Tallahassee native Cheryl Hines on her acting career, her family and the importance of giving back to Central Florida.

Speaking on the phone from her Malibu home, Cheryl Hines is wishing she was back in Florida. Not that she’s complaining about living along the Pacific Coast, but there’s something deeply engrained in her being that gives her an undeniable connection to the area she calls home. She may be planted in Southern California, but her roots run deep in Central Florida. It’s evident throughout our conversation, whether she’s talking about her college days at UCF or family traditions during the holidays.

As an actress perhaps most notably known for playing Larry David’s wife Cheryl on the wildly popular HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hines has also found success in other roles, both on the small and silver screens. She’s currently starring in the film Nine Lives with Kevin Spacey, and this fall, she’ll be appearing in the new sitcom Son of Zorn on Fox. We spoke to Hines about these new projects, her love for this area and what it’s like to be married to a Kennedy.

ORLANDO FAMILY MAGAZINE: So you’ve been a bit busy lately, what have you been working on?

CHERYL HINES: This summer I’m in a film called Nine Lives, a family movie with Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Garner and Christopher Walken. It was a very fun and crazy film to shoot, but in the movie Kevin Spacey—my ex-husband—turns into a cat. So all of my scenes are with a cat and Jennifer Garner; who plays his current wife.

And I am shooting a new show right now for Fox called Son of Zorn. Jason Sudekis voices the one animated character in the show, Zorn. Tim Meadows plays my fiancé, Johnny Pemberton plays my son; it’s a really funny and original show that will start airing in the fall. So that’s what I’m doing right now, which is keeping me really busy.

OFM: After you’ve finished working on a project, is that the time to get away and decompress a little bit?

CH: I like to go to Florida and see my entire family, my nieces and nephews, brothers, sisters and mom and stepdad, the whole group. We usually find a reason to get together in the summer, and I always go to Florida over Christmas because we have a lot of Central Florida Christmas traditions. We like to put hay in the back of a U-Haul truck and drive around singing carols on Christmas Eve.

OFM: How long has that been going on?

CH: Probably for 15 years. It grows; the first year it was just us in the back of a pickup truck. Now we have to have two trailers full of hay, and lots of eggnog, I’m not going to lie. You sound much better after you’ve had a few drinks.

OFM: I love that your Twitter bio says you’re born and raised in Florida. You have great pride being from the Sunshine State, don’t you?

CH: Oh, I’m very proud to be from Florida. I grew up in Tallahassee, and I also lived in Winter Haven for a while, and I lived in Orlando. I’m really proud of the people that I grew up with and their values. I like to carry those life experiences with me, and growing up in Tallahassee made me who I am. When I moved out to L.A., it keeps me grounded staying connected to my family and my roots in Florida. I live in Malibu now, and the other day I went to the beach and I saw [comedian] Daniel Tosh, and we both looked at each other and he said, “Go Knights!” He went to UCF as well.

OFM: Speaking of your alma mater UCF, what was your experience there like? Any fond memories or funny stories?

CH: I did have a good time at UCF. I don’t recall partying that much [because] I worked and put myself through college. I worked really hard when I was there, especially because I was one of the few females that majored in radio and television production. I think at the time, my professor wasn’t used to having women in his class, so he would always sort of challenge the women a little more. I always felt like I had to work a little bit harder to make sure I represented the women in a good light, which was good for me because I worked harder and achieved more. I had a really great experience.

OFM: Did you know that you wanted to become an actress then?

CH: I did. I knew I wanted to be an actress and major in acting and theater, and I couldn’t because I had to work at night and I could never be in the productions. I minored in it. In hindsight it was a blessing, because I did get to learn about the technical aspects of this field. I directed TV and film, and I think I wouldn’t have had that confidence had I not learned the technical aspects of filmmaking and television production. At the time, I was brokenhearted I couldn’t major in theater, but life works out the way it was supposed to.

OFM: You recently hosted the United Cerebral Palsy Gala here in Florida. How did you get involved?

CH: Well, my nephew Michael Hines was born with cerebral palsy 12 years ago, and my family was having a hard time figuring out how to move forward. And it was especially difficult because I was in Los Angeles and so far away from my family, but I wanted to try and figure out a way to be there for my brother and my sister-in-law and figure out a way to contribute. So I just cold-called United Cerebral Palsy in Los Angeles, and there’s an amazing man named Dr. Ron Cohen who runs UCP out here. And I went into his office and had a long talk with him, and he explained what it is to me and helped me figure out a plan and put me in touch with Dr. Ilene Wilkins at UCP Central Florida, and the next time I went to Orlando, my brother Chris and I went to visit UCP in Central Florida. When we went to UCP and we saw kids with all kinds of disabilities and abilities and teachers and therapists, and we were able to come up with a plan and get on a good track for my nephew. And I just fell in love with the people and started hosting the gala every year in Orlando.

My brother Michael—also a UCF graduate—works at UCP Central Florida as a teacher, and my sister Dr. Rebecca Hines teaches at UCF and is a great contributor to UCP Central Florida, so I stay connected and they’ve become part of my family. Hosting that gala every year becomes part of who I am and what I do. It really has become a family tradition.

