From such memorable movies as Jerry Maguire and the Beethoven
movies, to her work as writer, director, producer, and star
of her own ABC sitcom, Life With Bonnie, our first guest
is truly talented.
Please welcome the very busy Bonnie Hunt.
Very nice.
[APPLAUSE]
Hi, Bonnie.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Good.
You look great.
Oh, thanks.
I showered.
Yeah?
That's it.
I walked through the lobby.
Did Mary tell you already, your producer Mary?
Yeah.
Well, what happened?
You guys, I was driving here, and I had a cup of coffee
in the backseat of the car.
Well, obviously I wasn't driving.
I was being driven.
And I'm drinking the coffee.
And I have a light blue sweater on.
I'm feeling pretty good about myself.
And I got here, and I'm walking through the lobby.
And I thought, boy, everybody's really looking at me.
I'm pretty famous.
That was kind of a nice reception.
I got in my room.
And my publicist said, what's with the stain on your shirt?
I said, oh, I don't have a stain on my shirt.
And I had spilled the coffee all the way
down the front of my shirt.
And what's bizarre is that I had no nerve endings, apparently.
Exactly.
I felt nothing.
I felt nothing because--
and so I switched with one of the girls that
was with me, Susan.
Now I have her--
You didn't notice that there was no coffee left
in your cup or anything?
Well, it wasn't that much.
Oh, well, you said it was all down your shirt.
Well, all right, maybe I said all down for the comedy value.
It was actually a stain on the back.
And I didn't have a story.
You need a hip bib.
We actually were trying to get that started because I
have the same problem.
Whatever I--
Always spilling.
I'm spilling.
So I'm trying to bring bibs back and make them hip.
I always spill.
And my mother has this thing where she always-- we
always know what she had for dinner
because it's like that shelf you know how your mom has?
I mean, it's just a straight--
she's so cute.
And then she always puts a pillow down.
She thinks that you don't have to lose weight
as long as there's a pillow on the couch.
And if we go to somebody's house--
am I scaring you by standing up?
If we go to somebody's house, she always walks in.
She goes, get me a pillow or something.
And then she walks over.
She walks over.
And she goes, oh, it's so nice to be here.
[APPLAUSE]
Honest to god.
That's great.
It's a good idea.
One year at Christmas, my brother Pat gave her a sweater.
And his wife sewed a pillow on the front.
I swear.
No.
We always tease my poor mom.
That's hilarious.
What are you going to do?
Well, she's obviously used to it by now.
Yeah, she's a good audience.
So she likes a good ribbing.
And is your mom--
we have something in common, which I really like.
We have a lot of things in common.
But we both are obsessed with the Swiffer.
I love it.
I have every one.
Do you have the mitt?
The Swiffer Mitt?
Yes.
It's--
You don't bathe with it or anything.
No, no, no.
Well, they have bathing mitts, which always cracks me up.
I'm like, what's wrong with a washcloth?
You got to wear gloves that are made out of washcloths?
It's a loofah thing sort of, too.
Right.
Do you know what the Swiffer is, though, by the way,
that we're talking about, that you can clean--
[APPLAUSE]
Come on.
Oh, this.
Oh, this is the best.
Yeah.
And by the way, everybody in the audience
is getting one, just in case you don't know.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
Wow.
Pretty great.
They are great.
Yeah.
Now, why do you like them so much?
This sounds like we're doing an ad for them, but I really
just--
No, it's-- you feel gratified by the results because you go
around the floor, and you're like, there is a lot of dirt.
Yeah.
And then you get to take it off.
And I turn it around.
You don't throw it out, do you?
You turn it around.
I turn it around.
OK.
I do too.
Yeah.
I turn it around, and I use the other side.
And then there's a little less dirt.
And then you keep going until you're like,
the floor's really clean.
Yeah.
And especially if you have pets, it's great for hair.
Oh, yeah, I have two dogs, yeah.
And it goes all the way around and different things.
It does.
It's got a great mechanism for two cents.
Yeah, it's like you're driving a sports car or something,
the way it corners.
It does.
It moves.
It's a great dance partner.
Yeah.
It's a great--
It really is.
