Interviewer: Start again. When did you first meet?
Amy Yasbeck: I first met Mel at a callback for Robin Hood men in tights. And I had gotten a little coaching for the for the audition that I’d done on tape from John Ritter, my boyfriend, at the time. And I was very, very silly during it. And when I came in, it was Mel and the casting director and the writer. And I was so frickin excited that it was Mel Brooks. It was like a dream come true for me. But I was, again, very kind of sassy and I can help myself. And he said at one point to me, he said, you know, I like you because you’re like Deborah Carr with little old Jewish man inside. And I said, and it won’t be you. So don’t get any ideas like that. But it really kind of took my breath away to see him in person. It was a lot like, you know, being there with Yoda for many reasons. But the fact that I was even allowed to be in the same room with them was cool. Then the fact that I was also allowed to pretend to be British and young and a virgin and buxom was good. I had a lot of things shoved in my bra.
Interviewer: Which was then coaching that John gave you on like the right. The right coaching for what?
Amy Yasbeck: Absolutely. Because I said to John, okay, here is the script. I’m the casting call. Went out for 20 year old blonde British buxom Virgin. So after they had seen those two people don’t exist. They started opening it up to other people. And so I said, how can I make this money and still be silly? And. And John just said, it’s Mel Brooks. Have a ball. This is it. Imagine you were at a dinner party and you got drunk enough to, like, tell a joke to Mel Brooks how it would be. And so I did very many silly things with holding the little birdie on my finger. Made Mary in holes. And then pretending it pooped on me and things. And then magically that was in the script. But it was absolutely the right whatever for the audition on camera. But then to be in the same room with them, it was a little daunting. But he made me very comfortable.
Interviewer: So once you started filming it, did you. How. At now, so many years later, how would you qualify him differing from other directors you’ve worked with? I’ll just interrupt you.
Amy Yasbeck: No, no, no.
Interviewer: Because the reason why I’m asking is because I’ve interviewed for example, I interviewed David Lynch yesterday because Mel produced The Elephant Man, who I interviewed Richard Benjamin, who ended my favorite year. I it to be quite honest, I was shocked that those were those people’s big first time big movie.
Amy Yasbeck: Right.
Interviewer: Major studio films. He didn’t even go on set. He did not go on set. He just go do what you do. And I was pretty surprised because he likes to be in charge of stuff.
Amy Yasbeck: Yeah.
Interviewer: So you tell me what being directed by him was like.
Amy Yasbeck: Well, up until that point. And it’s mostly comedy and comedy movies and TV that I had done. And there’s always that thing where the director goes, honey, you know, it would be funny if you and you have to go, OK? And you think, OK, that’s funny. That’s that’s funny. Do it in a funny way. But with Mel, he just brings the just the look on his face as he’s walking over to you. You’re just like. Just give it to me. They’re like it was like gold. Most of the time. And then sometimes he’d come over and go do a better and walk away just like, OK. And then one time he actually got really super frustrated with me. And it was almost like my like a dad being disappointed. It was like really, really hard. I like that. I called John and I’m like, I don’t know if I can do this. John came to the set. I was like. And he wasn’t trying to be crappy. It was because he knew exactly how it was supposed to look. And it was Dracula dead and loving it. And Leslie Nielsen and I were supposed to be doing a tango, but we had these dance doubles that were fantastic and did it. And then I just had to recreate the tiniest little bit of, like, lady like dancing with like girlishness. And I really that’s really not me. And was just two seconds. And I couldn’t do it the way that Mel had in his head. And he just kept going, oh, honey, take off his hat and throw it on the ground. And I was like, this is the worst day of my life. Then somehow he edited it together and it looked broken. And he liked me like right up until then and then right after that scene and then forever. But during those times, it was like when you really admire someone, I was really freaked out. But mostly he just yelled at the guys. He never yelled at me. As a matter of fact, during Robin Hood, men in tights. Once in a while, he would get really frustrated at the men in tights, the merry men, and be directing them like he was a sergeant in the army with, you know, like like he is. And they would like Dave Chappelle go, could you go sit by him? Because I would kind of sit by him and distract him and talk to him and make him tell me stories. And it would call him down in theory.
Interviewer: Is it because they were being rowdy and not paying attention because he wanted a certain thing?
