Q.  What made you want to be a part of the show?

Anne Meara:  Because they asked us to be on it.

Jerry Stiller:  Actors are always looking for somebody to call and say...

Anne Meara:  That's my husband.  I know. We're in different rooms; we seldom speak to each other.

Jerry Stiller:  ...out there in the world today and present and accounted for. Does that make any sense to

you?

Anne Meara:  No, nothing you say makes sense Jerry. We're very happy to be on the show. We heard

about it, we saw a couple of the episodes and you know, the nice - one of the nicest thing about it was

that we live in Manhattan and Mercy, this show, is taped in Secaucus, New Jersey so it's on the East

Coast.

Jerry Stiller:  And (Pisaque).

Anne Meara:  Secaucus and (Pisaque), sorry, sorry you're right baby.

Jerry Stiller:  Yes I went to (Pisaque) after...

Anne Meara:   I know...

Jerry Stiller:  ...you died.

Anne Meara:  Well you had one more scene than I did.

Jerry Stiller:  You didn't die, no, you lived didn't you on the show?

Anne Meara:  I did not die in the show; what's the matter with you?

Jerry Stiller:  Just, I'm trying to recall - I thought you died, I went into the chapel...

Anne Meara:  You know when I died? When we both died in Cleveland when we played there when we were young.

Jerry Stiller:  Now you're going back into - and we did some good work too somewhere else.

Anne Meara:  Yes we did great work.

Q.  Yes, I was wondering what you found challenging about the role?

Anne Meara:  Challenging? Listen, at our age getting up in the morning is a challenge. No, I didn't find anything challenging, you know why

because everyone there knows what they're doing. And the actors are good; they're young and they're really good. And it was a pleasure

to work with them. And who was the guy - what was his name the director, Jerry, Larry?

Jerry Stiller:  Larry (Trilling), was his name.

Anne Meara:  He was hot stuff; we loved him.

Jerry Stiller:  And what is challenging in some way is the fact that you can get up and get doing what you have to do and go through the

material which you've already gone through in your real life and just have to recall it. Everything that we were doing in that show that took

place in that hospital we've all been experienced in some way. And now...

Anne Meara:  No, I never had a stroke; what's the matter with you?

Jerry Stiller:  I’m not talking - about people we know, people who are around us, people - relatives and friends who have gone and so the

challenge is to bring back all of that stuff in a way that is meaningful to the audience and the people understand it and not to clown around

with it and to make it real.

Anne Meara:  We didn't clown around with it, we made it real. But I want to tell you they had great caterers there too. I loved lunch.

Q.  What was your most memorable moment you had from filming the scenes?

Anne Meara:  Just hanging out with my husband and having him enjoy working with me. He likes working with me; he adores me.

Jerry Stiller:  The best moment in any kind of a thing is when you finished the last scene and the crew and the grips and everybody, the

makeup people, say he's finished now, let's give him a nice big hand, you know, and they're - everybody claps. And if they call clap and

they all look at you and they smile you know you did good, that's it.

Q.  And why do you think people continue to watch Mercy?

Anne Meara:  I don't know you'd have to interview all of them to find the answer, I think it's myriad reasons.

Jerry Stiller:  Well it's a new show but I hear that it's been picked up so there must be something...

Anne Meara:  It's picked up for nine more which is terrific.

Jerry Stiller:  But I think that the characters in the show have some very meaningful things, the two people that are in it one is a - one of the

nurses was just come back from Vietnam - I'm sorry...

Anne Meara:  No, Iraq.

Jerry Stiller:  Iraq - I put...

Anne Meara:  What's the matter with you?

Jerry Stiller:  Well they're both the same in my...

Anne Meara:  No it's not the same. Bad wars.

Jerry Stiller:  Maybe in my feelings. Okay so she comes back from Iraq and while she was...

Anne Meara:  My feelings too actually. Go ahead.

Jerry Stiller:   May I? While she was there she met a guy who was a medic, a doctor, and they had had an affair. And she was already

married. And he and her suddenly are rejoined at the hospital. Some way or the other he gets shipped - after he finishes his tour in Iraq

comes back to the hospital and there the two of them are back together again and they've had this connection.

And in Iraq a love moment in which they are literally falling in love but she's married and living in a marriage that's not going too well. The

guy is just a plain guy and real life guy trying to make a go of it. That's one of the dramas.

Anne Meara:  Well that's the back story. But our characters don't have all that dish; we don't know all that stuff.

Jerry Stiller:  I picked up on a lot of things while you were lying there in a coma.

Anne Meara:  Oh please I wasn't in a coma, I had a mini-stroke.

Jerry Stiller:  Had a mini stroke - he came in - would you believe this - she came in...

Anne Meara:  Oh my God.

Jerry Stiller:  ...and he walks out with a stroke. Now what else can you ask for in terms of real life drama and life today?

Anne Meara:  The thing that's fun is we're celebrating our wedding anniversary, like our...

Jerry Stiller:  Today is supposed to be...

Anne Meara:   ...125th wedding anniversary.

