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American Morning
Interview with Patricia Heaton
Aired October 02, 2002 - 09:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Patricia Heaton's most impressive performance is at home. She is married, with children off screen, four of them, and her life is the subject of her new book. I talked with her yesterday about her juggling act, balancing comedy, reality and family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Patricia Heaton, welcome.
PATRICIA HEATON, ACTRESS: Great to see you.
ZAHN: Thanks.
Congratulations on the success with the show.
HEATON: Yes, we've had a good week at the Emmys.
ZAHN: A good week? You had a great week.
HEATON: It will be a great week when the show wins.
ZAHN: You have something else you have been working on, "Motherhood and Hollywood," and the idea is perception versus the reality. Let's take a tight close-up there.
HEATON: Yes, I being one of the reasons that I wrote the book was to talk about what we participated in putting out there for the public to see, which is about our glamorous Hollywood lives, and the reality which is, you know, I get up in the morning and change the sheets that somebody has peed in the night before, and throw them in the laundry, make the lunches, get everybody to school and get to work. I just wanted to kind of share that with the public.
ZAHN: And you share some very personal stuff in this book. You just don't look this way naturally. You even went public with the plastic surgery you've had?
HEATON: Well, I'll tell you, Paula...
ZAHN: What compels you to do that?
HEATON: Well, I feel a certain duty. I have to say, I've seen enough actresses in magazines who in Hollywood who are known to have surgery, say they haven't had it, or they're afraid of the surgery, and I kind of think it's unfair, because I have so many moms that's come up to and said, oh my, God, I've had four C-sections also and I don't look like you. And to tell them, well, it's just natural or, you can, you know, do 1,500 sit-ups and eat lettuce and you'll look like me -- I think that's unfair.
I had a tummy tuck and I had my breasts lifted, because I nursed four very thirsty boys in quick succession. They're Irish, so they're big drinkers. I'm 44, and I feel great, and I love my boys, and I love running around with them, and my body was looking about 64. So I wanted to sort of have them meet. You'll notice, I have not mentioned my husband in any of this.
ZAHN: Not yet.
HEATON: And that's something about also in the book, about the strain of marriage and kids on marriage, and Hollywood marriages, too.
ZAHN: But you make the prediction that you all have been together for 13 years; if there is going to be a Hollywood marriage that survives, you think this is the one.
HEATON: It'll be us, because we argue all the time, we have nothing in common, we drive each other insane, and I knew going into the marriage, you know, my rule is you have to have a bit of contempt for the person you are going to marry, because that will show up within about three or four years, or certainly after you've had kids, so you should know that going in.
I mean, I did a little research on the Internet, a high-profile Hollywood couple who had recently been divorced, and I looked at the interviews that they had when they were first together.
ZAHN: And they didn't know each other?
HEATON: Well, they thought they did, but they were so in love and they are so alike, and he's my soulmate and he makes me laugh, and she's beautiful and the sex is hot. That all goes. It really goes. So you have to be in it for something other than that. So I think that's why our marriage is going to work.
In fact, we were in England one summer I found out I was pregnant with Danny, my fourth one, and my husband sort of freaked out. And the way he freaked up was to shut down. He sat in front of the TV eating biscuits and watching cricket matches for, like, three days. And I finally said, help me with the kids. I have three other kids, and we were in England in the countryside, and he kind of, like, throws a Binky to me, you know, and then keeps watching the TV, and I grabbed him by the sweater, and I said, you help me with the kids, or I'm taking them back to L.A.!
"People" magazine arrived that afternoon with us in the centerfold, "Hollywood's Happiest Couples," and I thought, you know what, people got to know the other side.
ZAHN: Contempt works.
HEATON: Contempt. It's the passion.
ZAHN: That's right.
Let's come back to your future on the show. You have got two years left on the contract, is that right?
HEATON: This is our seventh year, and I'm good for nine, yes.
ZAHN: So you have two years left on your contract, and now your partner, Ray Romano, is saying, maybe I don't know if we're going to go the distance with this?
HEATON: The integrity of the show, and he doesn't want to go too long and have it burn out, and blah, blah, blah. You know, I think it is also because Milos Foreman (ph) called right after he won the Emmy, and we're all -- and Ray can't even pronounce the guy's name.
ZAHN: He's thinking films, dreaming films.
HEATON: Dreaming films. Ray is a terrific guy, but I'm a little bit afraid he'll be getting into his private jet and flying off, and I'm going to be doing mattress commercials at 3:00 a.m.
ZAHN: I don't think so.
HEATON: You don't think so?
ZAHN: No.
HEATON: Actually what will happen is I'll get my own show. His film career will fail, and he'll be guesting on my show. That's the scenario I see. There is no resentment.
ZAHN: None at all. You were very kind to drop by. Congratulations.
HEATON: Thanks for having me.
ZAHN: I really do like the way you look, the added touch of plastic gloves...
HEATON: ... and the scrub brush.
ZAHN: But the fact you came clean on the tummy tuck, kudos to you.
