Henry Winkler Talks ‘Working on’ Himself With the Help of Therapy, Admits ‘It’s a Lifelong Journey’

Henry Winkler has played a lot of incredible and iconic TV characters throughout his long career. However, he has revealed the one that earned him an Emmy Award wouldn’t have been possible if he hadn’t gotten into therapy.

When the Happy Days alum, 80, appeared on the Wednesday, February 18 episode of the What Matters With Liz podcast, host Liz Vaccariello complimented the actor on both his career and his ability to be “present” with the people he talks with. The actor credited therapy.

“If I wasn’t present in my life, I now know I could not… I could not have done Gene Cousineau on Barry without the therapy that I went through,” the Waterboy star said. “So, my image is that I’m a block of Swiss cheese with a lot of holes and I am working on becoming a block of cheddar, because there’s no holes.”

“That is a lifelong journey. Believe me, I am not ched yet,” he joked.

Winkler portrayed an eccentric acting coach and quasi-father figure to the lead character in the dark comedy series, for which he earned Emmy nominations for all four seasons. He took home the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series trophy in 2018.

Thanks to therapy, Winkler explained, he’s become “a little less [concerned with] what people think.”

“I have fought to jump that hurdle,” he added. “Because that is debilitating and so hard to get over. When you think that they must be thinking about what you just did and it could be the furthest thing from their mind. Holy mackerel!”