Mary Steenburgen Does Not Feel Bad if You Lost Your Tennis Court to Pickleball

But on the first day of Step Brothers, what he and John C. Reilly were doing was so high-level, off-the-charts, insane, bonkers, brilliant, that Richard Jenkins, who’s an extraordinary actor, and I looked at each other and went, “What the hell are we doing here?” And I think both of us had this kind of crazy feeling, like, “I can’t do that.” And so I went home that night, and I really thought about it, and I came back the next day, and I said, “Richard, I figured it out. I know what we’re doing here.” And he said, “What?” I said, “It is our job to hold down the truth that these two grown idiots are living at home with them. We have to make that real.”

At the 2025 Emmys, you and Ted received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. You’ve both been active in a variety of causes, including anti-apartheid in South Africa, research for pediatric AIDS, and the importance of arts in public schools. On the philanthropic/humanitarian front, is there anything new you’re working on that’s exciting or interesting or important to you?