Richard Kind, the 69-year-old American actor known for his distinctive voice and roles in Curb Your Enthusiasm, A Serious Man and Inside Out, has described television programmes as mere 'bookends for commercials'. Speaking at the Garrick Theatre in London, where he is rehearsing for a seven-week stint in The Producers, Kind said: 'People don’t understand – TV shows are just bookends for commercials.'
Kind, who has over 300 screen credits to his name, said he dislikes his own voice, which The New York Times once described as 'aggressively nasal'. 'Whenever I hear it, I go, “Oh my God, how could you sound like that?”' he said. He also noted that his mouth 'moves like a muppet'.
Reflecting on The Producers, Mel Brooks’s musical comedy about a scheme to stage a Nazi-themed show, Kind said the film could not be made today. 'Doing a musical about Hitler and making it very gay… Could The Producers be made today? The movie could not,' he said. He added that Brooks has been 'cancelled and celebrated, all at the same time', and that his own children are 'horrified' by Brooks’s film Blazing Saddles.
Kind described his career as that of a 'lucky son of a bitch', noting that he has worked with figures such as Stephen Sondheim and John Mulaney. He said Sondheim was 'every bit as good as Shakespeare'.
