- Hi, I'm Louie Anderson
and I'm in studio with the Hollywood Reporter.
(Hollywood Reporter jingle)
- So Louie, here we are,
Season Four of Baskets.
- Can you believe it?
- I can't believe it.
- It's amazing.
- I know, and so much has happened.
- So much has happened.
- And yet, what I like to call this
is low-stakes comedy because
you can settle in and have an episode
where two people are introducing cats to each other.
- I love that.
- [Marya] I love it.
- [Louie] You know, well, people do that at home.
- [Marya] Yeah. - [Louie] Constantly.
Do you ever seen people,
you go over and they have their cat
and they go: "don't you like him?"
You know, where they talk to the cat,
you're not even in the conversation.
"He won't hurt you."
- That's what's so genius about Christine,
is that she is so relatable.
She's a wonderful foil to Zach Galifianakis's craziness.
- Yes, she is a wonderful foil to Zach
and Zach playing two characters,
so I get a crazy Dale character
and I get a really heartfelt, sweet Chip character,
and it's really nice.
And over these four years,
I've really become so maternal with Zach
that, you know,
if he's got some lint on or something,
I'll take it off.
You know, if he's got food on his face, I'll wipe.
It's really funny how
I have taken it seriously.
I'm super concerned for him as a human being.
- I was wondering,
because you play his mother,
for both Chip and Dale--
- Right.
- I was wondering if you have one thing
that you're super proud of with Zach,
and then one thing that you wish he wouldn't do?
Just like a mother.
- You know, I'm super proud that Chip
is such a kind human being,
and I'm super frustrated that
he can't make up his mind
on anything, what to do or where to go.
And he seems to be a little wandering.
And it makes Christine very nervous,
'cuz Christine charges forward all the time.
But in the fourth season,
I find the character and the show
contemplating a lot of things
and Christine is having to make some of the
same decisions about her life that
the Chip character has been making about his.
So there's a nice parallel there, which is really nice.
They become really close and wonderful friends
in this season, actually.
- I see that, I see that happening in the season.
- Yeah.
- I see even more warmth than in previous seasons.
- Yeah, I think Zach finally likes me.
And I don't mean that in a mean way,
but I think Zach feels that I really am out
to be his best interest as a mother and as a fellow actor.
- [Marya] Right.
- 'Cause we really are close this year
and we've had some scenes
where both of us got very emotional.
There are times when I got, you know,
like gut-punched in the season,
where I was in a scene and it hit me so hard,
but I didn't--
But later on in the day,
I go, oh my god.
I said to myself, do you think my mom was ever this happy?
You know, those kind of things.
Or, did my mom make the right choices,
or was she forced into making choices that
kinda compromised who she wanted to be?
So, I find myself,
as that character and the mother of Chip and Dale,
but also the son of my real mom.
So, I find all that stuff going on in me,
and it's been a very emotional time for me.
And even now I get a little choked up
thinking about how deep this season is.
I feel like the first season was a big pot of stew cooking,
and this one is like the perfect brew,
and the perfect stew,
you know, to eat.
It's just been really heartfelt for me.
- [Marya] Yeah.
- I got a lot out of it as an actor
and as a comedian,
and as a son.
- Now, the character Christine inspired you to
write a book for your mom.
- It did, I came home one day
and I just said I gotta write my mom a letter.
She's long deceased,
1990, God rest her soul.
So I said hey, I haven't written my mom
anything since she passed on
and I just started writing,
it started pouring out of me
and it became a book,
it was really weird.
I didn't wanna write another book, really,
because it's a lot of work
and I'm really lazy.
But this book was really important
and the more I got into it,
the more questions I had for my mom.
I'll tell ya, if your mom's alive
be sure try to make a connection and
become friends with them.
They make it very difficult a lot of times,
moms and dads,
but I think it's something that's worth
all the effort you put into it.
Of course, some relationships can't be fixed
and some people don't wanna fix them,
but I don't care who you are,
those things nag at you.
They're deep within you and
you came from those people.
You came especially from your mom,
she bore you.
