29 Jan 2015 7:23 PM PT
Simon Helberg made the rounds today starting by to chat with the ladies of The Talk and then heading over to share laughs and fun with Conan O’Brien. We have clips and photos.
Likewise Simon has two new interviews out with the Daily Beast and with Interview Magazine where he was interviewed by Zachary Quinto. See below.
The Talk
Conan O’Brien
Clip with Simon and Conan tonight will come once available (still not released). In the meantime, here is a funny clip of Jason Ritter talking about how he cannot deny Simon any of his dares.
Daily Beast
By Kevin Fallon/ 1/28/15
Simon Helberg Image: Michael Yarish/Warner Bros.
How a ‘Big Bang’ Star Won His Wife Back
As he releases his directorial debut, We’ll Never Have Paris, Big Bang Theory star Simon Helberg reflects on the pitfalls and privileges of starring on TV’s most popular show.
Helberg, known best to you as gregarious geek Howard Wolowitz on the decade’s most popular sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, is questioning the wisdom of his latest career venture. And we’d have to agree with him.
Helberg is out promoting We’ll Never Have Paris, a romantic comedy of errors that he co-directed with his wife of seven years, Jocelyn Towne. He also wrote and stars in the film, and, as its title card cheekily explains, it is “based on a true story, unfortunately.” Given the details of that “true story” the film is based on, you’ll be questioning the wisdom of Helberg to work with his wife on the project, too.
We’ll Never Have a Paris is about a 20-something guy named Quinn who cheats on his longtime girlfriend (Melanie Lynskey), immediately realizes it’s the biggest mistake he’s ever made, and then follows her to Paris, where she’s gone to escape the heartbreak, in order to win her back. And these are all things that, though exaggerated for dramatic effect, actually happened between Helberg and Towne and nearly destroyed their relationship.
Call making this film insane. Call it a labor of love. Or, more likely, call it just plain unhealthy.
“Well, as you see in the movie, I don’t put a lot of thought into the outcomes of certain decisions,” Helberg says when asked about this. OK…but what about his wife? This couldn’t have been a pleasant experience for her.
“Oh, who cares about her?” Helberg laughs. He stutters as he gathers his thoughts to talk about why he decided to pen-to-paper immortalize his romantic blunders, and then get his wife involved in the professional walk of shame, too.
“I said, ‘Hey, you know I’ve been talking to people about our engagement story and the breakup and everything and they think it’s the funniest, craziest story they’ve ever heard.’” Her response: “’Are you kidding me!? You’ve told people? Like, strangers? I haven’t even told my parents!’”
Helberg was confused. “I was like, ‘Uhh…why?’ And she was like, ‘Because it’s humiliating!’ And I was like, oh, this could actually now be the demise of our relationship.”
“It’s not the coolest thing in the world to be walking around humming the Taylor Swift song. It’s not as cool to be singing along with the number one song in the country as it is to be the jaded, indifferent hipster who wants to turn you on to something that nobody else is talking about.”
Despite his wife’s understandably baffled reaction, Helberg decided he still needed to write the script. Part of it was cathartic, therapeutic. Part of it was that he genuinely thought the ripped-from-his-humiliations story was entertaining and would make a good movie.
“When I was done I gave it to her and sort of paced for hours in the next room while she read it,” he remembers. “And she thought it was hilarious, and that was the best part of it.” When it came time to actually the make the movie, it was through a series of conversations with interested producers that it became clear that Helberg should helm the movie—his own story, after all—too. He knew he’d need help, so he called on Towne, with had gotten her feet wet directing and producing the 2013 indie I Am I.
“I thought, well selfishly, that I wanted her input on all of this,” Helberg says. “But also, wouldn’t it be interesting to go back and tell the story of our near demise?”
Interesting, yes. A risk, definitely. In fact, this entire project—very publicly writing, directing, and starring in a film based on your life—was a risk for Helberg, both professionally and personally. On the surface, it seems like the kind of risk that can only be afforded a Hollywood player who has the security blanket of the famously well-playing, unfathomably popular most watched sitcom on TV to keep him warm.
That wasn’t exactly the case. “Based on some of the reactions and experiences I’ve had doing this movie, [Big Bang] has actually hindered it a little bit,” Helberg says. “It’s helped a lot—I’m not going to say that it hasn’t helped. And I’m not going to say that it hasn’t helped me live, in terms of security, to have that show. And it has happened doors.”
Interview Magazine
THE BREAKUP
ABOVE: SIMON HELBERG AND MELANIE LYNSKEY IN WE’LL NEVER HAVE PARIS. PHOTO COURTESY OF ORION RELEASING.
If Simon Helberg’s We’ll Never Have Paris seems unbelievable, it’s probably because it’s based on a true story: Helberg’s own breakup and reunion with his now wife, Jocelyn Towne. “I wanted to challenge the world to see if there was anybody who had any more disastrous, horrific, clumsy breakup and proposal stories,” jokes Helberg. “So far I think I’m winning.”
