Comedy heroes on what makes them laugh. This month:
Simon Helberg
My Comedy Present
I was nervous [ about making a film based on my own experiences]
for many reasons. I wrote WE’LL
NEVER HAVE PARIS and gave it to my wife [ co-director Jocelyn
Towne], and that was a scary moment. She thought it was hilarious, which I was happy about. There was a lot of perverse, poetic strangeness going on with us telling our own story. My Comedy Hero Growing up, probably people like JIM CARREY. He was a huge, huge inspiration to me. He still is. Growing up with In Living Color and Ace Ventura and The Cable
Guy and those kind of projects. I always wanted to be like [ him] when I was a kid. I don’t necessarily think I’m going down that path at the moment, but I looked up to him as kid. And still do. My Comedy PAST When I did THE BIG BANG
THEORY, I knew it was different from all the pilots I had done. I always knew it was good, but there are a lot of great shows that just don’t get picked up. Something electric happened that night without a doubt. I had no idea, absolutely not, that it would be [ so successful], and I still don’t know if I have an idea. My Funniest Co-Sta r I got to work with WILL FERRELL. I was in Old School, so those guys, all of them. But Will Ferrell, if I had to pick one, he was so funny – and is so funny. There was a lot of improv on that set, and there were takes where his eyes would kill me. I don’t get how someone’s eyes can be that funny. I don’t normally laugh in the middle of a scene, but he really tested that. My Favourite Funny Movie If I had a gun to my head and I had to answer it quickly – which would be a weird, weird hostage situation – I would say ANNIE
HALL, which is sort of obvious, but it’s obvious for a reason. That’s definitely a tough one to beat. There’s many that I kind of think about. If you think about a movie often, that means it’s had some kind of impact with you. My Favourite Comedy Scene Martin Short has a part in THE
BIG PICTURE where he plays Kevin Bacon’s agent. There’s a lunch scene that is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. I’ve laughed so hard at some of [ Short’s] performances that I remember as a kid almost peeing myself and falling on the floor. MM
ETA | 9 OCTOBER We’ll Never Have
Paris opens this autumn.