And so, I think sometimes we forget that
they could be our friends and that
they gave up...
What did they give up?
I always wanted to ask my mom,
what did you give up to have me
and all of us kids?
Were you gonna be something,
were you gonna be an actress?
Could you have been the first woman President?
All those kind of things.
- [Marya] Was there a difference between
writing that book for your father
and writing that book for your mother?
- Yeah.
- There's a long time span between the two.
- Well the book to my dad was
somewhat of an indictment.
You know, why didn't you love me,
that type of thing?
It came from a much more immature Louie Anderson,
and really a hurt child.
Much more that.
And, to my mom, it's a love letter.
You know, it's a questioning love letter.
Why'd you do this?
Why didn't you do this?
Why didn't you...
Why did you give up my sister
to another family?
You know, her sister...
My mom let my sister live with her sister
'cause her sister didn't have any children.
And I think it really screwed up my sister
and screwed us up in a way,
but I know my mom's intentions were probably really pure
and loving towards her sister.
My mom was always trying to make someone else feel good
and that's what I try to do with the Christine character.
- And in that way
sometimes it becomes challenging,
because when you're trying to
make other people feel better,
you might end up
kinda stepping on their toes.
- Almost always.
- (laughs)
Yeah.
- Don't you think?
- I always say "stay out of it".
I'll say to people,
they'll ask me something and I'll go
"stay out of it, it's none of your business."
They seem offended and
I go "really, seriously?"
Like, just yesterday I wanted to get involved
with these writers that I'm working with
and try to change their project,
not knowingly at first.
- (laughs)
- But then I went,
oh Louie, you gotta stay out of this.
Because people who mean well,
especially Midwesterners, are also driven by
"I think I know what's best for them."
And that's a big mistake
because you don't really know what's best for anybody.
I mean I think I do, but
(laughs)
I think that's a common thing,
that we get involved in people's lives because
we don't wanna deal with our own lives.
- [Marya] Right, the older that we get
the more we feel like we have something to say
about what other people are doing,
especially younger people.
- And you know what I've learned
on this show, actually,
is that I have less to say
because everything plays out in its own time
and it does for each person in a different way.
I think the hardest thing is to let people
go through that life experience.
I always talk to young comics about comedy
'cuz I'm so old,
and they try to bait me into telling them
stuff that will help them.
And I'm glad to do it.
I doubt they would listen
but I'm glad to do it.
But I always tell 'em
the real ride of life is in getting there.
Once you get there,
then everything changes.
It's turned upside down,
you no longer are gonna be treated as you were
as that comedian on-stage
with just your jokes.
Because that's really the essence of it.
The journey and how I got here,
definitely the most exciting
and wonderful things that've happened,
even though I've had some really wonderful things happen,
in retrospect with my career...
That was the money.
That was the real money,
'cuz nobody else got to see that,
nobody else tinkered with it.
You did it on your own and you got where you were going.
You worked really hard to get there,
and I think that's what it's really about.
Like when you say
why does somebody wanna run a marathon?
For the run.
- Yeah.
- Not for the finish, but for the run,
because the finish, it's like:
oh, I'm all done.
- Yeah.
Are you saying that when you were a younger comic,
maybe less known,
you had to kind of fight to get laughs and then
as you have become established,
the room is different?
- I never had to fight to get laughs, all right?
- (laughs)
- I never did. I own the room, from Day One.
No, but yeah, it was really hard to go on
after somebody was juggling fire on the show,
or playing the guitar, or doing stuff that, you know.
And I'm coming out going,
"Do you like butter? Have you seen butter?"
"It's really something."
You know, where I'm talking about,
"How about your mom, isn't she nice?"
What? What is this guy talking about?
So, the concepts, and to develop your concepts,
you're right.
I think I was, I was definitely--
My first special is so good,
when I watch it I go, I can't get back to that.
You can't get back to that.
I'm trying to work on a special that
will get back to that.
Where I don't come in as Louie Anderson,
which is very difficult to do.
