Tim Matheson opened up on the Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko about the inspiration and advice he received from Lucille Ball
Matheson starred with her in Yours, Mine and Ours and on an episode of Here’s Lucy
The Animal House star said that Ball taught him to be “tough” on set and set a high standard of professionalism with her work
She’s a comedy legend for a reason.
On the Still Here Hollywood with Steve Kmetko podcast, which was rebroadcast on May 5, actor Tim Matheson opened up about working with the legendary Lucille Ball. Matheson, 77, appeared with Ball in the 1968 movie Yours, Mine and Ours, in which he played the family’s oldest son, Mike. He also appeared on the 1972 sitcom Here’s Lucy alongside Ball and her daughter Lucie Arnaz.
Kmetko asked Matheson which person he worked with had the “biggest impression” on him, and Matheson quickly answered, “Lucille Ball,” adding, “She was the most powerful woman in Hollywood.”
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The cast of ‘You’re Mine and Ours,’ including Tim Matheson (back left), Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (back right) in 1968
Matheson noted that she wasn’t only the “number-one star in television” because of I Love Lucy, but that she was also a powerful studio executive thanks to Desilu Productions, which she and Desi Arnaz co-founded and owned together. The company bought up Los Angeles lots and produced many movies and TV shows — including Yours, Mine and Ours.
“She was so involved in the casting of that part and so helpful to me in getting the part,” Matheson said. And while they were filming the movie, which also starred Henry Fonda and Jennifer Leak, the actor remembered Ball would invite him into her trailer to talk about “the business” and “acting.”
Matheson added that to “just watch her, how precise she was and how perfect she was about the work she did and how seriously she took it” was just as inspirational.
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Years later, she taught him “another great lesson” when he appeared on Here’s Lucy. They were backstage, and Ball had hired an “old vaudeville friend” to have a “one-line part.” Right before the woman went on stage to say her line, he remembered, “Lucy goes, ‘20 bucks she blows her line.’ ”
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Tim Matheson in 2016
“I just thought, ‘Oh God. That’s so that’s so mean.’ I was so sensitive,” the Animal House star said. But the woman “went out” and “nailed it,” and Ball joked about being out the $20.
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“I realized acting and making movies in Hollywood, it’s a full-contact sport,” Matheson said of that moment. “And you gotta be ready to take the hit. And that’s the biggest lesson I got from her because Lucy was tough. She was tough. She didn’t care if it was a 6-year-old who blew his line or a 60-year-old.”
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“She was the gold standard for me,” he said. She “didn’t go out of her way to be extra nice” because they were at work, doing their jobs, he added. “But when you stepped off stage,” he remembered, Ball would ask how he was and be friendly and professional. “She was stellar,” he said of the star, who died in 1989 at age 77.
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