Amy Yasbeck: I think maybe for him it clicks in because when he was in the military, he was in charge of a bunch of people with lives at stake. Didn’t show business is not unlike that. But I think it was when he’s with a like in the big group, because we were out in Antelope Valley, which he called Cantaloupe Valley, because I’d put on my giant Bronnie go, here we are, Kilbey. But when we get when we would be out there, he would have to be on a megaphone yelling at these actors and they were good. They were wanting to, you know, please him. But just every once in a while he would lose it. Kind of make me like a more. That’s real.
Interviewer: The did he let you or the other actors improv, huh?
Amy Yasbeck: He definitely in rehearsals there would be things we would like mess around a little bit, especially I think in in Robin Hood, because just, you know, Richard Lewis and we would just and Dave Chappelle and you just gotta like a little goofy. And then sometimes that would make its way into there. But basically, no, we would do we would do the scene and then he would tell us how to make it funnier and we would do it. Maybe that’s just me.
Interviewer: The what was the difference? Did was there any difference between working with him on Robin Hood and Dracula?
Amy Yasbeck: The difference between Robin Hood men in tights and Dracula is I didn’t have to audition, which is great. I was at the Souplantation and I got a phone call. It’s very exciting. But I think the difference for me was I got to do Dracula with my good friend Stephen. Who I had just done with the TV series for a year, so it was Verrett. There was a lot more of me cracking up and stuff, and that was good, like for the first couple times. And then it would just get really. And then you would throw Harvey Korman into the mix. There’s a scene where Harvey Korman comes in and catches Steve like on his knees with his hands on me. And it’s this whole big wacky mix up. And every time Harvey Korman would come in and just he would like fun. And then either Steve or I would pick our pants and that Mel did not appreciate them.
Interviewer: What would you say? I mean, you had a rhythm probably going with Stephen, but working with Harvey. Was there a sort of a almost like a chiropractic adjustment you had to do to get into that kind of rhythm? Just fell into it?
Amy Yasbeck: I, I think. And Mel has told me that part of the reason that he would get the groups of people that he did together and he would kind of like hear a rhythm in the way we talk and talk to each other and cut each other off and talk over each other. And he liked that. I think that’s part of of just his troupe of actors that you would work with. And it is surprising how we all just started talking like Mel Brooks on the set in, you know, in differing British accents, fake as mine was, but kind of doing Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner talking to each other because it’s kind of written that way a lot of times and stuff. And so you would get that feel for it and would just kind of keep going.
Interviewer: Did he? I mean, I’m sure it’s on the credits that it’s having. Did they get you a dialect, that dialect coach here?
Amy Yasbeck: He yes. There was a dialect coach for Robin Hood, men in tights, and they carry it. I mean, everybody was was Brit. I mean, Richard Lewis did not even try. Which is fine. I would like to. I tried it and he liked Mel. Always his favorite thing. When he sees me, he always goes, Oh, I’m so happy. That’s apparently how I made Mary said, I’m so happy as I’m so happy. And he goes, Is that how you think British people talk? I’m like, I think so. You just go with it. So he would just kind of let me do my version of the Cincinnati version of how British people talk, because at the end of the day and at the end of the movie, we know it’s all show business.
Interviewer: He was there when you were doing Dracula didn’t loving it. Was there any pressure? Is not the right word. But was. Were you? All of you are. Where are you and Stephen aware that it’s. Oh, this is kind of a follow up to Young Frankenstein, kind of. Ah, a companion piece to unfranked in St..
Amy Yasbeck: Well, I remember when they were building the set. It was before it started. And my my my brother Jane, his girlfriend came out and I said, do you want to go, like, see the SAT? No. Let me go over to Culver City, look at the set. And I remember when I walked in and I saw, like, that big staircase and stuff. It was so Young Frankenstein. And I just went, holy crap, because that was not only was that one of my favorite movies of all time was the first movie I’d seen as a grown up. I mean, I think I was 13, but like by myself in a movie theater and laughing at jokes I didn’t quite get yet. And then, like through the years, watching over and over and over. And so there was like a little bit of that pressure. But then I thought this is like a whole new thing. And it’s Leslie Nielsen, which is a whole whole new thing. You know, it’s more. Wacky. But for me, the pressure of Dracula dead and loving it is. I never say I won’t do this and I won’t do that. I mean, nudity. No, I don’t do it. There is no nudity. But I said I really don’t want to lay down in a coffin. I don’t think I can, like, lay all the way down. And he goes, we’ll put a pillow. There’ll be an angle. I’m like, no, I think I won’t have to have my hand, like, somehow outside of it. And don’t close the litanies like it. You’ll be fine. But he knew I was scared about it. And when I came with my brother and was looking at the set, there was somebody like following me around and kind of like I would be standing and just kind of leaning. And I realized that there was somebody with a thing measuring me for my coffin behind me. And it was really scary. So I had pressures about doing a scary movie because I’m kind of a chicken.
