Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Any actor would be lucky to have Mary Steenburgens career.
In recent years, shes also eased her way into a new artistic endeavor: songwriting.
Currently, Steenburgen can be found playing Jane Levys mom on NBCs musical dramedyZoeys Extraordinary Playlist.
Its more him trolling me, but it goes both ways.
I kind of enjoy irritating him.
Im proud to be in it because its very risk-taking.
We basically do a musical every eight days.
But its really thrilling, so its one of those jobs Im really glad I said yes to.
But I like scaring myself a little bit.
I dont drive fast or go rock-climbing.
I just do weird stuff like this, which terrifies me in its own way.
You sing a little bit in the second episode, but its not really a major production number.
Will you eventually get a full song to yourself?Yes, I do.
Ive probably done four songs.
And if I work really hard, maybe I can sound better than I did at the beginning.
But I think those are the only times.
The only ones I remember, anyway!
Regarding theLast Vegassoundtrack, the score for the film was done by Mark Mothersbaugh.
Its called Cup of Trouble.
But Mark also did the music forLast Man on Earth.
Im a big fan of his.
It was early on when I got to L.A.
I didnt want to be judged on whether or not I was crazy.
And I didnt want to be judged as a songwriter before I put the work in.
So as far as music was concerned, that experience didnt mean I really knew how to write music.
It just meant that music was a way of me perceiving the world, whereas it hadnt been before.
Once I saw how they do what they do, it was important to me to pull my weight.
Ive learned so much from them, like an apprenticeship.
Shes gonna be a big star.
That was a really special show that ended far before its time.
People still come up to me and talk about it.
I loved working with Amber [Tamblyn], Joe Mantenga, Jason Ritter, and all those folks.
But theyre ultimately both about a human connection.
Theyre about how to connect and even give solace to the human heart.
I was working onLast Manwhen that whole story line started.
We both came home one day, and I said, Did you doCurbtoday?
And he said, [Sighs] Yeah.
And I said, Whats wrong?
And he goes, Well, you and I have gotten a divorce.
I was like, Ted!
People are going to believe that!
And he goes, No, no ones gonna believe that.
Well, it trended on Twitter!
People are going, Oh, my God, did Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen get a divorce?!
And you recently had a surprise cameo in the finale ofThe Good Placeas Michaels guitar tutor, too.
How did that come about?It was just an idea that Mike Schur had.
And I guess they decided that I was the right person for him to fall in love with!
The big question, then, is whether Ted can actually play guitar.No, neither of us can.
Ted actually plays it better than I do!
But definitely not with the guitar!
[Laughs] Theres really not much to tell, except that they were soannoying.
My daughter and my son, they were going through this terrible fighting period.
I think they were 10 and 12.
They were old enough to be fairly self-sufficient, which was good, because Id had enough.
I certainly was still in the house.
I didntabandonthem, as he would like you to believe!
But I refused to lift a finger.
For the rest of their lives, theyve tortured me with it.
They really feel that that was terribly unfair to them and theyre happy to tell it to anyone.
And now weve told the world!
