Q&A: Howard Hesseman

PREMIERE: In About Schmidt, both your character and Jack Nicholson’s character have had tough times with their wives. 

HOWARD: As a three-time groom, I’m certainly familiar with marriages. I’m [now] married to a Parisian, so everything is an intellectual debate of startlingly intense proportions. At the same time, you still go to bed [together] every night.

What was it like to reunite with writer-director Harry Shearer in Teddy Bears’ Picnic last year, almost 20 years after you worked together in This Is Spinal Tap?

It was a mixed bag. And I don’t want to cast any aspersions on [actor] Kenny Mars just because he was wearing a dress and a wig.

You got the sense that Kenneth Mars liked being in a dress?

Uh, I got the sense that he was used to being in a dress.

Having played a range of iconic TV characters, can you tell us what WKRP’s Dr. Johnny Fever would suggest we do about Iraq?

Lay all the ’60s Stax-Volt stuff you can on the Iraqis. Get ’em dancing. There is a Persian proverb that says, “The Lord smiles to hear me sing, and he loves me when I dance.”

Rock on, brother Howard.