Busy Philipps Filmed 'Cupertino' Five Weeks After Brain Tumor Surgery

Busy Philipps was on the set of the CBS Silicon Valley drama "Cupertino" in New Jersey just five weeks after surgeons removed a malignant brain tumor. The timeline comes from Philipps herself, in an interview conducted by video for The New York Times' "My Ten" questionnaire feature, in which she discussed her favorite things.

The story of how she got there is unusual even by Hollywood standards. Earlier this year, Philipps received two pieces of news in quick succession. First, a congratulatory text from her manager: she had been cast in "Cupertino." Then, a call from a neurologist. The diagnosis was a malignant brain tumor, and it needed to come out immediately.

"It was a gift to have no time to think about what the possibilities could be," Philipps said. "All I knew was I was going to get the surgery. I was going to recover well, and I was going to start working on this television show."

That recovery, according to the interview, required neither radiation nor chemotherapy. The surgery alone was the treatment, and five weeks later she was filming.

What is 'Cupertino,' and who does Philipps play?

The drama is set in Silicon Valley, and its title nods to Apple's hometown. Philipps plays the ex-wife of an A.I. billionaire — a character who takes revenge on her former husband by bankrolling an underdog law firm. That firm's target: exploitative tech giants. It's a role that lets the show strand its personal drama inside the current debate over tech industry power.

Her co-stars include Ella Stiller, whom Philipps named among her favorite things in the "My Ten" format, alongside red-light masks (the skincare devices that use low-wavelength light) and, more abstractly, hope.

What does the diagnosis change for her schedule?

On the evidence of this interview, very little. The production did not wait months for a slow recovery; Philipps was working within five weeks of the operation, and the show proceeded as planned. She frames the compressed timeline as a psychological advantage — no room to dwell on worst-case scenarios between diagnosis and surgery.

'I love those snippets of conversation'

The interview's headline moment came when Philipps described a habit from her daily walks: eavesdropping on passers-by. "I love those snippets of conversation," she said. "You hear some really great ones." It's a small, working actor's method of collecting material — overheard life, harvested on foot.

Watching her kids grow up

Philipps also singled out her children, who are 18 and 13, as a current favorite. "These teen years — my kids are 18 and 13 — have been so enjoyable," she said. She described them as "solid humans" with "great, unique taste," noting that people like being around them and talking to them — "not just people who know me."

The through-line of the feature is an actor rebuilding momentum at speed: a malignant tumor removed, a network drama shot within weeks, and a public account of all of it delivered without drama. With "Cupertino" now in her credits, Philipps has turned a year that opened with twin pieces of life-altering news into a working season in front of the camera.