Carol Burnett, 90, reveals the one joke she took too far — and stuns in gorgeous photo shoot
The comedy queen is having the last laugh.
Even with her sunny reputation in comedy, Carol Burnett knows she’s at times taken things too far.
The actress, 90, cited an incident when she was touring with her famous Q&A act on the road in a new Harper’s Bazaar interview. Shortly after 9/11, someone in the audience asked if Burnett could be a member of the opposite sex for 24 hours, who would she be and what would she do.
“I said, ‘I’d be Osama bin Laden, and I’d kill myself,’ ” Burnett recalled.
She noted that the situation is one that she very much regrets.
As for imposter syndrome? It’s not in her vocabulary.
“It never occurred to me,” she told the outlet. “I always felt I was going to be able to do something.”
The Emmy-winning actress also revealed that opening her long-running variety show, “The Carol Burnett Show,” with a Q&A instead of a traditional monologue was her producer’s idea — and she wasn’t on board from the get-go.
“I balked at first,” she recalled.
“I said, ‘What if they don’t ask anything? Or what if they do and I can’t answer it?’ And he said, ‘Well, we’ll put some plants in the audience.’ And then I thought about it, and I said, ‘No, it’s got to be real.’”
Eventually, she said, “I started to get comfortable, and it turned out to be one of my favorite things that we ever did.”
“The Carol Burnett Show” ran on CBS from 1967 to 1978, earning Burnett several Emmys and Golden Globes.
Following that, she moved on to movies such as “The Four Seasons” and “Annie,” and TV shows such as “Mad About You.”
Burnett – who admitted that she doesn’t know who oddball cringe-comedy king Nathan Fielder is – said that when she was growing up, she and her childhood friends used to climb the original Hollywood sign. “The Os were my favorite.”
Even at age 90, she’s about to be in another show: Apple TV+’s “Palm Royale.”
Premiering March 20, the show follows Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig), a woman trying to break into Palm Beach high society in 1969. In addition to Burnett, co-stars include Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Josh Lucas, Leslie Bibb and Kaia Gerber.
Burnett, who is on her third husband – musician Brian Miller, whom she married in 2001 – said she doesn’t feel like she needs to work constantly,
“I want to have fun. It’s not like I have to be busy all the time!”
Wiig told the outlet that Burnett “influenced me so much when I was younger, with her show and her characters. It always looked like she was having fun, and I always remembered that. She is warm and kind, and everyone on our show — cast, crew, everyone! — fell in love with her.”
Series creator Abe Sylvia added that he had to “psych myself up” to call Burnett about the role.
“I didn’t want her ferreting out my impostor syndrome,” he said.
“When she jumped on the line, greeting me with a ‘Hi there, it’s Carol’ in that unmistakable singsong, I was put immediately at ease, as if we had known each other for years. I was struck by the generosity of this.”
