Hunt’s fictional talker comes alive
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Actress Bonnie Hunt has seen one of her characters on TV turn into real life. Hunt has starred in three of her own television sitcoms, and on the last one, “Life With Bonnie,” she played a talk-show host.
Life imitates art next week when Hunt actually heads up her own syndicated daytime talk show. Her show premieres at 2 p. m. Monday on WGRZ, Channel 2.
The actress from such films as “Cheaper by the Dozen,” “Jerry Maguire” and “Jumanji,” is also a writer and producer and has toyed with the idea of overseeing a talk show before. When Craig Kilborn vacated his late-night spot, she was offered the gig but turned it down.
“I was really thinking that I would probably fit better on daytime just because that’s when my mom watches,” she says. “And as long as my mom is still around, I still do stuff that pleases my mother. I think we all have a little bit of that in us.”
Several factors filtered into that decision. “I was at a different point in my life. I was getting divorced. My show was canceled. Sometimes it’s just personal. It’s just not the right timing. I don’t separate myself too much from my work. It’s really kind of part of my heart and my soul. So it — the timing just wasn’t right for me, and I was so grateful for the offer and the opportunity. But it just wasn’t the right timing.”
She has long been associated with David Letterman, and when she told him she was thinking about hosting the daytimer, he said, “Are you sure you want to work that hard?”
She is. But she will be collaborating with longtime pal, Don Lake, whom she met when they did “Second City” improv back in her native Chicago.
“People really open up and enjoy talking with her,” says Lake, who also co-starred on “Life with Bonnie.” “And Bonnie does honestly, genuinely enjoy people. I’ve met a lot of people in my life through Bonnie, just going for coffee or going to the grocery store. You learn a lot when people open up like that. That’s why it’s so fun to talk to anyone, whether it’s a celebrity or a bus driver or anyone, and Bonnie does find the story that everyone has and kind of celebrates it, as she does with her crew on everything she works on.”
“I find that I am interested in someone’s story,” agrees Hunt, 46, who started out as a nurse in a cancer ward. “Now, whether they’re great at delivering it or not in an entertaining way, well, that’s always a gamble. But like Johnny Carson, the first time I was on ‘Johnny Carson,’ I remember being so scared, but the minute he started talking to me, I felt a little more comfortable because I just knew he was going to take care of me,” she recalls.
This is not the first time that fate has steered Hunt to new places. While she was still working as a nurse she had a patient who offered some sage advice. “Before I came to California he made me promise him I would go to L. A. and try being an actress. I said, ‘I can’t do that. I’d go there and fail and have to come back and beg for my nursing job and I’d be all humiliated.’ And he says, ‘Bonnie, I only have a few weeks to live, one of my biggest regrets is that I feared failure. So I want you to promise me that, after I’m gone, you’ll go to California and you’ll fail many times.’ ”
“And we shook hands. And after he passed away, I gave my notice because I gave him my word, and I came out here, and I failed many times. I’ve learned from all of them and lived through all of them, and they’ve all made me better at what I do. That was a gift that man gave me, a real gift.”
