TV BUZZSCENE: 'ENLIGHTENED' SEASON 1 RED CARPET PREMIERE

Laura Dern, Luke Wilson, Diane Ladd & More Hit the Red Carpet for New HBO Comedy

On Friday, October 7, 2011, Hollywood rolled out the red carpet at Paramount Studios for the premiere of the hot new HBO series, Enlightened, starring Laura Dern as a self-destructive woman who, after a spiritual awakening, becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work. Sharon Hinnendael reports for Buzzine, talking with Laura Dern, Luke Wilson, Charles Esten, Diane Ladd, Amy Hill, Sarah Burns, Timm Sharp, actor/writer/producer Mike White, Jason Schwartzman, and Molly Shannon about the exciting new comedy.

 

Laura Dern

 

Sharon Hinnendael: What was it like filming the series? You obviously have some really hard moments, and then you’re hysterical. What was it like doing both?

 

Laura Dern: It was a blast. The amazing thing, and the gift of HBO, is we shoot ten episodes, so it’s like a long independent film or something. So I’m kind of used to the schedule. But the beauty of it is you’re making five hours instead of an hour and a half of content, so as an actor, you get to explore all these wonderful highs and lows of a character, and it’s what I dream of, so I had a blast.

 

SH: How did you relate to Amy (her character), and did you change after playing the character and being this person for so many weeks? How did that affect you in your real life?

 

LD: Why I wanted to play Amy is I originally said to HBO that I really wanted to explore rage, because I felt that our country had been so overwhelmed by so much hardship in the last decade that there had been a sense of cultural apathy, and I think we all were wondering why we weren’t marching in the streets about many issues, and Amy is someone who will. She’ll march in the street at a preschool that’s closing, but forget to march in the street about a war. [Laughs] She might not get it right, but she’ll be there. So you can count on her for perhaps misguided moments but authentic moments. So what I gained from her is remembering that to be enlightened is about telling the truth and saying what you feel, and using your voice, whether it’s uncomfortable for other people or not. So in a way, someone that looks like that, that is enlightenment in its own way. Someone said so me, “Whoa, as a woman, how do you feel?” I was like, “Next to the two billboards that are on Sunset where everybody is airbrushed and false this and that, I’m proud.” I think it’s awesome. I want women to feel like, “You know what guys? This is the whole picture.” [Laughs] I could sell mascara at least. [Laughs] Mascara that doesn’t necessarily work so well.

 

 

Luke Wilson

 

Sharon Hinnendael: How can you relate to your character…if you can?

 

Luke Wilson: I don’t know. It was a fun character to play; I enjoyed that, but it’s more I just kind of related to the story of all the people. They’re all my age, obviously, but I don’t know that I related much to the character. He’s not that great a guy. [Laughs]

 

SH: How did you become part of the cast? What was that whole process like?

 

LW: Mike White -- who created it and wrote it – he and Laura just hired me, so I don’t really know how that happened, but I feel real lucky that they got in touch with me to play the part, because it was a really good part to play, so I felt really lucky to do it.

 

SH: How was it working with Laura?

 

LW: It was great. Working with Mike was really fun because I was a big fan of Chuck & Buck and School of Rock, and Laura I’d always been a fan of. She and I are the same age. She was obviously in the business before I was, so I’d grown up watching her and was really familiar with a lot of her movies, so I really had a good time. A couple of people that I respected a lot.

 

SH: What do you want people to take away after watching the show? What is the message you want people to have?

 

LW: I don’t really think about that. I guess I just want them to be entertained. It does have some serious undertones. I don’t know about taking away anything besides just being entertained. It does have funny stuff and also some more dramatic stuff, so hopefully they get touched.

 

Diane Ladd

 

Sharon Hinnendael: First of all, congratulations. How excited are you for tonight?

 

Diane Ladd: I’m really excited. I really, truly am. It’s been a lot of work. My daughter (Laura Dern) started on this show a long time ago, and I’m really proud of her. She worked very diligently, extremely hard, and originally I was not going to do the show with her because, for my own personal reasons, I thought, no, I had some other things I was gonna do, and now I’m so thrilled that I made that decision to do it with her. I’m so honored to let my talent support her talent and this show, because it’s a great show, I think.

 

SH: How do you relate to your character?