Interviewer: But you did it.
Amy Yasbeck: Yes, I did it. But I did. If you watch me, I lay down and my hand is kind of like, oh, at all times. Not dead yet. Not quite dead yet. Very scary.
Interviewer: Do you have a particular favorite scene.
Amy Yasbeck: In which one?
Interviewer: In both. Both. But start with Dracula.
Amy Yasbeck: Stupid. But my my favorite scene in Dracula is I’m supposed to be in bed, but Dracula hypnotizes me and I have to, like, stand up and walk across the room, hypnotized. And Mel, let me do my own stunt, which was there was this autumn in which I now have in my house because Mel sells all the props to people because I’m not saying. But. So I had to, like, trip like fall over it and really do it. And he really let me go for it. And he trusted me. And it looks OK, but like a real big old pratfall because he knows the difference. And so that’s my favorite scene because it was a lot of him whispering in my ear and and telling me I was wonderful as opposed to cut two days later, I couldn’t do the dancing and he yelled at me. But we love him.
Interviewer: And then in Robin Hood, men in tights.
Amy Yasbeck: In Robin Hood, men in tights. My favorite scene in Robin Hood, Men in Tights, is when Carrie, as Robin Hood sings to me, standing next to the tree, the night is young and you are so beautiful and lip syncs to me because he’s so goofy. And Mel was right there. I could kind of see him mouthing along with it being Robin Hood. So I was pretending. Sorry, Carrie, that it was Mel singing to me. But here’s why I want to tell you, because I’m gay. When I went on that audition for four Robin Hood for the for the would you call it like on camera audition without Mel in the room just for the casting director and the film. In those days film, I really did. I was very young and very skinny and very flat. And I she was supposed to have boobs. It said so in the script. I mean, everybody was. But I clearly it was like I didn’t. And so I stuffed all kind of things in my bra, like anything that came in pairs. There were literally like socks and gloves and everything and like, squeezed myself together. And so then I had to recreate that when I got. I was so afraid, like, you know, something was going to fall out like a shoe or something, and it didn’t. But then when I got the phone call from Mel, from Mel Brooks at my house that I got the part, it was he goes, don’t don’t leave town, don’t cut your hair. And I said, what does that mean? He goes, You’ve got the part kid. Like, Yeah. And he goes, OK, we got to talk about something. There’s no nudity. And I went, Right. He goes, but there might be some. We’re just going to see the side. Maybe like the sign of what side of your bosom when you stand up. You can have on the chastity belt, we might see the side. And I said, I have to tell you something. You don’t think they have sides? He’s like a guy. How are you gonna do this? So we literally I lied to him and I’ve told him since that I had lied to him. I’d done a movie a long time ago where I played a mermaid. Don’t look it up. Horrible. And they had, like, created bosoms for me. So I told him that I knew how to do that technology. And I knew the person who’d. I couldn’t remember anything. But we created, like, fake boobs to go over my boobs. So maid Marian, all that pausing that all the boys were doing on their VHS, they nothing was real.
Interviewer: Nice.
Amy Yasbeck: Thank you. So sad. Now real.
Interviewer: What? What do you think you learned from working with him. He took you for one second, Charlie and Brooke. Are you going outside for call girls? I mean, with that door shut.
Amy Yasbeck: What was the name of the movie that Carl did that was like Fatal Attraction? Ask Carl what the name of that movie was.
Interviewer: Dead men don’t wear plaid. And.
Amy Yasbeck: With Sean, I think was with Sean Young. Maybe.
Interviewer: I have my computer.
Amy Yasbeck: It’s curious, does it just really.
Interviewer: Drew? Can you grab my laptop from from the room?
Amy Yasbeck: Would be like 90 or 80 not. No. Like 92 or 93. It was called something. Something it was kind of like a spoofer fatal attraction.
Interviewer: I had to I went to her house and sat down at a shooter, actually, for InStyle.
Amy Yasbeck: Who was she.
Interviewer: Truly out of her mind?
Amy Yasbeck: No, I know she goes to. But she would pick up her kid at Redwood Arts Center when I was taking class there. And it was just like her eyeballs were even going in the same direction.
Interviewer: She she we brought that really good friend. My was makeup artist, you know, to do it. And we were there for two days and she would say, Hey, makeup girl, come here and.
Amy Yasbeck: You kidding me.