Jerry Stiller:  Have trout almandine, do a (park) strut and do a wah-wah-woo.

Anne Meara:  Yeah, trout almandine, yeah, it's good. And...

Jerry Stiller:  We're trying to keep that date but this is happening - the accident, her having the hip problem when she falls or - how did you

get that hip problem Anne? Was there a...

Anne Meara:  What hip problem?

Jerry Stiller:  You fell and then you broke your hip and you had to go in and get a hip replacement.

Anne Meara:  I think it was probably from you and me making love in the closet or something.

Jerry Stiller:   Oh my gosh.

Q.  Did they come to you all and ask you to be in the show as a package deal or did they come to one of you and then the other kind of

tagged along or what?

Anne Meara:  I don't know. Jerry, did they come to you first or what?

Jerry Stiller:  But they came to you first.

Anne Meara:  Well you're the hottest one; you're the more visible.

Jerry Stiller:  Well they came to both of us at the same time.

Anne Meara:  I think they wanted us both to do it, you know, married couple plays married couple. What a stretch, you know.

Jerry Stiller:  I'm trying to - who else could they have gotten, I mean, God...

Anne Meara:  You mean everybody else is dead.

Q.  ...and thought it was a really funny piece of casting, you know. Can you tell the story about how you all met and teamed up?

Anne Meara:  Oh sure. We met in an agent's office. In real life we're married - what are we married - 56 years, yeah, 1953 we were

married.

Q.  So you were saying you all met in 1953? How did you all meet?

Jerry Stiller:  What you really want to go into this?

Anne Meara:  No we don't want to go into it. We just met in an agent's office. He took me out for coffee and he was very impressed ...that

I wanted to pay for my own coffee.

Jerry Stiller:  Yeah but she said to me when I asked - offered to pay for the coffee she says forget the coffee just stick some silverware in

your pocket and let's get the hell out of here.

Anne Meara:  That's right, it was a cafeteria and I lived in the Village, me and my roommate (Joyce). And we needed some spoons and

forks and things, you know.

Jerry Stiller:  Yeah. In those days actors lost forks and spoons; it was...

Anne Meara:  Those days people didn't have zip, you know.

Jerry Stiller:  Anyway...

Anne Meara:  Everyone has their poverty stories but...

Jerry Stiller:  But six months later we were married believe it or not.

Anne Meara:  Right and we got married because I said I wouldn't let me sleep over anymore.

Jerry Stiller:   Oh we don't want to hear - this is a...

Anne Meara:  It's 1953, you know.

Anne Meara:  I'm glad we're in different rooms; you know we're in different rooms David? I refuse to be in the same room with him. Go

ahead.

Q.  The reason I brought it up was because your (unintelligible) playing a married couple so I just wanted to see where it goes.

Anne Meara:  No you're right. I'm just talking about him, God.

Q.  How do you feel in the roles you played; it's serious, it's very real to a couple like the both of who married a long time, aging together,

facing health issues. My biggest question is does it put any fear that, you know, or reality in your lives, what can happen to a couple that

maybe you never think about?

Jerry Stiller:  Let me put it this way the answer to that question is very simply, we've died many times on stage. And there's nothing worse

than dying in front of an audience so that anything you're going to experience later on has really been - we've already dress rehearsal-ed all

this stuff so there's actually no fear or trepidation about it except that we've been there, we know what is happening and we also have been

around people - close family, friends, go through stuff and we've watched all of this so we replicate it.

But actors are funny, I would say for myself that I look at it as a kind of a chance to go another step in my life. If I can go a little deeper by

finding the essence of what's happening when people are not doing too well in their life right now that...

Anne Meara:  I act much simpler than Jerry; he does a whole back story, I don't do any of that crap.

Anne Meara:  No.

Jerry Stiller:  The biggest thing - what I'm dealing with right now is when we think about health issues today you have to think about what's

going on in terms of dealing with this stuff, in terms of the government taking care of people who are not doing too well or have problems

with insurance and stuff of that nature.

And fighting for really a chance to have something as close to - I hate to use the word single pair - but single pair is the answer.

Anne Meara:  I don't hesitate to use it - but the only people the government is taking care of are the senators and the congressmen; they get

a free healthcare for the rest of their lives.

Jerry Stiller:  They try to put a thing called socialized medicine like this but socialized medicine my foot. If you go to France and you get

sick, if you go to Germany and you get sick, Denmark and Switzerland, if you have a problem with a hernia you can walk off the street and

walk in and get your hernia fixed. Or anything of that nature and there's no big deal about.

They've made so much of this country is really corrupted. I call it right now when they talk about the death tax and everything, I think, you

know, in terms of dealing with this life they trickle down euthanasia, that's what we're talking about. And really we have to really deal with

stuff.

So when I do a role and Anne and I both are doing roles that take place in Mercy Hospital.  So anywhere when we're doing stuff that

takes place in a hospital it's so easy to kind of identify with what's happening outside. And in our own lives, you know, we're not spring

chickens as they say so we go through life but actors never are supposed to talk about how bad they're doing or they're feeling bad or sick.

