I have great instincts, like the instincts of a squirrel. You know, like when you’re driving and a squirrel stops in the middle of the road.
Simon Helberg
Being an accompanist is very selfless in many ways because you’re really just trying to elevate the singer and help them shine, ultimately.
Simon Helberg
I walked into the wrong examination room. I’m bad enough at facial recognition… I saw more that day than I cared to. Fortunately, I didn’t recognize her from that angle, whoever it was, and I didn’t ask. I’m off to a rocky start on the road to fatherhood, but I got a free view.
Simon Helberg
My whole life revolved around TV as a kid. I would come home and make sure I finished my homework every night by 8 o’clock, generally so that I could sit down and watch TV from 8 to 10. As a kid, it was ‘Family Ties’ and ‘Roseanne’ and ‘Growing Pains’ and ‘Perfect Strangers’ and ‘Golden Girls.’ I mean, I watched everything.
Simon Helberg
I’ve learned over time that human beings tend to want to do more than they have the courage to do or that the social contract will allow them to do.
Simon Helberg
When you see someone putting themselves out there, particularly when you see someone is failing and failing so passionately, it brings up this bittersweet connection to our mortality.
Simon Helberg
Getting to know where we come from is a really profound way of getting to look at who we are.
Simon Helberg
There’s a lot of closeted nerds out there.
Simon Helberg
Well, I think that everybody is kind of a nerd at heart.
Simon Helberg
I don’t believe I’ll be in the new ‘Arrested Development’ unless they ask me, in which case, okay! That’s how easy I am to get.
Simon Helberg
We’re going to do a natural birth. At first she was like, ‘We should do it at home,’ and I said, ‘Look, either way, when you go into labor, I will be checking into a hospital… so if you want to come along, come along.
Simon Helberg
I thought it was going to be a hut in Topanga and Janis Joplin was going to come out, but it’s a real doctor… I went to Beverly Hills to meet this midwife; you’d think they’d be in nature.
Simon Helberg
I’m married, so I tend not to hit on every girl.
Simon Helberg
I actually struggled through teaching myself to cook because I’m completely ignorant in the kitchen. So I did really macho things like trying to make my own curry. Really hardcore stuff.
Simon Helberg
I wouldn’t wear turtlenecks. That I’m not envious of. But who knows? I might sneak out a few things and hope and pray that no one says, ‘Hey, didn’t you wear that when you were playing an enormous geek on TV?’
Simon Helberg
Actually, when I was young, I believe I met Nicolas Cage. I think I was probably eight, and I remember seeing him at somebody’s house – it was an event and he happened to be there. People would ask me if I was his son, because I looked like him at that point, so I do remember feeling some connection and just wanting to say, like, ‘Papa!’
Simon Helberg
There are those moments where you realize that your parents or your heroes are human and are fallible.
Simon Helberg
We all have those dreams of going back in time and seeing what it was like when our parents were younger.
Simon Helberg
As actors, we tend to usually have some issues with self-esteem and some need for validation, and it takes awhile for that fear of not having a job to go away.
Simon Helberg
I think that everybody is kind of a nerd at heart.
Simon Helberg
I own a fart CD. It has, I believe, over 100 fart sounds. A lovely variety, from the up-close and personal to the more experimental and dissonant. Some people prefer to listen to Bach when they go to sleep… not me.
Simon Helberg
Working is a bonus; working on something you love is a bonus, and getting to do it for a long time is the ultimate.
Simon Helberg
I think working for the audience, for me, is the most fun. It’s really a chance for something to work towards. It’s where everything kind of comes together, and you have to make it work. You have all these people who are sitting there, wanting to have a good time and wanting to laugh. You really have no choice but to pull it out.
Simon Helberg
I enjoy spending my spare time with my wife, our cat, and our bird.
Simon Helberg
Until I was about 16 years old, my dream was to be a musician. I played in rock bands and jazz bands. Then I decided to be an actor and kept the stable career of ‘jazz pianist’ as my safety net.
Simon Helberg
I try to act with my whole body and, for better or worse, this is the face that’s attached to it.
Simon Helberg
Playing piano well is one thing, but attempting to play at concert level accompanying Meryl Streep while Stephen Frears is filming you in front of hundreds of people is – well – psychotic.
Simon Helberg
I might love dancing more than I should admit. But not in public.
Simon Helberg
I’m deeply insecure. I ask my wife all the time, ‘Was that OK? Are people lying?’ I’m not as happily oblivious as I’d like.
Simon Helberg
In America, the first thing people say is, ‘What do you do?’
Simon Helberg
Stephen Frears is brilliant and has made movies that inspired me for my whole life.
Simon Helberg
Surprise is a huge element in acting.
Simon Helberg
I’m happy to try on as many characters as I can.
Simon Helberg
I watched a lot of ‘I Love Lucy.’ Then I went to college, and I didn’t watch TV, really. I don’t know: something happened after ‘Friends’ went off the air. I think something dipped in the whole sitcom world.
Simon Helberg
I’d say I’m really, really good for a 16-year-old, which is where I peaked. I’m impressive, but not classically trained, not a concert pianist.
Simon Helberg
I think in terms of a career trajectory, it’s good for people to be reminded that, in spite of seeing me a million times a day on a show for ten years playing the same character, I’m an actor, and actors like to play different people.
Simon Helberg
I don’t think Hollywood respects multi-camera television. Well, I don’t think they disrespect it, but I don’t think it gets respect for its artistry.
Simon Helberg
I certainly think, obviously, rhythm is a huge part of being an actor. It just is unconscious, to a degree, but particularly in comedy, rhythm is pretty essential, and there’s probably something more physiological going on.
Simon Helberg
It’s not the coolest thing in the world to be walking around humming the Taylor Swift song. It’s not as cool to be singing along with the number one song in the country as it is to be the jaded, indifferent hipster who wants to turn you on to something that nobody else is talking about.
Simon Helberg
Working with the Coens was a dream come true.
Simon Helberg
As an actor, you always want to root for your characters.
Simon Helberg
Every time we do anything artistic, the way it’s perceived is always going to be different from the way that we had intended it to be because it’s subjective.
Simon Helberg
There’s something very funny about giving a menial task to a genius and watching him find so much complexity and overanalyse it to such a degree that the waitress from Nebraska working at the Cheesecake Factory has passed them all by.
Simon Helberg
As a piano player, if 10 is concert level, I’d put myself at a 5 or a 6, but in a completely different genre than classical or opera. In terms of classical and opera, playing accompaniment, I’d say I was a 3.
Simon Helberg
Failing passionately is a success in its own right.
Simon Helberg
My mom is a casting director, which is pretty awesome.
Simon Helberg
I grew up around the business quite a bit; I saw a little bit of the underbelly of it.
Simon Helberg
My dad was one of the original members of the Groundlings, and I watched him as an actor have ups and downs, and I watched my mom as a casting director have ups and downs.
Simon Helberg
I actually didn’t finish NYU. I would have, but I was lucky enough to get my foot in the door before I graduated.
Simon Helberg
When I was young, I believe I met Nicolas Cage. I think I was probably eight, and I remember seeing him at somebody’s house – it was an event, and he happened to be there.
Simon Helberg
I generally don’t feel the need to do more research than is necessary to play the part for me, to inform me.
Simon Helberg
I’m interested in character and people and motivations and things like that.
Simon Helberg