 

DL: I think some mothers in this world are going to relate to my character, because she can relate to her beautiful lovebirds: [Baby-talk] “Oh my little lovebirds,” or her little dog – a beautiful dog: [Baby-talk] “My little baby dog…” But her daughter comes along and hugs her, and she’s going like, “What’s the matter?” She can’t relate. And a lot of people can’t relate; we’re just learning how. So it’s good to have that character. And I’m wearing a Helen Mirren-type wig. [Laughs] I’m a big fan of Helen Mirren, so I chose that wig because of her.

 

SH: What was the process of taking the role, if you were on the fence? Was there somebody else up for it, or what?

 

DL: No, I turned the show down, and they met with a lot of people, and I guess they had auditioned people, and I was in Texas very vulnerable. We had lost a grandchild – my husband and I – a baby girl, eight weeks old, from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Robert? This is my husband, Robert Hunter. What is it they now have announced – that you’re supposed to have a newborn baby examined for?

 

Robert Hunter: For SIDS?  It’s serotonin.

 

DL: Please everybody have your newborn baby examined to make sure they have serotonin, because if they are short on it, it can stop the breath, and we lost a baby girl at eight weeks old – a beautiful baby girl. So I was in Texas and was at the funeral when I got a call from them, and Mike White had asked me would I come in and meet with him, and would I at least talk to him about doing the show, so I said okay. I felt like God was talking to me. So I came in and we talked and he was wonderful, and then Laura talked to me and I said, “All right, I’ll do it.” So it was just a decision to decide to do it. I’d been offered it, and they met with some wonderful people, but I remember Valerie Harper the actress saying to me, “You’re not going to play your daughter’s mother in this terrific series? Are you crazy?!” Valerie Harper is going to be here tonight, by the way. And I think Renee Taylor, who’s Jewish, called me and said, “Listen, if you’re not gonna play her mother, I want to go meet for the part,” and I thought, “I think I’d better really start listening.”

 

SH: You’re from Mississippi, right?

 

DL: Yes, I am. My father was a veterinarian. My cousin was Tennessee Williams, though, the writer.

 

SH: Well congratulations. I’m happy you did the show and I look forward to seeing it.

 

DL: Bless you and all your listeners, and may you all fulfill your destiny with joy and love for your highest good. And watch our show, Enlightened. Okay?

Amy Hill

 

Sharon Hinnendael: Did you get to put Amy into the character Judy at all? Did you have to stay with the script, or did you improv at all?

 

Amy Hill: I have to say that I did not improv, no. I could. They would give me the freedom to do that, but I felt my character was very well-written to begin with, and very different than me. What’s interesting to me is I often get cast as a character that’s mean or kind of hard-edged. Yes! Some of my biggest roles have been written for men, and then they throw me in. They go, “Oh, why don’t you see Amy?” And then I go and I get it, and I think, “What’s wrong?”

 

SH: Can you relate to the character in any way?

 

AH: I can relate to the character because I don’t think she has a big sense of humor about things. She really tows the line. She’s really a company person. She really wants the company to do well, and whatever it takes to make sure that happens is what she does. And I think maybe, in some ways, that’s close to me, because I am a hard-worker and if somebody tells me to do something and it’s my job to do it, I will often just be in there doing it.

 

SH: How did you originally get involved with the project? What were the steps you took to become a part of it?

 

AH: It was quite a long process. I auditioned, and then a couple months later I got a call back and I met Mike (White). [Laughs] I saw him on Amazing Race. Did you see that? With him and his dad? [Laughs]

 

SH: I haven’t seen it, but I’m going to go home and watch it.

 

AH: I became a huge fan of him as a person. It was such a touching story between him and his dad, going around the world together, facing all these challenges and obstacles, and they did it in such a lovely loving way, and I just fell in love with him. So when I saw him, it was like, “Okay, now I have to act.” [Laughs] I just want to hug you, but I have to pretend like I really don’t know you very well. But it was great. He was really sweet.

 

SH: Well congratulations. I’m really excited to see it.

 

AH:  Me too! I haven’t seen anything!

 

SH: Really?

 

AH: No!

 

Stephen Amell

 

Sharon Hinnendael: Congrats on the new season of Hung. How’s it going?

 

Stephen Amell: It’s going well so far.

 

SH: How many episodes are you…?

 

SA: We have nine more to go, and I’ve only had one scene. We just had my introduction in the last episode, so I know that some more interesting things happen on this one, and it’s exciting.

 

SH: Can you say anything about it?

 

SA: I meet Thomas Jane’s character on this one. We meet in an elevator without knowing who one another is, and by the end of the episode, we know who one another is.

