LIVE WITH REGIS AND KELLY (TRANSCRIPT OF MARG’S INTERVIEW)
June 5, 2007
Interviewers: Kelly Ripa and Bryant Gumbel, who was filling in for Regis Philbin.
Kelly: Sheās best known as Catherine Willows on CSI. Now, instead of catching serial killers, she is married to one in the new film Mr. Brooks. Here is Marg Helgenberger.
Bryant: Hello Marg!
Marg: Hello! How are you?
Bryant: It has been a long time.
Marg: I know.
Bryant: Itās nice to see you again.
Marg: And nice to see you too.
Bryant: You too.
Kelly: The body, the body. (hugs Marg) Hi!
Marg: You say the bodyā¦ (points at Kellyās body)
Kelly: How are you?
Marg: Iām good. Thank you.
Bryant: Okay, just between you and me, how did the last five minutes go? No, seriously, my copy stopped — stopped with about 7 or 8 minutes to go.
Marg: Iām sorry to hear that. Thereās something that happens in the end that is quite startlingā¦
Bryant: I would assume, yeah.
Marg: It keeps going, keeps turning, this movie.
Bryant: Would I be shocked, surprised, amazed, disappointed?
Marg: All of it. I donāt think youād be disappointed.
Bryant: No?
Marg: No, but shocked, surprised, dismayed.
Bryant: Because to me Mooreās story is opened, your daughterās story is opened, your husbandās story is openedā¦
Marg: Ohh, one of those, one of those.
Bryant: One of those isā¦
Marg: Iām not going to say which one.
Kelly: This is…this is their way of getting talk show hosts to go out and actually buy a ticket instead of just watching the screen. You understand?
Bryant: I understand.
Kelly: So how is your husband doing? Last time you were here he was runā¦he was running to be the president of SAG.
Marg: Yes.
Kelly: How did that go?
Marg: He is the president of SAG, yes, and actually he isā¦
Kelly: All right!
Marg: Yeah, heās doing a great job too!
Bryant: So we know who to take our complaints to.
Kelly: Thatās aā¦ thatās a big job.
Bryant: If weāve got a complaint, heās who we turn to.
Marg: Yeah, he gets, he gets calls from you canāt imagine. I mean, from Clint Eastwood to you know, some whackjobs. Now we have had security because somebody is like threateningā¦
Bryant: Really?
Marg: Yeah, yeah!
Bryant: But can you take it seriously?
Kelly: Why, yeah.
Bryant: I mean, theyāre likeā¦
Marg: You knowā¦It’s a hundred and twenty thousand actors. Don’t you think there are about sixty five percent of them who are nuts?
Marg: (laughs)
Kelly: Well, thatās, thatās an underestimate, but okay.
Marg: (laughs) Exactly.
Kelly: But so, now, Clint Eastwood calls, what does he say?
Marg: I think this had to do – itās always something – āI want aā¦help me out here. Iāve got some issuesā¦ā. You know, it was the film that he did with, the Iwo Jima film, so I think it had to do with Japanese actors, or something like that. The same thing happened with somebody else that had to do with actors from overseas. And Alan is just like, you know āIāll do whatever I canā, and he does, you know, within the boundaries of the, of what heās capable of doing. But he says to me, and he all the time says āYou know, I can see how politicians become corruptābecause people call all the time asking āHey, can you do this for me, can you do that for me?ā
Kelly: Right, right, no kidding.
Bryant: (mumbles)
Marg: Whatās that?
Bryant: Now, itās, you know, itās hard to believe as you walked out here, because you turned to me and said āLook at the bodyāā¦
Kelly: The body, yeahā¦
Bryant: But, you just went to a prom, your teenagerās prom?
Marg: Well I didnāt. But I was, Iā¦ my son, yes, attended his first junior-senior prom, heās growing up!
Bryant: Thatās impossible!
Marg: And ahmā¦
Bryant: Did you, did you like his date?
Marg: Oh well, I know his date. Yeah she, sheās very sweet. But they donāt, like, she didnāt, he didnāt go pick her up, they go in a big group. I did say āYou know, letās get her a corsage, come on!ā So we got her this beautiful orchid wrist corsage andā¦
Kelly: How beautiful.
Bryant: Thatās always better. Go with the wrist so the guy doesnāt have to do theā¦
Marg: Right!
Bryant: You know, thatās always a little, always a littleā¦
Marg: Yeah, I know (laughs). But, you know, they go in this big Hummer limo, with like 20 or 25 kids or something like that.
Kelly: So itās like a group date.
Marg: Itās a group date, yeah. And then they go on to the party at the high school where they had Dilated Peoples, this rap group perform. (to the audience) Anybody know Dilated Peoples?
Bryant: Dilated Peoples?
