him:
“I’m still in contact with human beings and there are still the same social pitfalls that I’ve always had…People are very nice to me. I think that they like the character. I think that they relate to him. I think that people really like the truth. I think that they appreciate the truth.”
Garlin, on having the right kind of fame:
“I’m very lucky that I’ve gained a level of celebrity or being famous based on accomplishment because the worst thing in the world is when you’re famous for being famous, like Paris Hilton. Imagine the people that walk up to her. I get really wonderful people who tell me how much they love the show and sometimes I have a nice conversation with them.”
David, on distinguishing between “TV Larry” and “real-life Larry”:
“I really love the guy who’s on that show. I love that guy because he says everything that I’m thinking and feeling and he doesn’t have to behave in a way that society really wants everybody to behave, and I decided I love being that honest. I wish I could be that way in my life. It’s easier for me now because of the show to actually – I’m getting closer to him every day. Let’s put it that way.”
[IMG:L]David, on the moment of realization that a major real-life pain-in-the-ass moment he’s experiencing is going to make for a great comedy bit on the show:
“There’s always a silver lining in the tragedy of your life, let’s say.”
David, on answering any more questions about his craft seriously:
“I just can’t even bear myself here. I can’t even do it… All right, guys, I can’t take this. Come on.”
