With a Wink and a Toke

Or a terrifying sign.

Either one, yeah. I don't know, it's a pretty good life we live, we actors. I wouldn't mind if she became one.

I have never heard an actor say that about their child.

I confess that I poached that from [comedienne] Andrea Martin, who I met doing a benefit. She's right. It's sort of this popular idea to roll our eyes and say "God I hope she doesn't become an actor." But we have such a great life! I've seen the whole country. I hang out with people who sing and dance. A former therapist of mine told me that people who sing every day are statistically happier. It's just a happy bunch of people, and it's a creative outlet and I wouldn't mind at all if that's what she wanted to do. I'm not going to push her into Pampers commercials, though.

NEWSWEEK recently did a Q&A with Gene Wilder who said that comedians are like needy children.

I would agree with that. "SNL" drew its own kind of damage. There's an amazing Herculean athletic discipline to comedy, it depends on the person. I do think that our era of "SNL" tended to draw a few more comedic actors than comedians, per se, so the crazy factor was slightly dissipated. But on the whole it's not the healthiest bunch of people. In the movie, we all were obsessed with "Young Frankenstein," we were all camp obsessed. It's funny that you talked to Gene Wilder, because our goal was to have it be somewhere between "Evita" and Mel Brooks. Hopefully we achieved it.