Windy City Times: Hello, Nora. I haven't talked to you in a while. Where are calling me from?
Nora Dunn: I am in L.A. Let me take my jacket off.
WCT: Must be nice. I am freezing here in your hometown of Chicago.
Nora Dunn: I have to say that I loved the blizzard. I don't like being shut in for long but I did like it.
WCT: That makes one of us. What are you doing in Los Angeles?
Nora Dunn: I am out here to audition for TV stuff and work on my theatrical reel. The guys I work with here are going to download it and put it on to DVD. Uh, oh; there is a man walking my way in pajamas. He can go from the house, to the store, then right to the red carpet!
WCT: Oh, Hollywood. Do people recognize you on the street?
Nora Dunn: Not here; they are looking for bigger fish.
WCT: This new movie you are in called Certifiably Jonathan sounds interesting. How did you get involved with it?
Nora Dunn: It turned out to be a great thing. I made it years ago back in 2007. I had a fax from my manager that two guys are making a movie with Jonathan Winters and they wanted other comedians involved in it. He is so funny. He did all that great improv and characters. I just thought he was so funny when I was little. There are a lot of comedians doing cameos but Jonathan will be the first to tell you that he works alone!
WCT: [Laughs] He is very funny.
Nora Dunn: He is not the straight man. The scene that I like of me in the movie is when I am just laughing at him.
WCT: Is it a documentary?
Nora Dunn: They have little words for these things. I guess you would call it a mockumentary. It is a documentary in a way, though. It documents his career. He is a very interesting artist. A lot of the movie is about his paintings. They animated the paintings. They are very witty and dark which is how his humor is. Then they fabricated a story where he is in a men's room in a park, a witch doctor came in and stole his sense of humor. Without his sense of humor he can't work.
WCT: There are a lot of funny people in the flick.
Nora Dunn: You know, Jonathan doesn't even need to work with anyone else. He is a human jukebox in a way. He is the originator of true improvisation. He can go from one thing to the next. You can give him a ketchup bottle. He called me one night and said he was in a refrigerator, that his wife had locked him in and was in there with all the condiments. He did a whole routine about that.
WCT: That's wacky.
Nora Dunn: They have some wonderful footage of him on the Jack Paar show where they just gave him a stick and he went with it. He is silly and crazy. That is how I describe him.
WCT: I always think of him as the son of Mork & Mindy.
Nora Dunn: I think Robin Williams is Jonathan Winters on fast forward.
WCT: Well put. You have a few movies coming out this year.
Nora Dunn: I did a fun movie with Demi Moore and Miley Cyrus called LOL. It is a remake of a French movie and the director rewrote the whole movie for America. I loved the set design. It had a European look to it. There were a lot of good shoots in the movie with really good actors. We shot it up in Detroit.
WCT: I thought they shot some of it here in Chicago.
Nora Dunn: They came down in to do some of it Illinois. I think it is set in the North Shore, in a Wilmette kind of area.
WCT: I know this because Demi went out to the gay bar Hydrate after the shooting that night.
Nora Dunn: Really? How cool! She is a great girl. I like her.
WCT: How does she stay looking so young? Must be that young boyfriend…
Nora Dunn: She is just a youthful person. She looks great. She has that gravelly sexy voice. She has a lot of spirit that one. I didn't get to work with her. We just talked. My scenes were with children.
WCT: You also did a movie called Frankie goes Boom.
Nora Dunn: I just heard today that it has a really good buzz already. I know this movie is going to be funny. It's Chris O'Dowd and Charlie Hunnam; Chris Noth is in it also. It's wild. I had to just let go. It is about an inappropriate dysfunctional family.
WCT: I heard Ron Perlman is playing a transsexual in it and had to shave off all of his body hair!
Nora Dunn: [Laughs] Yeah.
WCT: That I gotta see! Are you still doing a lot of television shows?
Nora Dunn: I did the show Psych, which I liked a lot. I was the manager of an amusement park. I also played a lawyer on The Defenders. The pinnacle of my career is that I played a judge, finally, on Harry's Law. My agent said, "It's a good role." Then I know I am in trouble! It was a thankless role.
WCT: You got to channel your inner Judge Judy?
Nora Dunn: Well, I wish. I played a judge once in a movie with Pierce Brosnan. It was really fun and a real character. When you play them on TV you just say lines like "I will hear that." And "No, you are out of order." It is not a real person. If you have a lot of talent then you can make it that. I have a lot of adversity to committing to a main character in a series. If something was great I would crave it and want it. I haven't seen too many things that I love since Glee.
WCT: I was thinking that show would be great for you.
Nora Dunn: I would like a crack at it sometime. It will be on for a while. My claim to fame is I am still working!
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