Henry Winkler Gets Candid on Fame, Fonz and Hall of Fame Honor: ‘It Took Me Till I Was 72 to Put It Together’ (EXCLUSIVE)
From 'Happy Days' to 'Barry,' life for Winkler, 79, keeps getting better
As stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze prepares to host the Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Henry Winkler talks to Woman’s World about his epic career and being inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame this year alongside Viola Davis, Don Mischer, Ryan Murphy, Conan O’Brien and Mike Post.
The TV icon, who was first nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1976 for playing Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on Happy Days, finally won Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Barry over 40 years later, in 2018. Here, Winkler reflects on his run and shares some early stories.
Plus, we take you inside a rare Winkler acting class—one that we promise is nothing like one taught by his character on Barry!
Henry Winkler talks Emmy love & Hall of Fame honor
After 50 years in the business, Henry Winkler is still doing just what he always wanted to do—and then some!
“I had a dream when I was eight, but never did that dream include being inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame,” he marvels to Woman’s World. “What a thing! And the class I’ve been inducted with? I already know every human being except for Mike Post. It’s exciting to share that moment with them and my family.”
Having nabbed Daytime Emmys for directing and producing a CBS after-school special starring Scott Baio back in 1985, Winkler counts winning his first Primetime gold for Barry in 2018 as another exciting moment.
“My Emmy,” he sighs with a grin. “I keep it polished. It’s on the dining room table, so when I open the front door, everybody can see it.”
Emmy-winner Henry Winkler calls his busy career ‘mind-blowing’
While moving on from playing an iconic TV character like The Fonz presented challenges, Winkler has always found interesting work—and now that he’s 79, Hollywood can’t seem to stop him!
Since capturing the imagination of audiences all over again as Barry’s Gene Cousineau, he’s had a blast in Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and popping up in Black Adam, Scream and Normal, not to mention all his voiceover work.
“Can I just knock on wood?” Winkler pans. “I have Hazardous History now on the History Channel, too. I’ve never done anything like that. My 40th children’s book [Detective Duck: the Mystery at Emerald Pond] comes out September 30, with Lin Oliver.
“I’m so grateful to still be at the table… and to still be able to get up!” cracks the actor, who turns 80 next month and released his memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond, in 2023. “It’s mind-blowing.”
Henry Winkler remembers his Fonzie audition
While Winkler made his name on Happy Days, his career could have gone a lot differently.
“I landed on terra firma September 18, 1973, in California,” he recounts during his Televerse acting class. “My agent at the time was opening an office here, and I went from the plane to her office. She said, ‘You know, it’s going to be hard to sell you.’ You do not say this to a short, neurotic Jew!”
Two weeks later, that agent had a Paramount series for Winkler to consider. The “serious” actor initially sniffed at the idea of doing TV, but was convinced to audition—and all he had to do was comb his hair!
“I walked in and said, ‘Please, write anything else for me. I will stand on my head. I just want to be original,’” he recalls. “The director said, ‘It says, ‘Comb your hair.’ So I go to the mirror. I pulled out the comb and I listened to my instinct. I just went with it. I didn’t stop myself, and that one phrase took me on a 50-year journey.
“When I changed my voice in the audition, I didn’t know where that came from either,” he adds. “I said, ‘Hi, I’m Henry. I’m scared. I have a sweat stain.’ I had hair down to my shoulders. And then when I was reading, the voice came out and it unleashed my imagination.”
Henry Winkler on learning the ropes—‘It took me till I was 72 to put it together!’
Even after a decade of Happy Days laughs, Winkler admits he still had a lot to learn.
“There are some projects I would like to inhale and do them again, because I was so off,” he says. “When I did Barry, I was 72. When I did The Fonz, I was 27. I knew what I wanted at 27: It took me till I was 72 to put it together!
“I was stilted,” he continues. “If I had to do a scene with somebody that was a star, I thought to myself, ‘I’m in a scene with a star,’ as opposed to being in the scene. Oh, I had so many bad habits! It took me a long time to finally get out of my own way, and when you do, it’s like Nirvana. You know it in every fiber of your being. It’s amazing.”
Henry Winkler on picking roles… and then panicking!
Having made it through school as an undiagnosed dyslexic, Winkler admits he goes with his gut when it comes to choosing projects today.
“In high school, we read The Tale of Two Cities: I read the cover,” he sets up. “I’m not kidding. I took water and I sprinkled the water over the pages, and when it dried, it crinkled up and it looked like I was beating that book! But I never broke the binding. People were writing in it—about the similes, the metaphors. I didn’t know what the [expletive] they were writing.
“So my stomach tells me what I can do,” he continues. “And then when I say yes, I go, ‘Oh my God, why did I just say yes? I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve been doing it a long time. I don’t know how to act anymore. What the [expletive] am I doing?’ And then you just do it. You just dive in and you just pray.”
Working for a director like Wes Anderson a few years back was one of those times.
“It was 40 takes!” he cries. “I was a nervous wreck, and I turned to Bob Balaban, who was my brother in it, and said, ‘I have an idea. Should I tell him?’ And he said, ‘No!’”
Henry Winkler shares four acting tips
Winkler brought all his experiences and lessons learned to an acting class at the Television Academy’s inaugural Televerse Festival at L.A. Live in August. Three sets of couples got to act out their scenes and receive candid feedback—which means, no, it was nothing like taking class with his Barry character!
“Gene is an acting teacher who doesn’t teach,” Winkler reminds. “This was just me passing on what I see in front of me. I’ve only taught five times in my life and it’s electrifying! We saw amazingly talented couples who were able to hear, not get defensive, and all of a sudden, in front of our eyes, just transform.”
Here are some of Winkler’s key acting tips gleaned from the event:
Don’t forget to listen
“Sometimes you stop listening to the other person,” Winkler says. “You think you’re so important that you’re just waiting for your line and then your line is like mush, like dust, because you did not absorb where you were. Listening is the beginning—also in all of your relationships. It’s not the heart. It’s not the mind. I believe it’s the ear.”
Never say ‘no’ to direction
“One out of 10 people is going to be able to direct you,” Winkler admits. “You are a sponge. You have to absorb what they say, squeeze out the excess and what’s left, you can use. So just say, ‘Yeah, I can use that,’ take that bit of moisture and do what you know instinctually is correct. And they will say to you, ‘See, didn’t I tell you?’”
Economize your movement
“You don’t have to move so much. That’s not acting. Acting is taking the audience on a journey, but the audience can’t watch and listen at the same time. I stop listening to what you’re saying because I’m watching you dodge like bullets!”
Make a choice, but be fluid
“Television is theater of the fast, so you don’t have time,” says Winkler. “You just have to make one choice in the scene you’ve got, and then as you’re doing it, your acting partner will inform you, the director might inform you, the producer might inform you. You will come alive, especially when you’re doing a play.”
The Emmy-winner adds that after you make a choice, you should stay open, because you might suddenly find new perspective on a line or moment.
“I did a play with, rest his soul, John Ritter, a good friend of mine,” Winkler recalls. “We did it for nine months, and I was still going, ‘Oh, that’s what I meant!’ The penny drops all the time and you have to be ready to catch the penny.”
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