OFM: Is it true that you met your husband through Larry David?

CH: That is true. By no means am I saying that Larry said we should meet each other and get married. He just happens to be good friends with Bobby, and I went to an event with Larry and I met Bobby. Then it was years later things developed. But now the three of us are really, really good friends. Pretty, pretty, pretty good friends (laughs).

OFM: How often does someone ask you if there’s going to be another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm?

CH: Someone asks me if there’s going to be another season of Curb every week. I’m supposed to have dinner with Larry David tonight, so I’ll ask him. We never talk about business, but he never says never, so I’m always hopeful. [Editor’s note: Since this interview, HBO has confirmed that the show will return in 2017 after a six-year hiatus.]

OFM: That show seemed like a lot of fun to be a part of, not only because of the great comedy, but the improvisational approach as well. How does that experience compare with others you’ve had in the business?

CH: Curb was definitely a very unique experience because for one, I was working with Larry David, who is a comedy genius. And two, the show is improvised; no script. We never talked about the show beforehand, there was never a table read, never any rehearsals, because there wasn’t a script. It was a completely different way of working, and the people I got to work with were the most talented people in comedy. I was very fortunate to work on that show.

OFM: The Kennedy name is held with such reverence. Are there any surreal moments for you or is it more normal than people would think?

CH: There are surreal moments. [Like] this past year when Ethel called me to see if I wanted to go to the White House to see the Pope with her and the family. I have moments like that; it’s just my mother- in-law Ethel Kennedy calling me. But at the same time my mother-in-law happens to be calling to see if I want to see the Pope and the president. It’s a lot of normal moments mixed with surreal moments. There’s never a dull moment, for better or worse.

OFM: You spent time with the Groundlings troupe, which has had no shortage of well-known folks pass through. Who were some of the folks you performed with, and did it feel like you were part of something that was truly special?

CH: When I was at the Groundlings, I performed with Maya Rudolph and Will Forte and Melissa McCarthy … and Rachel Harris, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. I was performing with very talented people and at the time it felt magical, but I also wasn’t thinking, “Who here is going to go on and become a household name?” You aren’t thinking of that when you are performing there, but you can’t help but be inspired when you go to a show and your peers are Will Farrell and Chris Kattan and your teacher is Lisa Kudrow. I also knew at the time this is a moment to take in and learn from. I’m happy that I was aware enough to watch and learn from the people around me.

OFM: You hear so much about places like the Groundlings, Second City, etc. How do these places prepare actors to master the craft so well?

CH: They help you find out what’s funny about yourself. They help you learn how to fail and try something bold and if it works, that’s great. If it doesn’t, that’s OK too. They teach you how to go for it, how to look foolish and be OK with it. You don’t know if it’s going to be funny or not, but that’s part of the process. It’s a tough lesson to learn—I’m going to do improv, and it may not be funny at all, but I’ll live through it. They don’t really teach you that in acting classes. From my experience, they teach you how to focus and be in the moment and study a script and learn who your character is and learn how to be present and block out everything else in life, which is helpful, and I don’t know what actor can work without knowing that. But at the Groundlings, I learned how to just trust your instincts. Trust what you know; they help teach you do to that.

A scene from Son of Zorn, which airs this fall on Fox.

OFM: You’ve done stage work, TV and film. How do they differ and in what ways are they the same?

CH: I don’t know, because they are so different. I’ve been so fortunate to work on the projects that I’ve worked on and right now, I’m really loving working on Son of Zorn. Our writers are so silly and funny and brilliant.

It’s fun to work with a group of people like that and get a new script every week and do a table read with all the creative decision-makers at Fox. It’s hard to believe it’s my job. And sometimes I really like to stop and appreciate it all. When I’m driving onto the lot and I get to my parking space and I’m walking onto our soundstage, and I just have to take a moment and say, “Wow, I’ve come a long way from Tallahassee to be here.” It’s nice to have a job, I like having a consistent job, so I do like that about television, and I like the creative process of television as well. Just the idea that a team of people can produce a new show every week is pretty amazing. And having a script gives you more stability. When doing Curb, it was challenging because we didn’t have a script. I’d drive to work not knowing what the show was about.

OFM: You directed a film in 2009. How did you enjoy that?

CH: Directing is a very different sort of challenge. I directed an independent film called Serious Moonlight. It was very stressful but very rewarding, but I felt like I learned more in that year than I did in the previous 10 years. I would like to direct again, but it needs to be the exact right project, something I want to devote my life to for the next year.

OFM: Acting, directing—is there anything you haven’t done yet that you’d like to accomplish in your career?

CH: It’s funny you ask, I was in a film called Waitress and now it’s opening on Broadway. I would love to say I would do a Broadway musical one day, but no one wants to hear me sing.

OFM: What if you served them your eggnog?

CH: It makes everyone sound better, and they wouldn’t even think about the $150 they just spent on tickets.