‘Reboot’ star Paul Reiser laughs off growing older

Paul Reiser thinks aging is a joke. Literally.

“No one wants to move around less. That’s not the goal. No one wants to pee more,” he quips. “But you get to a certain age where you think, I can either moan about this stuff or have some fun with it.”

Take the old-age makeup he wore for the last season of “The Kominsky Method.” “I did look at myself older and think, ‘Oh, that’s a glimpse into the future. Very near future. Like four hours from now.’”

The 66-year-old was on a roll. “I took the makeup off and thought, ‘You look so wildly young and vibrant.’”

Reiser’s career has never been more vibrant with roles in “Stranger Things,” “The Boys” and the upcoming “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel Foley.”

He stars in the new Hulu series “Reboot,” created and written by Steven Levitan (“Modern Family”). The series revolves around a dysfunctional cast of an early 2000s family sitcom called “Step Right Up” who face unresolved career and personal issues when a young showrunner named Hannah (Rachel Bloom) joins executive producer Gordon (Reiser) in rebooting the old show.

Reiser had a few tips on living the good life while putting aging into perspective.

— Do the math: “When you wake up and you’re closer to 80 than 20, by far, you go, ‘OK, I see where this is going.’ It actually puts life into perspective. For me, it was a license to stop sweating the little stuff, because you’ve already seen so much of both the little and big stuff. You’re like, ‘The annoying thing with the cable company will work itself out. It’s not the end of the world.’ Now I worry about bigger things, so I allow more enjoyment into my life and I can focus on the bigger things.”

— Make it the Year of Saying Yes: Take his new show. Reiser said a quick yes to the “Reboot” role. “Age gives you the wisdom to really measure each opportunity that comes your way. You’re asking, ‘Is it worth my time?’” … “With ‘Reboot,’ not only were these great words and a perfect premise, but to have Rachel Bloom and Keegan Michael-Key and Judy Greer involved was a major plus. It was a pretty easy yes. Not only is this show funny, but these are great people and we all got along quickly. It wasn’t like the first day of high school. We all sat at the same lunch table.”

— Don’t take it all too seriously: Reiser credits his own sense of humor for his longevity in show business. “Once I had an exec tell the writers of a show to start the story sooner. The writer said, ‘But we’re still on page one.’ My all-time favorite note was: ‘Paul, I love what you do, but do you really need this scene?’ I said, ‘Let’s just jump right ahead — do we really need this show?’”

— There is always Plan B: Like any actor, Reiser has experienced career lulls. He always goes to Plan B. “I came from stand-up, which still remains a nice diversion instead of the day-to-day waiting of an actor’s life.” Stand-up also serves as therapy for both him and the audience, he says. “I pop the bubble up front and tell people, ‘We’re not going to talk about anything too serious.’ I’ll say, ‘Can we just have an hour and a half of fun and laugh at silly stuff and find some common ground to laugh at ourselves?’”

— Gratitude after quarantine and chocolate: “It is nice to work after being quarantined. There is only so much chocolate I could eat or YouTube videos I could watch before my brain went nuts,” Reiser says. “I also have to say that the pandemic hurt us as actors. In the days before COVID, I could go over to craft service on a set and help myself to the free food. Now you can’t touch things. I can’t have 47 pieces of chocolate. Someone serves you and I feel self-conscious, so I’ll say, ‘I’ll have melon. One slice.’ It’s sad.”

— Revel in feeling wanted — or being recognized: “Basically, they’re not allowed to make a show without me now. I thank the fans who span so many age groups,” he says. “It’s always interesting to me when somebody comes up to me: I can always tell what they know me from. If it’s someone over 70, it’s ‘The Kominsky Method.’ Under 20, it’s ‘Stranger Things.’ I think the new thing is to say, ‘We have this script. How can we put Paul Reiser in it?’”

— Imagine yourself even older: Reiser used prosthetic makeup including a bald cap, gray hair with a foot-long ponytail and padding to make himself look older on “The Kominsky Method.” How did it feel staring into the mirror at his 80-year-old self? “I did get a lot of calls from friends who said, ‘That’s a wig, right?’ But what was worse were the friends who didn’t have the courage to call me, who called other friends and asked, ‘Has Paul let himself go?’ The good news is after that show, people say to me, ‘You look great, Paul? Did you lose some weight?’”