 

SH: How did you get your role on Enlightened?

 

SA: I came in on the last day. They’d been looking for the guy for a while, and I’d been shooting another movie, and I just went right in and shot this scene that was in the first episode in front of the creators of the show, and then seconds later, Rebecca Creskoff, who plays Lenore, came in – she was actually there for a wardrobe fitting, so she was dressed as Lenore and I had never met her… Lenore is intimidating, right? So we had to pretend to have sex on a boardroom table, and then I knew that it went well…

 

SH: [Laughs] How did you know it went so well?

 

SA: Because people were laughing. I think they were laughing at me because my character is kind of goofy. And then the next day, before my agents called me, before my manager called me, the casting director emailed me, figuring that somebody would have called me and told me that I got it. I was sitting in California Pizza Kitchen two blocks from here. I was eating a Caesar Salad Pizza – some weird thing that was terrible – and then I got this email and I was much happier. I turned to a stranger that was next to me, and I was like, “I just got an awesome job on an HBO show.” He was like, “Oh. Congratulations.”

 

Charles Esten

 

Sharon Hinnendael: What was your favorite scene or favorite moment with the cast while filming this show?

 

Charles Esten: My favorite scene, I think, is when Amy Jellicoe, after having an affair with my character, decides that we need to work it out, so she swings by my house where my wife and my family are. [Laughs] Bad move. So I sort of lose it, she sort of loses it, and it was a lot of fun to shoot.

 

SH: How can you relate to your character?

 

CE: When you’re acting opposite Laura (Dern) at that peak of insanity, when she’s coming at your like that, I don’t even have to act. You’re just dealing with what she’s bringing, which is just a cannon of acting.

 

SH: What was the audition process like, and what did you do when you found out you got the part? 

 

CE: This was one of those great audition situations where I was with Mike and Laura reading for them, and you didn’t know whether you were going to get it or not, but you knew that they were extremely cool, and they were doing everything they could to make your audition a good one. When I finally heard that I got it, I think it was that audition that I loved so much, and the script, that “Yeah, I want to do this. I want to work with these people.”

 

Jason Schwartzman

 

Sharon Hinnendael: Are you going to the after-party tonight? This seems like a really fun crew. Are you friends with all these guys?

 

Jason Schwartzman: Well I know Mike White extremely well. He’s actually one of my best friends in the whole world. I’ve known him since I was a teenager.

 

SH: Why didn’t you wear the tennis shoes like he did – the Nikes?

 

JS: Because I don’t have those. But I want them. I want! I want! I need! I need!

 

SH: What have you been working on lately? What are your new projects coming out?

 

JS: Look at this. I have one little hair right here.

 

SH: [Laughs] Pull it off.

 

JS: Here. Do you want this? You can have that.

 

SH: That’s amazing. Thank you. I’ll keep it forever.

 

JS: Clone it. Jurassic Park/Gattaca.  No, we just did Season 3 of Bored to Death, and it comes out, actually, October 10^th, which is soon. So excited. And then I also did a movie by Wes Anderson called Moonrise Kingdom.

 

SH: What’s that about?

 

JS: I don’t want to say too much, but it’s about kids on an adventure…combined with adults trying to find them.

 

Mike White

 

Sharon Hinnendael: What was it like producing, writing, and acting in the show?

 

Mike White: Wearing a lot of hats can be really fun, but sometimes you forget which hat you’re wearing and you just get a little crazy. So it’s cool, it’s fun, but it’s also just sometimes like, “I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.”

 

SH: How was it working with Laura and Luke and the whole cast?

 

MW: The cast of Enlightened is like my dream cast. Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, who are actually mother and daughter – this dynasty of great actresses – and to have them bring your words to life and to get to party with them every day is so fun. And Luke Wilson I’ve been such a fan of, and he’s so good in the show. I really hope people will check it out just to see what he does in it.

 

SH: What were some inside jokes or really funny moments that happened off-set or while you were in the filming of it?

 

MW: In Enlightened, Laura’s character goes to Hawaii to get her head screwed back on straight, so she ends up swimming with turtles, and Laura was deathly afraid of these turtles. And in the show, she’s supposed to be having this spiritual convening of minds with this turtle, and she was just like, “Get me out of the ocean.” It was pretty funny.

 

SH: How long were you in Hawaii doing that then?

 

MW: We only got to party in Hawaii for a week…

 

SH: How is it now that you’re wrapped and it’s finally coming out? How are you feeling right now with it coming out Monday?

