Lunch at Michael's with Cheryl Hines: From Swamp Thing to Stardom

HBO39s Curb Your Enthusiasm will not be returning until 2008 so Emmynominated Cheryl Hines is spending her time executive producing Oxygen39s Campus Ladies winning Texas Hold 39Em pots of 50000 and more on ESPN39s Celeb Poker Showdown spending time with her daughter who turns three in March and writing a TV pilot about the life of a celebrity39s personal assistant in HollywoodCheryl39s first job in Los Angeles after graduating from college Central Florida University after stops at West Virginia and beauty school was as personal assistant to director and actor Rob Reiner Meathead on All in the Family quotI was doing ridiculous things like driving 45 miles to drop off melon balls and celery sticks for his diet After that you don39t question anything There39s definitely enough material there for a sitcomquotCheryl is also spending time in New York laying the foundation for future stage acting opportunities quotMy ambition is to do theater in New Yorkquot Cheryl told me over Lunch at Michael39s quotI39d love to do A Streetcar Named Desire It would be a fabulous challenge and enriching in ways I can39t even imaginequotamp160Cheryl39s introduction to acting came in high school after she was bounced from the high school cheerleading squad and joined the drama club quotI got bad grades for Citizenship because I talked and laughed in class and they suspended me from the team All I remember is the girls fighting about bobby socks vs knee socks and I figured there was a better way to spend my timequotAs she looked around the crowded front room at Michael39s Restaurant in New York Cheryl recalled spending most of her high school years quothaving fun and laughing I thought everything was funny and I still do It sometimes gets me in troublequot Her role as Larry David39s wife on Curbamp8230 is perfectly suited to her wry funloving laughattheworld attitude but her success could not have been forecast from her early strugglesCheryl was bartending at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles and struck up a conversation with the late comedian Phil Hartman39s sister quotMy dream was to be on Saturday Night Live and I asked her how I could get from Tallahassee to SNL She was like an angel who came to me and told me to try out for The Groundlingsquot the famed LA improv performance group of which Hartman had been a member quotThousands of students and aspiring comedians try out and only three are chosen The full company votes at every cut and you can be out at every level I was used to rejection Most of this business is about rejection But it39s tough when any one person can reject you I had tried out four times for The Swamp Thing TV series and after the third turndown I was devastated My sister told me to reevaluate my life and get out if I couldn39t deal better with rejection When I finally gave up hope I got a rolequotWhile not exactly a break The Swamp Thing was a beginning and being accepted as a member of The Groundlings was a careermaking break that not only led to an introduction to Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David when he was casting the role of his wife but she also attracted the attention of Groundlings39 manager and now Chairman Paul Young president of PrincipatoYoung Management who Cheryl marriedquotI never thought I39d get married I was more interested in my career and never found marriage that appealing It39s tragic to look across the table at someone and think 39Oh dear Lord how much longer39 I realized you have to find the right person and I didquotCheryl39s parents are divorced and she looks back at their relationship as a lifelesson and with a sense of humor quotI remember my friends and I laughing hysterically because we39d walk into my house and know when my dad was home because his feet smelled I thought it was disgusting but my Mom thought it was okay I thought when did it like get to the point where it39s okay When did my Mom give up trying to change him They broke up when I was 15 Maybe it was the feetquotWhen she was nominated for an EMMY her parents three brothers and sisters and several high school friends joined her on the Red Carpet Cheryl who is one of the most personable and friendly actresses in Hollywood stays close with high school friends like quotprofessional extraquot Paul Beckett who offered Cheryl his couch when she moved to LA without a job and he remains her best friendAs a member of The Groundlings she performed with Campus Ladies creators Christen Sussin and Carrie Aizley who were working with Paul Young to develop the sitcom Cheryl knew Oxygen was looking for smart funny femalecentric comedies and she called chairman Gerry Laybourne whom she had met once and convinced her to take a look quotIt didn39t take much convincing Oxygen loved it and they39ve been great to work withquotquotWhen I39m on the set of Campus Ladies we all laugh a lot and mostly at ourselvesquot Cheryl smiles quotBut on Curb Your Enthusiasm I do everything I can not to laugh I39m really acting when I disapprove of Larry I need to put myself on a different plane to keep from breaking up all the timequot As a comedian and now executive producer Cheryl has elevated herself to a plane most improv actors only dream about It seems unlikely that a sitcom comedian could move to serious Broadway drama but the girl from Tallahassee and Swamp Thing seems destined to laugh her way to the topTo contact Cheryl Hines email contactmediavillagecomLunch at Michael39s is a registered trademark of Jack Myers

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Lunch at Michael's with Cheryl Hines: From Swamp Thing to Stardom

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Lunch at Michael's with Cheryl Hines: From Swamp Thing to Stardom

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