Anne Meara:  No we're lucky, we're one of the lucky ones. There's an awful lot of people...

Jerry Stiller:  That's our job.

Anne Meara:  ...that are literally screwed from...

Jerry Stiller:  What was the question?

Anne Meara:  ...from the healthcare. I mean, they don't even get to do - go to fake hospitals, we were in a fake hospital.  We have fake

diseases.  Yeah, yeah. I mean my coma or whatever it was it cleared up by the third act because it was, you know...

Q.  It was a miracle place.

Anne Meara:  It was a miracle. It was, you know...

Q.  How do you feel playing serious versus the bantering that you're so used to doing with each other?

Anne Meara:  Well the bantering is what we do talking to you here but, I mean, we loved our parts, we loved the words we had to say.

And it was - we're actors, we've always been actors even when we did improvisational theater when we were young and...

Q.  Right.

Anne Meara:  ...sketch comedy. We were always actors. We acted for (Joe Pabb) doing Shakespeare in Central Park and down at the

Public Theater. So just relating as two human beings who are at - toward the - closer to the third act of their lives not the first was very

simple to do.

Jerry Stiller:  But the banter for us was always serious. I mean, what came across as banter and funny to the audience was always

something that came out of something that was really - really it was on our minds. And because we came from different points of view and

came out funny.

But so the idea of doing a serious role, you know, in a way it's a lot easier because there's no obligation to get a laugh...talking to David

Niven, he was dying and the question was said to him is it tough right now? He said comedy is harder.

Q.  Both of you in your careers have had regular roles on series as well as a lot of guest roles. At this pint in your career would you want to

do another regular role or is that, you know, just too demanding?

Jerry Stiller:  I could do any roles right now. We are...

Anne Meara:  I'd love to do a regular role on television.

Jerry Stiller:  Because - look we're actors. And, you know,

Anne Meara:  I'd love Jerry to do a regular role again because he would always get them to hire me too.

Jerry Stiller:  Well I just did a regular role in...

Anne Meara:   Because I was sleeping with one of the stars I always got on that way.

Jerry Stiller:  Well as I was saying I just did a very interesting role in a movie in England called Swinging with the Finkels. And it was a story

about a husband and wife who they're very upscale and he's close to Cambridge and she's a fashion designer.

And they have two friends and their sex life is kind of going down after 15 years. And they decide in a very positive way to save their

marriage swinging. You know what the word swinging is?

Anne Meara:  Yeah, Jerry, please.

Q.  I do.

Jerry Stiller:  Okay so I played a psychologist - my wife and I - coming to England and our daughter, Mandy Moore, was going through

this kind of oh I guess...

Anne Meara:  Why are you plugging the movie? We're talking about NBC and the show Mercy. What's the matter with you?

Jerry Stiller:  Anyway they worked out their problems and the movie will probably arrive here...

Anne Meara:  They don't care about Swinging with the Finkels, please.

Jerry Stiller:  Anyway it all ties in because right after I did that somebody called and said to Anne and myself you've got a job on Mercy.

So I think one job sometimes does help you get another job. Does that any questions?

Q.  And I wonder what advice would you give to people who are just breaking into the business to have the kind of longevity you've had

or does it come down to luck?

Anne Meara:  I would......never presume to give anyone advice. I've lived to be an old lady and I think when people give advice they're full

of it; they should shut the hell up.

Jerry Stiller:  I'll give you my opinion...

Anne Meara:  Oh yeah because you do, you just do that and you're wrong.

Jerry Stiller:  I was about to.

Anne Meara:  Yeah.

Jerry Stiller:  But the answer to - my particular - and I think it's almost impossible to do is you have to love the work and not the glitz. And

if you love the work it will take you to wherever it will take you whether it's stardom or to a place in your life that you never dreamed

possible and it may change your career. You may become a psychologist or a ...

You say hey, this acting is nothing; it doesn't mean anything but if you love what you do in terms of theater you have to say to yourself when

one thing doesn't work the next thing might work. If you have that kind of determination or if you have that kind of need I call it, almost...

Anne Meara:  Well if somebody is looking for a given, something, you know, just the fact that you have to ask that question...

Jerry Stiller:  What?

Anne Meara:  ...I would think you're not - it's not important for you to be in this business. You don't have to ask us that question or our

advice. You don't need advice, you have strong desire, you'll pursue it, you'll study, you'll learn and you'll do it.

Jerry Stiller:  I think it's a very good question.

Anne Meara:  I don't.

Jerry Stiller:  And I think you ought to just understand what the question was.

Anne Meara:  Well that's what makes horse races. I disagree with you Jerry Stiller.

Q.  And Anne are you in the new Sex in the City movie?

Anne Meara:  Am I - no. I was in the last one but the scene was cut.  I was in it but Michael Patrick Gaines is our dear friend and he wrote

the scene and he called me up and he said I got to have to cut it because it doesn't, you know, it really did not propel the whatever. But

when I was on the TV show he wrote all those scenes and I loved working with Cynthia Nixon and David Eigenberg. Anyway.