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Henry Winkler on the act of ''un-Fonzing'' himself
The de-Fonzification process is an age-old art.
As an actor, saying goodbye to a character is never easy, unless, of course, you're Jim Carrey suffering through hours of makeup to star in Ron Howard's How the Grinch Stole Christmas. But how do you say goodbye to a character who has grown from a character into an entire institution?
Forget Frank Sinatra, if you were to ask any kid growing up in the seventies, Arthur Fonzarelli is the true king of cool. He spent ten years teaching fellow characters and viewers alike how to walk, talk, and pick up chicks. Now, while we can't advise that you actually follow any of Fonzie's dating advice, his adventures were definitely fun to watch on our television.
Henry Winkler, keeper of The Fonz, spoke to NPR about what it was like to play the character and, more importantly, what it was like trying to find a job after the show had wrapped. Winkler explained that originally, he didn't think that the Fonz would define him, even after years of playing the character.
Of course, he was wrong.
"I literally thought I was going to beat the system. The Fonz was so popular in so many countries. I thought, 'I'm not going to be typecast. I'm going to go from mountaintop to mountaintop.' And then I had a rude awakening that you don't beat the system."
Winkler said that he struggled for about eight years before he was able to fully shed The Fonz image, and while he loved the character, eight years was an incredibly long time to wait.
Still, as a talented actor, Winkler was eventually able to enjoy a career beyond The Fonz and even won an Emmy in 2018 for his character Gene Cousineau in the hit HBO series, Barry.
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