Directed by Towne, the film features a rather impressive cast including Alfred Molina, Zachary Quinto, indie MVP Melanie Lynskey. Helberg plays the lead, a version of himself. Although he’s been acting since 2001 when he guest-starred on subversive teen shows like Popular and Undeclared, and is currently on the most popular show on television, The Big Bang Theory, We’ll Never Have Paris marks Helberg’s debut feature as a screenwriter.
SIMON HELBERG: We have a buffer between us. We can only chat with a lady quietly hiding out on the other end.
ZACHARY QUINTO: Our only conversations are mitigated by others.
HELBERG: It helps—if we run out of stuff to say, she will be there. How’s New York? Are you in New York right now?
QUINTO: Hey, hey, hey. I’m interviewing you here buddy, okay?
HELBERG: Okay. So ask me where I am.
QUINTO: New York’s great. Where are you?
HELBERG: I’m in Los Angeles; it’s even better than New York, your little city.
QUINTO: That’s debatable. Are you working right now?
HELBERG: No, I’m on Christmas break and I’m actually driving, because that’s all you do in Los Angeles. The city’s about to empty out and be amazing. Right now it’s more like the evacuation part.
QUNITO: That’s good. I miss it. I left so abruptly. We knew each other a little bit before We’ll Never Have Paris but only in acting, right? Do you remember the first time we met?
HELBERG: Couldn’t forget it! The question is, do you remember the first time? Because I met you briefly at a bar in New York just like passing by and I think you were shootingHeroes.
QUNITO: Oh yeah!
HELBERG: It was a brief moment of, “Oh, hey! You’re on a show, and I’m on a show.”
QUNITO: And then we became much closer friends obviously when we worked together.
HELBERG: It was easier. We were sober and we were in tight quarters. No, it was cool. We basically wanted you to be in our movie because we thought you were fantastic and we hadn’t really gotten to see you do this kind of role. And then we kind of stalked you slightly and forced a meeting with you.
QUNITO: I remember being so impressed with you guys and feeling like you had such a clear vision of what you wanted to make. I’ve heard that you were really into karate when you were a child. Is that true?
HELBERG: Yes, I was more than into it. I was proficient and successful.
QUINTO: You were a black belt at the age of nine?
HELBERG: That is true. I saw The Karate Kid, like most of us did when we were young, and I thought, “That’s it, that’s what I need to do!” At five, I went to this studio. I grew up in L.A., so it was on Sunset Strip. It sounds funny; you’d expect Steven Adler to be hanging out and doing karate reeking of booze or something, but it was actually somewhat civilized—it wasn’t hung-over rockers. It was a bunch of guys from New Jersey who started this studio out here and they didn’t have any children—they didn’t allow kids in the classes. Much like I forced my way into your life, I forced my way into the lives of these weird Jersey karate masters. They eventually opened up the whole studio and started having kids classes and all that, but I was the first. I took classes six days a week. It was a wonderful source of discipline. I can’t say that I would win in any fights with any normal sized person, but I did learn a lot.
QUINTO: So could you kick some ass today? Do you ever practice anymore?
HELBERG: I think I’d be fast at recognizing confrontation and then running away. I did break boards, but I feel like it wasn’t as practical as something like jiu-jitsu where you can pinch someone’s ear and they go into a coma or something. I did take other things later—I took Capoeira in the last five, six years. It’s like this Brazilian dance fighting.
QUINTO: I know it; I was into it when I was in my mid 20s. It was the kind of thing where I was like, “I wish I had started this as a teenager,” because it’s so cool but I didn’t the physical capacity. You mentioned you grew up in L.A. Your dad is an actor, is your mom also an actor?
HELBERG: My mom is a casting director, which is pretty awesome. It’s a good combo, an actor and a casting director—you’ve married in the right circle. I grew up around the business quite a bit; I saw a little bit of the underbelly of it. My dad was one of the original members of the Groundlings and I watched him as an actor have ups and downs, and I watched my mom as a casting director have ups and downs. Eventually my parents started writing television together. So I watched a more realistic version of the business. It didn’t make me decide to go into it without a lot of tossing and turning. I saw how hard it could me. And my parents weren’t like, “Oh yeah! This is a family business!” They were like, “No, don’t do it. Or go to school. Maybe you could minor in being a doctor…” But I was really into music, and I played jazz piano. So that was my backup, being a jazz pianist if this acting thing doesn’t work out, which doesn’t instill a lot of security.
I know you studied acting too. I think there’s a whole crew of people who come to L.A. to win the lottery [without studying]. It’s not to say that they’re not as talented as people who went to school, but you do find a lot of people who are like, “Hey, I think I can do this thing!” without the right reasons or right experience. I do feel very happy that I got to study. I actually didn’t finish NYU, I would have, but I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door before I graduated.