‘This one got my funnybone’
James Brolin, 76, tells why he’s missing wife Barbra Streisand’s gigs to go back on TV.
James Brolin says he hasn’t missed any of third wife Barbra Streisand’s gigs in two decades – but skipped her most recent hometown Los Angeles concert because it clashed with the start of work filming the second season of the sitcom, Life in Pieces.
Streisand wouldn’t mind, says Brolin – she’s happy he’s working again after a spell where the 76-year-old screen veteran decided to cut back.
‘‘I think we are really appreciative of each other’s work when it happens, and not so much the time in the hammock – which I did for five years, hoping my agent would never call,’’ says Brolin drily at a media call on the Life in Pieces set at Fox Studios in Los Angeles. ‘‘Twenty years on prime-time is enough for an old guy like me – until I got here.’’
The star of movies Westworld, Traffic and Catch Me If You Can said Life in Pieces, which TVNZ begins screening the first season of on January 16, was the third sitcom his agent had offered him in three years, and ‘‘the others just sucked’’.
But he liked the unusual approach taken by Life in Pieces creator Justin Adler to the set-up of the show.
Brolin plays John Short, patriarch of a big LA family – including wife Dianne Wiest, son Colin Hanks, and daughter Betsy Brandt – with each episode split into four short stories, which are told from the point-of-view of each branch of the family.
‘‘This one really got my funnybone and I was on the floor laughing at Justin’s humour and I said ‘I just gotta do this one’, and it looks like a couple of days’ work a week,’’ said Brolin. ‘‘Then there are several days with no lines.’’
The set-up of the show, explains Adler, means his big-name stars all have to take their turn in the background. Sharing screentime and story arcs is the most difficult navigation of creating the show – which has started shooting its second
''I was on the floor laughing at Justin's humour and I said 'I just gotta do this one'.'' James Brolin
season in the US, Adler said.
‘‘There are so many incredibly talented people here, that mathematically, trying to work out how to get everyone involved in one of the four stories is the biggest challenge ... we have the most expensive extras in Hollywood. They are amazing about it.’’
As cast member Dan Bakkedahl (better known as potty-mouthed US congressman Furlong in Veep) says: ‘‘It’s so much easier to check your ego and attitude and say ‘we are a team’.’’
Brolin certainly seems to be enjoying the decision to sign up for another long-run TV series. ‘‘So I am back to work now and I love it. I just spent six weeks at war making a movie and this is so relieving ... talk about misproducing productions [Brolin is poking fun at himself for his directorproducer-starring role in the TV movie I’ll Be Home for Christmas]. But I am alive and ready to go.’’
Not, however, before he made up for missing Streisand’s gig: he was driving straight to Las Vegas after the press call to catch her next appearance.
Life in Pieces,
8.30pm. TVNZ2, Monday,