Rita Wilson

Many times I felt muted, not necessarily by the world itself, but by my own sense of propriety as a very private person in a very public life and profession.

Rita Wilson, welcome to How to Fail.

Hi, Elizabeth.

So nice to be here, really.

Thank you.

Oh, it's so lovely to have you sitting opposite me.

And I'm sorry I stumbled over the Sleepless in Seattle recollection, but truly one of the greatest scenes of all time.

There is a naturalism to your performance on screen, and I'm going to get onto your music in a minute.

But that naturalism, I wonder how hard it is to stay so natural when you're being filmed.

Well, everybody should have the luxury of being able to say Nora Ephron's words.

That screenplay was written by Nora Ephron, who also directed the film, and her sister Delia Ephron.

And if you have good material, that's it.

then your job is done for you.

Her scripts are actually quite musical.

They have a rhythm and a tempo for comedy.

So we had gotten a few of the takes down and at the end I said, may I try something because

The scene actually continued on a little bit further than what Nora had written.

And I said, do you want me to just continue on like maybe a little improv?

And she said, yes, try it.

But because Tom's character and Victor Garber's character didn't know that was coming, they