It really moves well.
I think that's a great invention.
I see that stuff.
And I just go, isn't it great that somebody's mind
solved that problem?
Yeah.
And there's now a new thing.
I don't know if I shouldn't say--
if it's the same company that does that and sucks
at the same time.
There's a-- I don't know how it does it.
It--
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
We said nothing.
Yeah.
I may be thinking of something else.
But I think--
By the look on your face, you are.
Yeah.
It's a-- no.
It's a thing that-- it's a Dirty Devil thing.
Right.
It shoots water.
Shoots water.
And then it sucks it back up.
And then it has that.
It's like there's all kinds of things happening.
It may be really long.
I don't know.
No, I fell for one of those.
I fell for one of those.
But the hole in it that brings the dirt up is like this big.
I'm like that's ridiculous if you have two dogs.
Yeah.
Well, it's probably--
Like tumbleweeds rolling around the house.
Well, you don't have that much because you refuse to even hire
a cleaning woman, right?
Well, it's not that I refuse to.
It's just that a friend of mine, when I first moved out--
we didn't grow up with cleaning ladies.
My mom had seven kids, and we only cleaned the house
when the doorbell rang.
And everything went into the closet.
So it was like when I got out here,
everybody had a cleaning lady.
I don't have any children.
I'm married.
I make good money.
My mother had seven kids, no money, no help.
But she still managed to-- well, the house wasn't, like, clean.
Right.
It appeared to be.
Let's be honest.
Yeah, exactly.
OK.
So I always have this fear that they use the same wash
cloth on the toilet they do on the counter.
And I stayed at a friend's house who was like a producer lady
when I first moved out here.
And I was the house sitter for whatever
they give you, $100 or something for a couple of weeks.
So I stayed at her house.
And she had a cleaning lady.
And I was watching the cleaning lady one day.
I'm reading a magazine.
And she comes over.
I'm like, oh, fancy.
I got to let the cleaning lady in.
And I'm trying to act like I'm natural in the giant mansion.
And this lady's cleaning the house.
And I swear to god, she had the same towel in her hand
for three hours.
She wiped the coffee pot with it.
And I thought, well, sure, there's nobody here.
And she's probably really angry these people are so rich,
and she's got to clean their house.
Right.
It's just really a lethal combination.
Yeah.
Well, there are people in any business
that are going to rip you off.
I used to have somebody that-- because I actually--
I love to clean.
Me too.
But I do have somebody that I actually
clean before they get there because I feel guilty.
Of course.
And then I apologize if there's a dish in the sink.
I'm sorry I left the glass.
(LAUGHING) That's so true.
Because I really like to clean.
But I used to have a house cleaner
that I would walk in the room.
I swear, she'd be like-- she'd have my mail in her hand.
And she'd-- I'll be like-- oh!
She'd just turn around.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
We'll be right back with more with Bonnie Hunt
right after this.
So Bonnie, this can't even be real.
I heard about your first audition day.
You moved here.
And your first audition day sounds like it's not even real.
No.
Yeah.
Well, that's the life of the Irish.
Uh-huh.
I was so excited to get a call that I actually
had an audition.
I moved out here.
And you don't get an audition because you
don't get an audition unless you have an agent.
And you don't get an agent unless you have worked.
So it's a vicious cycle.
So I get this call from this agent
that somebody had seen me at the Second City in Santa Monica.
And I was called in to, I think it was--
what was that show, 21 Jump Street?
Yeah.
OK.
Well, you know.
Yeah.
And I thought, oh, my god.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
And it was for a scene of a girl crying in a cemetery.
And I said, I'm going to prove I can act.
And I'm going to get this job.
So I go there.
And my agent says to me on the phone, whatever you do,
don't tell any stories when you get in there because you only
confuse them.
If you're funny, they think you can't be dramatic.
Don't confuse them.
And I said, OK.
I promise.
I won't tell any stories.
I won't do anything.
I'll just read the role.
So I walked to my car.
And as I'm walking to the--
I had a Geo Metro.
It was $16 a day from Alamo rental car.
And I'm walking to the car.
And a guy comes by on a bike and takes my purse off my shoulder
and just steals it.
