Becky Thyre: The Mr. Skin Interview

Who did you have to fuck to get the role on The Drinky Crow Show?

My husband, Tony Millionaire. And Billy West, who does the voice of Drinky Crow. And Dave Herman. And the guy who adjusts the microphone in the recording booth.

How did you and Tony meet?

I emailed him from L.A. because my sister was a friend with him in New York and I wanted to horn in on their relationship.

Was it his violent explosions, chronic alcoholism, or was it the ball walk that told you: this is the love of my life?

Well, I never saw the ball walk, I just heard about it. Tony used to unzip his pants just enough to let his balls hang out and then walk around at parties. This was all before I met him though. I'd have to say it was his alcoholism that attracted me at first, and the violent rages that keep me interested.

Tony is quite the talented draftsman. Has he ever drawn nude pictures of you? And, if so, will these ever be printed?

No.

Too bad it's only the beauty of your voice that viewers will get to enjoy on the new show. What character do you play?

I play several characters in the pilot. I'm Phoebe Bird, Drinky Crow's girlfriend, and I'm the Captain's Daughter, and I'm the voice of the Nag-Mouth Crab. Oh, I'm also a fly that has a sex scene.

What's the pilot's plot?

I don't know. I only look at my own lines when I read scripts. That's all I'm really interested in.

You got your start in Chicago working on The Real Live Brady Bunch. Which of the three very lovely girls did you play?

I started off playing Jan Brady, but within the first few weeks I wormed my way into the part I was born for--Marcia. She was so perfect and so stupid. I longed to live her life. We did word-for-word episodes of the TV show live on stage. It was kind of like performance art, only funny! Tom Hanks came to our dirty hole-in-the-wall theater and said it was like seeing Bertolt Brecht.

My Captain's Daughter voice has a little Marcia Brady in it.

Andy Richter played Mike Brady, Jane Lynch played Carol Brady, Melanie Hutsell played Jan Brady, and Steve Carell played Greg Brady! We also had the real Davy Jones come and reprise his role in the episode where Marcia lied to her school that she could get him to come play at the dance and then her family scrambled around to cover up her lie by really getting him to play.

Was there any incest among the Brady clan off stage?

I would tell you but Tony would be jealous.

When you moved to New York City you became involved in the underground S&M scene; you must have some ass-kicking stories from that time.

One of my coworkers used to be married to the writer Peter Landau. She had pink hair and was famous for punishing a client who asked for a blowjob by shoving a large dildo in his mouth and wrapping duct tape around his head to hold it in.

How different is life in Pasadena, with a cartoonist husband and two beautiful daughters?

I think the big lie about women who work in the sex industry is that they have the power because men are giving them money. It's so not powerful to be doing all these things for men to make a buck. So it's hard to be a mom and it was an adjustment to move to the suburbs and try to find my place here, but I feel so much more like myself. I'm really doing what I want to do instead of trying to be whatever it was I was trying to be in New York.

You've worked in movies, such as PCU, The Flintstones, and Run Ronnie Run!, and on the boob tube, such as The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Six Feet Under (Picture: 1 - 2), and, most recently, Weeds (Picture: 1). Have you ever gotten naked for the cameras?

No--never naked. Once I was cast in a production of Edmond in Chicago and they wanted me to wear pasties and a G-string but my boyfriend advised against it so I didn't do it. I didn't really want to--I always feel like nobody wants to see me naked. I wore a rubber dress once on Mr. Show--it was actually one of my own S&M outfits. I was playing a porn star in a sketch, "Miss Analverse!"

Would you like to get naked?

No!

Do you remember the first time you saw a nude scene in a mainstream movie?

I think it was Private Benjamin. I just remember that my dad took me to that movie when I was about fourteen and I was so embarrassed in the sex parts I wanted to crawl under my gum-encrusted movie seat and die. Or it could have been Silver Streak--were Jill Clayburgh's (Picture: 1) boobs in that? [Despite the vaguely suggestive title, no. -- Editor] I wish I had little Jill Clayburgh boobs. She really was the most liberated woman and looked great in a trench coat.

What other sexy actresses would you like to see in a trench coat or less?

I always liked Jessica Lange, before she got that hideous plastic surgery on her face. I liked her acting, because she was really beautiful but real and earthy. Her hands looked like she worked on a farm.

Oh, and I tried to model my life after Goldie Hawn's (Picture: 1) character in Butterflies Are Free--you know, the flighty hippie girl from San Francisco who falls in love with the blind guy. Come to think of it, she had small boobs too. Small boobs make it so much easier to pack up and move on and live life in the fast lane.

Before I let you go, what do you love most about Mr. Skin?

Selwyn Harris.