Thankyou so much for talking to us...
NO TOUCHING! NO TOUCHING!
NO TOUCHING!
(this goes on like this for a bit...)
You know people still do that on the street.
Do they really?
They yell 'no touching!' they yell, 'hey now...'
How sick are you of answering questions about a new season of Arrested Development?
The Bluths are always close, but we never know where they are.
If you hear anything, please let me know.
I have no idea.
I've made a huge mistake.
Throughout your career you've played quite a few patriarchs,
the father of the family, and one of the interesting things that Jill Soloway, the creator of Transparent, says
is that that was part of why she approached you,
because you are so well known to so many Americans as the Dad of the family
and loved in fact, as the Dad, that they would follow you on that journey into finally coming out
as a woman in Transparent.
My name is Maura.
But you were nervous about it, weren't you?
Well, I was speaking about one scene, the coming out scene,
when Maura comes out to her eldest daughter.
'Hi girls.'
'Mr Pfefferman.'
I was very nervous about that scene.
Because not so much about getting good reviews,
or people saying, that's very believable,
but getting it right.
'Dad, what are you wearing?'
For all the people who have had that time in their life where they say,
"I must come out to my family".
So I have something to tell you...
I remember my hands were shaking, I remember
I wanted to get it behind me.
Oh, I just got emotional saying that. It's very powerful.
But when it came down to the actual scene
going, I don't quite know how to do this,
because I've never done it before.
And that's thrilling. It makes you very aware. It makes you very present.
Your whole system of emotions is very at the surface.
That was great.
It's interesting, because a lot of the cast who worked with you on Arrested Development,
they often remark about how they would just sit back and watch you acting...
Who says that?
Bateman said it a couple of times.
Bateman is actually like my son.
I call him, I always write on an email, 'love Dad'.
"Proud of you, love Dad".
i was only a guest artist when they asked me to do it.
I'd already been booked for another series
and I was praying that it wouldn't be picked up.
They called me in Prague, I was doing...
Hellboy.
Hellboy. Wow, you've done your homework.
They said, would you like to be in the series, and I said, sure
Then they said, if we do 13 episodes, how many do you want to be in?
And I said, 13.
'I just want my son to have a job where his incompetence won't be out of place!'
'Well, that's not a great sign.'
SQUAWK.
Even with Arrested Development, pretty much from episode six onwards,
there was a sense that the show was in peril,
it was always on the verge of being axed, right through season one and two.
Always. My makeup lady used to say, 'is it today?'
and I'd go, 'would you stop and put on the makeup?'
'You're a chicken!'
Coo-coo-ca-chaw!
You know, it's like dating a girl who doesn't like you,
you kind of go, okay.
I'll go to the prom with someone else.
Actually, this sounds a bit cavalier,
when we were dropped I went, 'fine, we'll come back another way'.
It's fine. And then we did.
Hank? I'm sorry...
Why don't you just laugh in my face? You might as well do it now.
You and Artie do it every time I turn my back.
That is not true, Hank.
Three really iconic, game-changing shows now...
At 70 have you considered that you're something of a pioneer in the format and technology of television?
I think there's irony in that.
I came from the theatre.
And when I went to television I didn't understand it.
i didn't get it.
I did a show called The Ropers and I remember
I thought i was Mister Thing,
(hisses)
you would say this thing and then there was uproarious laughter,
and then you were getting all this money,
I didn't get it.
"It's best in these cases just to play along".
I had to get rewired on that whole thing.
It was a very interesting moment in my life.
So what brought about the rewiring then, after all that?
Really?
Yeah.
Well, I'm fifteen years sober,
and finally you just find out what's important to you.
And what's important to me is
using all of my talent, rather than that.
I love to act, and I love the problem of acting,
and i like to touch people.
Jeffrey Tambor, you're an absolute pleasure to talk to.
Really? Yeah, you really are.
Were we rollong on any of that?
None of it, we're going to have to do it all again.
I can't wait to watch this.