But above all, I definitely didn't want to get into doing rhythms with him-you know, everyone starts to talk like Woody and I was like [pounding the table] "Don't do that." Try and do your own thing, be bolder. Above all, don't be him.

THC: But the dialogue rhythms in this movie already seem different than other Woody comedies, right?

TU: It struck me when I read the script - I was like, "These aren't Jews." Jewish people also wouldn't like people telling them what to do - like Frenchy pushing Ray around and Frenchy going to Hugh and asking him for an "education." The Jews would be like, "Hey, I'm fabulous." They have a lot more confidence than the Winklers have. Though I have to say, my dream would be to play retired Jews in Boca Raton. [laughing] The movie's called Retired Jews in Retirement. Me and Woody. The condo would be beautiful.

THC: We can predict the character's trajectory fairly early on in the film. Do you play it just for laughs, then, or do you still try to create a sympathetic and affecting character?

TU: She's smart, you know. She's the smarter one of the two. And I find that endearing. I always love characters that have the humor and the sadness. It comes out best in that dinner party scene - she has that obsession with being involved with the charities. It's not, "I want to be on the board," it's "I want to be a patron." I like people who know who they are because I'm obsessed with class - you know because I'm from England. There's not such an obvious class system here - though there does seem to be an ethnic and financial class system. I love when people are trying to sound nice, you know the "I loooovvvee it," with that accent. When Frenchie goes to the matinee, I play that up - she's like, "Oh, it moved me. Soooo wonderful." You know those types don't live in the city. They have the Jersey hairdos. But I love her - she's such a challenge.

THC: You had to have fun with the costumes. They're insane.

TU: I certainly got to look glamorous. I usually like my tight little business suits - but I mean I had great fun with the outfits. It was nouveau riche dressing at its worst.

THC: That one dress looked like you murdered a peacock.

TU: Wasn't that brilliant! We found that dress - I think it was by Calvin Klein, a fantastic crizia piece. A model had worn it on the catwalk in Milan and it looked great, but with fake nails and blonde hair, it looked awwwfull. It looked like someone, you know, had had a word with her about all of her clothes. And I liked the way her hair changes. You know you get what you pay for with hair and at the beginning, it looks so overworked and overprocessed - it's been permed, bleached, it's like a carpet. I imagined someone taking her to a salon uptown and doing what they call up there, the "Buttery Chunks" style.

THC: You, Elaine May and Woody in the same movie. Three situational comics all working together - extremely rare in the age of gross-out comedy. Did your three different types of comedies mesh well?