Nora Dunn first cracked up audiences on the show Saturday Night Live with her impersonations from Liza Minnelli to Ann Landers. She has continued a long career on television with recent roles on Private Practice and Entourage. She bounces back and forth with the cinema as well with Pineapple Express and It's Complicated. By phone we talked Nunn on Dunn.
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!
Certifiably Jonathan plays for a short engagement at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, from Feb. 18 through Feb. 24. Tickets may be purchased at www.siskelfilmcenter.org or by calling Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787.
