Recreating “Psycho” shower scene 15x per day | Forward Progress

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0:52Cheryl Hines:Sip for yourself. Shop Virtuo Up exclusively at Nespresso.com. Hey, it's Thursday, which means we're coming at you with a short, feel-good story from a past guest. Hope you enjoyed the clip. This week, Cheryl Hines. I think your first job in acting was at Universal Studios. What do you remember from having to perform that, I think it was a shower scene from Psycho, like 15 times a day?

1:24Graham Bensinger:Yeah, yeah. What do I remember?

1:29Graham Bensinger:Well, it was crazy. It was fun. So I wore a flesh-colored bodysuit, and then they had a shower set that would roll out to the middle of the soundstage, and then they opened the walls, and then they would show how Alfred Hitchcock shot the shower scene, and it was a camera trust with different cameras and me and a volunteer from the audience that would act like he was stabbing me with a rubber knife. Yeah, and that's what I did for a few years. I couldn't have been happier to do it.

2:11Cheryl Hines:But that was, it was motivating.

2:14Graham Bensinger:Very motivating, yeah.

2:16Cheryl Hines:Getting your foot in the door kind of with that. And then there was the Swamp Thing audition, which I think you tried out for four times. But after the third time, when you just aren't in a good place, you have a conversation with your sister. What does she say to you? Yeah, I said to my sister, I said, I don't, you know, I don't know what to do.

2:39Graham Bensinger:I mean, maybe I'm not a good actress. I can't even get, I can't even get cast in Swamp Thing. And I'm so depressed. And she said, yeah, you should probably quit.

2:53Cheryl Hines:And were you really, like, genuinely depressed at that time?

2:56Graham Bensinger:Yeah, that was, Swamp Thing was the only show shooting in Orlando at the time, and it was, you know, I felt like I really needed a role in that.

3:09Cheryl Hines:What are you thinking about when you're in that moment?

3:14Graham Bensinger:I was just tying my self-worth to not getting an acting job. so then it's not just with everything so oh I'm not I'm not a good actor I'm doing everything wrong you know you just feel like what am I doing and yeah my sister said you've chosen a career where most of most of the things that you audition for you are not going to get. It's going to be rejection. You've chosen a career of rejection. And if you're going to get so sad every time you don't get an acting job, then you shouldn't do it. That's a terrible life to live. And I, you know, really listened to her and I thought, oh, she's right.

4:10Graham Bensinger:That's going to be a long life. And so then it really switched my way of thinking.

4:18Cheryl Hines:How so?

4:21Graham Bensinger:It helped me understand that the rejection is part of the process. The goal of every audition can't be to get that job or you're not a good actor or you're not a good person. So I started, it just shifted. So I was like, oh, right. It's really about being a good actor. And it kind of doesn't matter if you get the job or not.

4:44Cheryl Hines:Why did your mom basically say she'll never forgive you unless you move cross country?

4:52Graham Bensinger:Wow, you're really doing this. Okay.

4:55Cheryl Hines:We can skip that.

4:56Graham Bensinger:No, no, it's sweet to think about it because I haven't thought about it in so long. Well, you know, my mom and my stepfather and anybody who knew me knew that I wanted to move out to L.A. And so I had I mean, I had basically sold everything and was ready to go. And then my stepfather, Dan, was diagnosed with liver cancer. So I stayed, and I stayed to be with them, to be with my mom. And then after he passed, she was so sad. And, I mean, I was sad as well. So after a while, my mom said, you know, she said, you have to go to Los Angeles, and I'm going to be okay.

5:50Graham Bensinger:So I believed her, and I did.

5:53Cheryl Hines:Looking back now, how pivotal was that conversation that she had with you?

6:04Graham Bensinger:It was very. It was very because, you know, when you're young and you lose a parent, that's all you can see for a long time. And so to have my mother say, you're still doing what you said you were going to do and what you've wanted to do, it was a good encouragement, to say the very least, just to remind myself, oh, yeah, my life is going on and I should move forward.

6:44Cheryl Hines:Tell about the Toyota Tercel and the notes that your siblings wrote you for the ride.

6:51Graham Bensinger:I'm so close to my siblings. I lost one of my brothers. But I have two brothers. Chris has passed away. And my sister, Becky. Chris, Becky, and Michael. And, you know, it was hard for me to move. It was really hard for me to leave. I didn't have much money. And I was leaving my family. I was leaving everything I loved. And they were so cute and sweet. And they wrote notes to me. And so every day on the road, I got to open one of the notes from one of them. And I have them framed in my office because it meant so much to me at the time. Okay, this is for my sister Becky. It says, share. Be safe, happy, and motivated in LA.

7:47Graham Bensinger:I'll be seeing you. Okay. I'll be seeing you soon. Okay. I'll be seeing you soon. I can't even read this. Okay. But until then, I'll carry you in my heart. as always and see your smile in everything beautiful. Travel with the knowledge that I love you as much as anything in the world. And it's for my sister. Oh, yay, yay! Why did we do this? This is ridiculous.

8:28Cheryl Hines:What about that all these years later still gets to you? Um, I mean, because we were pretty young.

8:40Graham Bensinger:you know, when she wrote this and she still, she, this still captures her. Like this is who she is. Oof. She, you know, gives me superpowers. Oh no. Oh, God. Okay, what am I doing? Okay, this is from Chris and April. Oh no, I haven't read these in so long. This is gonna be hard. Uh, Cher. Good luck and hope all your dreams come true. We are going to miss you, but you know we'll always be as close as the nearest phone. This will be a good reason for April and I to make it out to LA. We are already halfway there. Remember, you will always have, you will always, you will always be in our hearts. Love, Chris and April.

9:42Graham Bensinger:And it's interesting because when I was driving, I couldn't wait till the next day to read the notes.

9:46Cheryl Hines:It's cool that you have them all these years later too.

9:50Graham Bensinger:Yeah, they still stand the test of time. I still need to read it. I'm glad we just read those. It's been a while.

9:59Cheryl Hines:That's it for now. But if you're hungry for more in-depth interviews, head over to youtube.com slash Graham Bensinger. You can dive into our deep library, which includes more than 2000 clips spanning 12 plus years. Thanks again for listening.