Interviewer: After, like, the third hour, my launching with you smoking outside and she’d stub it out on her porch like that. Bernhart is like, I don’t care.
Amy Yasbeck: She was probably lucky she didn’t spit in her.
Interviewer: The man with two brains. Now,.
Amy Yasbeck: Now.
Interviewer: Gosh.
Amy Yasbeck: Keep going.
Interviewer: Free to be the new Dick Van Dyke Show. Free to be you and me. The two thousand yo man that Flanary and Cuil Desmond overplant. Bert Rigby or for Alan Brady show Dick Van Dyke we visited.
Amy Yasbeck: These are not movies. You’ve got to go in the movies.
Interviewer: Oh, you’re right. It’s writer. How so?
Amy Yasbeck: All right.
Interviewer: That old fatal instinct.
Amy Yasbeck: That’s it.
Interviewer: OK. Is that. Was that have anything to do with what you did?
Amy Yasbeck: Yes. What was Basic Instinct was that the movie with.
Interviewer: Michael Douglas and with China?
Amy Yasbeck: Oh yeah. Because I think he yeah. He may even, like, have shot to a a thing. And there’s a picture of a beaver. I forget was funny little instinct. That’s right.
Interviewer: So the question is, what did you learn from about.
Amy Yasbeck: I learned from Mel Brooks just to do what he says and nobody gets hurt. Which is really important when you trust someone. And very few, you know, directors or human beings in life. You would give that much control to. But to Mel. Yes. But what I learned from Mel is don’t go run and hide in your dressing room. In between, there’s so much to learn just by being on a set and watching everybody’s job. Everybody’s job, not getting all up in their business, not violating any union rules, but just to really watch and observe how the professionals comport themselves on a set. And this is because as silly as you can be, it all falls apart if you don’t take your job seriously and you get in the way of the other professionals who are doing making you look like a princess, literally. Also, when we were doing Robin Hood men in tights on the Warner Brothers set in Hollywood, Carl Reiner was shooting next door. Fatal Instinct, which was a kind of a comedy kind of like Fatal Instinct, basic whatever. And they would come and sit and sit. And I just was like a lap dog and just listen and absorb all this history of what we do. You can’t just show up and be a kid. I was 30 when I did. I wasn’t a kid. But he can’t just show up and invent show business. You’ve really got to realize that all these guys built it to the point where you are and you just kind of an an honor to get a job in the first place in this business. But to work with these guys who invented it, you know, the two thousand year old directors.
Interviewer: Anything else that you want to say?
Amy Yasbeck: I will say it was it was very funny as as excited as I was to be working with Mel Brooks. And it never kind of waned for me. But the coolest thing is when Anne Bancroft came to the set, because she’s my idol and, you know, as dressed as maid Marian and Meryl, Chastity was just ridiculous. And she came in. I didn’t know she was there. And I walked up behind them and there was this, you know, beautiful silhouette, man and woman. And then it was Mel and his wife. And as I walked around, he said, Hey, me, this is my wife, Anne Bancroft Hall name. And I went. Nice to meet you. And apparently I genuflected like I was in mass. Like I just went full on Catholic school girl, like she was the Mother Superior. I’m like, it’s very nice to meet you. And she was like, Right. That’s how I felt. And just being around them together, I kind of just changed my overall view of how that kind of relationship can work. They loved the crap out of each other and supported each other. But really, there was so many things that were just exactly like about them. But they were two completely separate human beings. I don’t know how they pulled that off. There are wonderful couple.
Interviewer: These two movies you made for him, they have a real enduring appeal.
Amy Yasbeck: Do they now.
Interviewer: Well, I’m not saying that just I. I mean, it keeps.
Amy Yasbeck: My shoe fell off. And the ADD sets in. sets in, go of.
Interviewer: Is it the nice thing? I mean, kids keep.
Amy Yasbeck: It’s it’s a little crazy because Robin Hood, Men in Tights is on TV all the time. And somebody sent me a thing of some high school talent show or something, and it was a bunch of guys dressed in tights going where men remain in tights and dancing and the audience like singing along. And this is like from last year. I’m like, what? And so I went, Oh, that’s cute. And then when I looked at it on YouTube, on the computer, I don’t know what I’m doing it. That happens a lot. I mean, all over the world, people like recreate scenes in there. So cool. And for talent shows from Robin Hood, men in tights. What it’s like The Wizard of Oz. Are you kidding me? Very excited. Never any of the made Marian scenes. It’s just always the men in tights. But whatever. I have.
