What Would You Ask Maria Menounos?
- Dec 17 '19
King: Let's play a game of "If You Only Knew" Strangest fan encounter?
Helberg: Well, I got off the freeway and there was a homeless girl with a, you know, a cardboard sign and she asked for some money and I rolled down my window and then she started freaking out and she wanted me to autograph her homeless sign. I wanted to be really- I had this instinct to say "Well maybe you should sell your flat-screen TV that you watch my show on". No. I didn't know, I don't know what maybe I felt, it was very- that's when you know you're popular, when you...
King: That's a great- best part of being famous?
Helberg: Well, I like to eat so, you know, you can you can get a good reservation. And I'm Jewish, so you know I love doctors and they'll see you very
quickly.
King: That's right.
Helberg: Because you're very important and, you know-
King: Worst part about being famous?
Helberg:The worst part is probably the more, you know, it does become harder, I guess, to walk around in, on the street in with my kids and I do like to look at how strange people often are and now I have to hide.
King: Marlon Brando told me that actors are better actors when they can observe other people. When they're being observed, it's very hard.
Helberg: Yeah, it is.
King:If not acting, what would you be doing?
Helberg: Probably music, I think, yeah.
King: You'd have gone further with- you could have been a concert pianist.
Helberg: I think I could, yeah, I mean-
King: Where did you study?
Helberg: Well I only studied through high school. But I played jazz and, and that's- and I love doing that. I love playing rock and doing all them.
King: You play operatic stuff in the movie.
Helberg: For the movie I had to, I had to learn a whole new genre. Classical and opera.
King:Is there something you believed to be true, but wasn't?
Helberg: Oh, uhm-
King: You don't have to answer, it's not a courtroom.
Helberg: That- it's so sad. I like to believe in everything.
King: If you could have lunch with one person from history, who would it be and where would you take them?
Helberg: Well, I'd take, maybe, how about Jesus to Nate 'n Al's? Good? He's ultimately responsible and I know, I know- you know-
King: That would be home to him.
Helberg: I know.
King: He would know all the food.
Helberg: I would like to just thank him.
King: He would know all the food.
Helberg: He would, yeah, and I just don't know if he ever got to-
King: He would get his fill in.If you could switch places with someone for a day, who would it be?
Helberg: Switch? Geez, well it would be pretty interesting to, it would be interesting to spend a day in the life of the President, probably.
King: I bet.
Helberg: Just like to see that.
King: Best piece of advice you ever got about Hollywood?
Helberg: Somebody said in, when I was in acting school I think it was actually, might have been Frances McDormand. I think said -came into a guest classes and said, "I'm not any better at this than you people, I've just been doing it longer." And there's something very nice about that- that it's, you just put in the work.
King: Where did you grow up?
Helberg: I grew up in Los Angeles.
King: Oh, right here?
Helberg: Right here.
King: Always wanna act?
Helberg: No, I wanted to do, I wanted to do, well- multiple. I wanted to be a basketball player until I found out that I was a short white Jewish kid in Los Angeles, and then I wanted to do music and then I wanted to act when I was probably 16. I decided I, well-
King: With your impressions, did you wanna do comedy?
Helberg: Yeah, I did a lot of sketch comedy. I never wanted to really get on stage and and just talk, but I like playing characters.
King: Favorite Big Bang Theory episode?
Helberg: Ooh, there is a, well, there's one when they send me to this simulation. They send me to- I have to go to space and then there's this whole program where you we study and they drop in an airplane and I talk about what happened and vomiting and it's- it's a hilarious story about vomit.
King: Simon Helberg in 10 years?
Helberg: Ah, 10 years... I'm hopefully on the beach somewhere just lying there, roasting.
King: With residuals, as Big Bang is now in its 40th year syndication.
Helberg: Yes, exactly.