I said, oh, my god!
I have no makeup on now.
I've got 15 minutes to get there.
And you got to look like a girl when
you show up at these things.
And I get in the car, and I thought,
I don't have any money.
I have no purse.
But I don't care if the purse has been stolen
because I have an audition.
I'm going to have tons of money eventually.
It's 21 Jump Street.
So the adrenaline-- I was so excited.
So I'm driving.
I'm driving.
And I see a White Hen Pantry in Hollywood.
I pull over, and I dig through the car for any change
that I've dropped in there.
And I've got, like, $0.89.
I go in there, and they have one color lipstick,
like bright red, for $0.70.
I buy the lipstick.
I thought I can do blush, eyeshadow, a little--
My mother was always able to do her whole face with Red Gone
Bright lipstick from Walgreens.
She would paint her whole face on in two seconds.
So she sounds like a lovely woman, the way you're--
Oh,she is.
She's fantastic.
So I get the lipstick.
And I'm walking back to the car.
And I think, I don't remember leaving
my driver's window open.
Somebody threw a rock through the window of the car.
And I go, OK, this is ridiculous.
Someone is following me.
So I wipe the glass off the seat.
I don't care.
I've got 10 more minutes, and I'm getting the audition.
I drive there.
A parking spot right in front.
And I thought, now, this is nice.
God knows I've had a tough day.
I'm late.
I got a parking spot right in front.
I opened my door, and a truck came by
and took the door right off.
This is-- I get out of the car.
I thought, doesn't matter.
I've got an audition.
And then I wait for the traffic to die down.
And I run in the middle of the street
and get the door that's now like an accordion.
And I run back, and I put it in the trunk of the car,
and I go into the audition.
And of course, I say, I'm so sorry I'm late.
You wouldn't believe what happened to me.
I say the purse had been stolen.
I bought the lipstick.
I did my face.
And they're all laughing and everything.
And I thought, oh--
I tell them what happened.
So I do the audition.
And I cry-- the girl at the funeral.
And I'm sobbing.
And I'm thinking I've had plenty of motivation.
And I get back to my apartment that I'm sharing.
Richard Kind-- you know Richard kind from Spin City, the actor?
Yeah.
We were sharing an apartment.
And I see the light flashing on the answering machine.
And I hit it, and it said, Bonnie, it's your agent.
They called me from the audition.
They thought you did a wonderful job.
But they were very confused by the monologue,
the bit you did when you first got in.
And so I called the agent.
I was so upset.
And I said, no, everything happened to me.
My purse has been stolen.
My car-- and I'm crying.
She says, oh, would you quit being so dramatic.
And I thought, well, this doesn't end.
Dramatic for the agent, too funny for the audition.
Oh.
I'm a victim of crime.
That is unreal.
Yeah.
But that was a good start.
But everything is-- yeah.
Well, it was because hopefully it wasn't going to get worse.
It can't get worse than that.
Right.
No.
You'd think that it couldn't.
But sometimes it does.
Well, please.
But your show now, Life With Bonnie,
is hilarious and smart--
Oh, thanks, Ellen.
--and unique.
And I love seeing stuff like that.
You have a clip of the show.
And this is the Smothers Brothers.
Thrill of my life, you guys.
First time Smothers Brothers are on primetime television in 25
years, and they do our show.
And they're hilarious.
Yeah.
[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]
And we were trying to--
John Lake and I, my writing partner and I,
were trying to come up with a premise that
would be great for the guys because it's
intimidating to write for them, first of all.
And we came up with the fact that David Alan Grier's
character has moved into my home because his home has
burned down on our show.
So we've made Tommy and Dick Smothers the contractors that
are working on his house.
And it's a lost art, the comedy team.
We don't see comedy teams anymore
because it's a total teamwork and cooperation.
And you have to put your ego aside.
It's really something incredible to watch.
It's great.
They're on tomorrow, Friday night, yeah.
It's on Friday night?
Yeah, Friday night, Ellen, on ABC.
OK, Bonnie.
Life With Bonnie is on Fridays at 9:30 on ABC.
[THEME MUSIC]