'Cuz I was just a kid that worked in Minnesota
and I shot my special with PBS
and I couldn't get it sold anywhere
so I said let's shoot it and get a benefit for them
and sell it as one of those pledge drives.
And it was very successful
and then I sold it after that.
But that first special is the best work
and I think a special that inspired a lot of comics,
at least that's what they tell me.
- I was speaking to Fred Willard recently
and we were talking about--
- I love Fred, by the way.
- We were talking about the art of being a talkshow host.
How has the late-night talk show scene changed?
- Well, I did Conan last night,
it was a complete dream,
it was me, him and Andy Richter,
and we're so comfortable with each other we just
threw out the stuff, it was a killer set.
And when Conan says
"You kill every time you come on here."
And I go, "Why am I not on here more?"
- Yeah, that's how a comic thinks.
But you know what it is is
I was born for show business,
I was born to sit in that chair next to somebody
who's gonna talk to me
because I'm so full of myself.
And I'm a comedian, I was built to be funny
and I was built to have the funny, quick lines,
it's in my psyche.
And then I got to be a host of a talk show
with Joan Rivers, when I filled in for her.
And I realized that I never wanna be that guy.
I don't wanna be that guy asking questions.
I think it's much more to limit the amount of time
because it takes a lot of work,
those guys do, to make it effortless.
All the late night people, I applaud them.
Because they're so good at it.
And the daytime people, it takes
a lot of work on producers and writers and
then they make it seem like
they're just friends and they're talking
but they're not, they don't even know each other.
And so with Conan it was so comfortable,
he's a comedian and he's funny.
We're pros.
It felt like pros sitting around talking
and I think the audience enjoyed that.
And, um, I stole stuff from the dressing room.
- (laughs)
- You know, in honor of my mom,
because she would always say,
"Aren't these cute? You think I should take 'em?"
- [Marya] Has the schwag gotten better?
- The schwag is better,
like Conan's is the nice schwag stuff.
No seriously, it's good stuff.
- So since winning your Emmy,
has the role changed for you at all?
Has playing Christine changed since winning that Emmy
or has it--
- Well now I'm more conscious of not being conscious.
Does that make sense?
- Yeah.
- Like, don't try to change this character,
that's how you won the Emmy.
- Right. Yeah.
- So I think we went back to that,
I think I didn't really try to change it at all.
Maybe last year Christine had a lot more fun,
so people let us,
you know Jonathan Krisel from Portlandia fame,
he let us kind of let loose.
Christine met Laurie Greiner
and she was all like jacked-up because of it
and took Martha to Vegas, to a strip show last year.
Christine was like "Yes!", she was living,
and she pushed Martha around.
And I think this character's more contemplative this year.
Still pushing people around, she can't help herself.
- [Marya] (laughs)
No, she can't!
- Yeah, so I think winning that Emmy,
and then at first I was like disapointed
'cuz I missed the Emmy for this year by 13 days.
And I went, was that on purpose?
Was that some sort of shot at me?
No, it's not about you, Louie?
Isn't it?
But I realized that everything in my life, luckily,
has come and has been right.
I did the Tonight Show, it was really important.
It had Johnny Carson.
And then, I did the Rodney Dangerfield special.
I did the Coming to America.
I got a little part in Ferris Bueller's.
I did some really nice,
I did the Family Feud,
I'm a huge game show junkie.
I did Life with Louie, an animated show.
I did all these wonderful things
that were just presented to me.
"Would you like to do it?"
"We'd like you to do it."
And so I have really been lucky that way
and I never thought I would get an acting part
that would let me show how I can act.
'Cuz I was always bad in auditions.
I would freeze up in the audition and go "Blah!"
- [Marya] (laughs)
- You know, it just would terrible,
oh, just what do you do here? What am I going to do here?
Anyway, then in 61 I got that call that said
"Hey, do you wanna play Zach Galifianakis' mom?"
And I said, "Yes I do. I am ready for it."
"I'm gonna start right now."
- (laughs)
Louie Anderson, thank you so much for being here,
we're looking forward to Season 4 of Baskets on FX.
(dramatic rushing noise)