HEATON: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 2, 2002 - 09:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Patricia Heaton's most impressive performance is at home. She is married, with children off screen, four of them, and her life is the subject of her new book. I talked with her yesterday about her juggling act, balancing comedy, reality and family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Patricia Heaton, welcome.
PATRICIA HEATON, ACTRESS: Great to see you.
ZAHN: Thanks.
Congratulations on the success with the show.
HEATON: Yes, we've had a good week at the Emmys.
ZAHN: A good week? You had a great week.
HEATON: It will be a great week when the show wins.
ZAHN: You have something else you have been working on, "Motherhood and Hollywood," and the idea is perception versus the reality. Let's take a tight close-up there.
HEATON: Yes, I being one of the reasons that I wrote the book was to talk about what we participated in putting out there for the public to see, which is about our glamorous Hollywood lives, and the reality which is, you know, I get up in the morning and change the sheets that somebody has peed in the night before, and throw them in the laundry, make the lunches, get everybody to school and get to work. I just wanted to kind of share that with the public.
ZAHN: And you share some very personal stuff in this book. You just don't look this way naturally. You even went public with the plastic surgery you've had?
HEATON: Well, I'll tell you, Paula...
ZAHN: What compels you to do that?
HEATON: Well, I feel a certain duty. I have to say, I've seen enough actresses in magazines who in Hollywood who are known to have surgery, say they haven't had it, or they're afraid of the surgery, and I kind of think it's unfair, because I have so many moms that's come up to and said, oh my, God, I've had four C-sections also and I don't look like you. And to tell them, well, it's just natural or, you can, you know, do 1,500 sit-ups and eat lettuce and you'll look like me -- I think that's unfair.
I had a tummy tuck and I had my breasts lifted, because I nursed four very thirsty boys in quick succession. They're Irish, so they're big drinkers. I'm 44, and I feel great, and I love my boys, and I love running around with them, and my body was looking about 64. So I wanted to sort of have them meet. You'll notice, I have not mentioned my husband in any of this.
ZAHN: Not yet.
HEATON: And that's something about also in the book, about the strain of marriage and kids on marriage, and Hollywood marriages, too.
ZAHN: But you make the prediction that you all have been together for 13 years; if there is going to be a Hollywood marriage that survives, you think this is the one.
HEATON: It'll be us, because we argue all the time, we have nothing in common, we drive each other insane, and I knew going into the marriage, you know, my rule is you have to have a bit of contempt for the person you are going to marry, because that will show up within about three or four years, or certainly after you've had kids, so you should know that going in.
I mean, I did a little research on the Internet, a high-profile Hollywood couple who had recently been divorced, and I looked at the interviews that they had when they were first together.
ZAHN: And they didn't know each other?
HEATON: Well, they thought they did, but they were so in love and they are so alike, and he's my soulmate and he makes me laugh, and she's beautiful and the sex is hot. That all goes. It really goes. So you have to be in it for something other than that. So I think that's why our marriage is going to work.
In fact, we were in England one summer I found out I was pregnant with Danny, my fourth one, and my husband sort of freaked out. And the way he freaked up was to shut down. He sat in front of the TV eating biscuits and watching cricket matches for, like, three days. And I finally said, help me with the kids. I have three other kids, and we were in England in the countryside, and he kind of, like, throws a Binky to me, you know, and then keeps watching the TV, and I grabbed him by the sweater, and I said, you help me with the kids, or I'm taking them back to L.A.!
"People" magazine arrived that afternoon with us in the centerfold, "Hollywood's Happiest Couples," and I thought, you know what, people got to know the other side.
ZAHN: Contempt works.
HEATON: Contempt. It's the passion.
ZAHN: That's right.
Let's come back to your future on the show. You have got two years left on the contract, is that right?
HEATON: This is our seventh year, and I'm good for nine, yes.
ZAHN: So you have two years left on your contract, and now your partner, Ray Romano, is saying, maybe I don't know if we're going to go the distance with this?
HEATON: The integrity of the show, and he doesn't want to go too long and have it burn out, and blah, blah, blah. You know, I think it is also because Milos Foreman (ph) called right after he won the Emmy, and we're all -- and Ray can't even pronounce the guy's name.
ZAHN: He's thinking films, dreaming films.
HEATON: Dreaming films. Ray is a terrific guy, but I'm a little bit afraid he'll be getting into his private jet and flying off, and I'm going to be doing mattress commercials at 3:00 a.m.
ZAHN: I don't think so.
HEATON: You don't think so?
ZAHN: No.
HEATON: Actually what will happen is I'll get my own show. His film career will fail, and he'll be guesting on my show. That's the scenario I see. There is no resentment.
ZAHN: None at all. You were very kind to drop by. Congratulations.
HEATON: Thanks for having me.
ZAHN: I really do like the way you look, the added touch of plastic gloves...
HEATON: ... and the scrub brush.
ZAHN: But the fact you came clean on the tummy tuck, kudos to you.
HEATON: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