 

MW: I’m just so excited for the show to finally get on and for people to see it. We’ve been holding it for a long time, so it’s just an exciting time to have it seen by everybody.

 

 

Molly Shannon

 

Sharon Hinnendael: Who are you here with? What’s going on tonight? Is there a party?

 

Molly Shannon: There’s a party after this. I’m so excited to be here. I’m here with my husband and my friend. We’re here to support the amazingly talented Mike White, and of course Laura Dern, who is amazing. Laura and I worked together on this movie Year of the Dog, so I’m just so excited to be here. Mike is so talented.

 

 

Sarah Burns

 

Sharon Hinnendael: First of all, congratulations on the show. How excited are you right now?

 

Sarah Burns: I’m bananas excited right now. I’m so excited for people to see the show, and excited to party tonight. Very excited. This excited.

 

SH: What do you want people to take away from the show after they see it?

 

SB: I think the show was really written from a place of love about people who are at their worst moments or are kind of struggling, and I hope people see that and connect with that. I’ve seen all the episodes, and it’s really beautiful.

 

SH: You’ve seen them all!

 

SB: Well I know someone.

 

SH: Well Amy was on it, and she says she hasn’t seen anything yet, so…

 

SB: Oh, then I don’t know what I’m talking about. I am drunk and crazy! Just kidding. I like to lie a lot when there’s a camera on me. But it’s really beautiful, and it’s really heartbreaking at times. My cheeks were soaking wet during the pilot…

 

SH: What was your favorite moment on set, whether it was a crying moment because you were so into it, or a funny moment...? 

 

SB: One of my favorite moments on the entire set was when Miguel (Arteta), our director/producer, sang “We’re a Happy Family” by The Ramones, and I was like, “[Gasp] There’s someone out there who likes The Ramones as much as I do.” That just felt for me – filming this show – was like a constant party, so I guess it’s fitting that someone would be singing The Ramones. But you just need to step back and look. Also the cast is really a bunch of cool dudes, so I like them. I want to hang out with them, but I get to work with them, so it’s the best of both worlds.

 

SH: Who did you come with tonight?

 

SB: I came with my husband Martin.

 

SH: Is he holding your purse somewhere?

 

SB: He’s holding my umbrella. I’m  holding my purse, but he was like, “Would you like me to hold that?” That’s a cute purse. I’ll hold it.

 

Timm Sharp

 

Sharon Hinnendael: What was your favorite, funniest part of filming the series? Was there a moment that was just hysterical...?

 

Timm Sharp: Yeah, my character gets to explode with anger from time to time, and there was one scene where I get upset with Laura Dern’s character, and she wanted a couple extra minutes for her break, which is feasible. You’d think I’d be able to give that to her, but it upset me to the point where I had a water bottle in my hand, and in the script it says: “Dougie screams…” whatever I scream, “and then he throws the water bottle across the room,” and in the particular take that I’m pretty sure they used, I hit one of the background extras square in the back, and I threw it as hard as I could. And this guy was just minding his own business, and it was just [explosion sound]. And he looks, and I was still in character and I turned back around and I continued the line, but then I couldn’t finish without going, “I’m sorry!” So I think they cut out of that.

 

SH: Was there any improv, or did you have to stick with the script exactly?

 

TS: There was a lot of ad-libbing, I’d say.

 

SH: Was Mike okay with that?

 

TS: Yeah. And especially Jonathan Demme, when he directed. I think one of his notes was, “Say ‘Tinkerbell’ ten times in this scene. Okay, go. Action.” Like, “Tinkerbell? How do I make that work?”

 

SH: Did you do it?

 

TS: I think I only got three “Tinkerbells” in, so I guess I’m not going to be in Silence of the Lambs 2. [Laughs]

 

SH: How did you get involved in this? What was the audition process like?

 

TS: I auditioned and it went well, and then that’s really it. Mike White and I have worked together over a decade ago on a show called Undeclared, and we haven’t really even kept in touch since then. He went on to do things, I went on to do things, so it was nice to see him in the audition room, and obviously even nicer to have gotten the part.

 

SH: What did you do when you got the part? Be honest.

 

TS: I did one of these [symbols sound]. My feet went like that. This is me standing, and I just went, “Yay!” That’s what I did with my body, though. Perfectly too. And I froze in the air for a little bit. One of those things.

 

'Enlightened' premieres October 10, 2011 at 9:30 p.m. on HBO.