Marg: And I meant to go like on iTunes and hear them.
Bryant: Dilated Peoplesā¦
Marg: Iām sure I wouldāve disapproved of the language, butā¦
Bryant: Iām sure.
Kelly: Didnāt they used, they used to call a group date something different in your generation, didnāt they, Bryant? A group dateā¦
Marg: (laughs)
Bryant: We didnāt have cars in my generation.
Kelly: (laughs)
Bryant: But we used to all get in the back of the buggy, and weād just put a couple of horses to pull it, thatās alright.
Kelly: But so, did you, were you there with the camera? Did you take pictures?
Marg: Yes, and he were my husbandās Armani tux and his Fodor? cufflinks, he looked really stylinā. Awesome. But he had a change of clothes, he had those, you know, Rocawear oversized jeans and the oversized dodger, the whole, you know, gangsta rap thingā¦
Bryant: For the post coming party.
Kelly: Right.
Marg: For the after party, which was somewhere on La Cienegaā¦
Kelly: Right, theyāre not going tell you where.
Marg: You know, they never, theyāre so deviousā¦
Bryant: And the after party is even bigger than the prom, yes?
Marg: Supposedly. And then, here is another thing, I donāt know if this happens on the East Coastā¦ big sleep over parties with all the kids.
Kelly: Oh yeah! Everybody would get like a hotel room and seven hundred people would stay at one hotel room.
Marg: Well, this was at one of the girlās parentās home, which in, they have quite a bit of money so it was, you know, a big compound, whatever, and I said āso, the parents are going to be there?ā – āyeah, of course, mom, thereās tons of securityā, I said āokay, okayā, but here it is..He comes home – he crawls in about 12:30 the next day, right. He’s still, heās got his Rocawear gear onā¦
Kelly: So when you say crawl, literally on his hands and knees?
Marg: Well, I mean, he was shuffling.
Kelly: Right, aha.
Marg: Thank god he wasnāt crawling, because that would have been cause for concern. Anyway, and he had – I noticed he had this bandana wrapped around his neck, and I said āWow, this is a new little feature,ā and of course it was to disguise the fact that he had about six hickeys.
(Everyone gasps)
Marg: Yeah, uh huh..
Kelly: See how we are. Now weāre like ‘That, that, that little’ whatās his name?
Marg: Hughie.
Kelly: ‘That little Hughie!’ But if that was a girl, weād be like ‘Oh well, thatās not okay.’
Bryant: Right.
Marg: Thatās exactly right, I know!
Bryant: Weāre talking with Marg Helgenberger, who plays the wife of serial killer Kevin Costner in āMr. Brooks.ā Letās take a look at a clip. In this one, your husband lies to you, odd that he would do that, to go on a killing spring.
Kelly: Thatās weird. Your husband lies to you to go on his killing spring.
Bryant: Oh, you want to. Yeah, no, weāre not. Oh, the tapeās not ready.
Kelly: Oh, the tapeās not ready, okay, but anyway. I was very surprised at how, how conflicted Kevin Costner serial killer was, I mean, itās like he really isā¦
Marg: Tortured.
Kelly: He is a tortured soul.
Bryant: Well, in fact, he has his alter ego with him all the time.
Marg: Thatās right, played by William Hurt.
Bryant: William Hurt.
Marg: Thatās a device of the film thatās, you know, like the ghost character you see in some films.
Kelly: I liked the way they did that as a matter of fact.
Marg: I was, it was, fun being in those scenes with those guys, I mean, first of all, theyāre just great, brilliant actors and sexy and all that stuff, you know, and it was, but it was hard to ignore William Hurt, I mean, wanted to respond, but of course, I didnāt have that opportunity.
Kelly: Right, right. Youāre not seeing his imaginary friend.
Marg: I just, no.
Bryant: Okay, letāsā¦this is not the imaginary clip.
Kelly: No, this is the real clip.
Marg: (laughs)
Bryant: Letās, letās roll.
(clip from Mr. Brooks is shown)
Marg: Thank you!
Kelly: Anytime, your husband, anytime youāre not on a first name basis with your husband, itās a problem. I think maybe thatās this, thatās it.
Marg: Oh (laughs)
Bryant: Iām not, Iām not giving anything away by saying that youāre the only one in that family whoās pretty normal.
Marg: Thatās probably, yeah, you could, thatās safe to say, yes.
Kelly: Wow, itās a great movie!
Marg: Iām the lightness to his darkness.
Bryant: Right, yeah.
Kelly: Great movie!
Marg: Thank you.
Kelly: Mr. Brooks in theaters now. Marg, thank you for being here.
Bryant: Thank you, Marg. It was good to see you.
Marg: It was good to see you too.
Bryant: Thank you.
*Special thanks to Andry for transcribing this interview.