- This is so cute.
- Why thank you.
You had no idea what happened to me today.
I got up because I was so excited
that I thought I had a little bit of a holiday from work.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Marlee] Until, you know, whenever it is
that feeling you have some time off.
And I got an appointment
for a blow dry at the dry bar at the mall.
You know, everybody goes to the mall
and I'm there at the mall and suddenly get a call
come to Kelly Clarkson right now.
I had no clothes.
I had nothing to wear.
So I had to go into Nordstrom.
I had to grab some stuff off the racks.
I got some socks, I got a bra.
I got everything.
And here I am.
I feel like Cinderella
- I Dream of Jeanie. That was awesome.
- This is a crazy time because people are just
dropping left or right of Covid.
So it's like last minute we'll be like, okay.
And so we'll ask our friends that we love
cause we love you so much.
So we are excited you could come here.
We asked for you to come. - [Marlee] Anything for you.
- [Kelly] I love you.
And I just have a quick question.
Did you do the triple points thing at Nordstrom?
Since you were there.
- I didn't even know about that.
- [Kelly] Oh
- I'm gonna go back right after this. Right after this,
and get my triple points. - [Kelly] You missed out
on a deal is all I'm saying.
So also everybody please welcome Marley's interpreter
and producing partner. Jack Jason, come on ya'll.
[Applause]
- Wait, you were just talking about Covid?
- Yeah - You know I got tested,
I mean the guy came in to blow my hair and then
I had to get tested while I was getting my hair blown.
- It's a twofer
- Boom was like, what is she doing?
She's getting tested while I'm doing her hair?
- It's so funny how we've all just
become accustomed to strange people being
in our nostrils and everything.
Like in your home.
Like it's just insane. - It's the new normal.
What are you gonna say? - It is.
Yeah, my kids know no other world cause they're so young.
But I wanna say congrats on the historic win for her movie
CODA. Last year,
[Cheering]
we were so stoked for y'all.
We had the whole cast here.
I fell in love
with them all over again, even after the movie.
It was so beautiful.
What did y'all do that night?
- Well we went, let's see, I think right
after we went to the governor's ball, to the parties there
to the Vanity Fair, people were left and right.
I mean usually people don't come up to me cause they're shy.
They think I'm deaf and I can't talk.
But they came right up to me and they
they said like this, you know, they deaf applause.
And then we went to Vanity Fair.
I mean my bedtime is nine o'clock
8:30, 9 o'clock and I was up till one and two.
And I was like, okay guys, I'm outta here.
- I, yeah, but your CODA co-star
Daniel Durant competed in Dancing with the Stars.
So that was last season.
Did you ever get a chance to go watch him?
- I absolutely did.
I was there, me and Troy Kotzer
we were like the proud onscreen parents
for Daniel visiting our son on Dancing With the Stars.
And we rooted him on, and he is such a great dancer.
He's in a different place here, you know
watching him dance as opposed to acting.
He totally outside of the box.
We were so proud of him. We were so proud of him.
- Do you like dancing?
I love dancing.
- I like dancing, but I don't know
about being in front of 25 million people
and then having them vote for me about that.
I don't know if I like that. - No, no, no.
I just meant dancing in general.
I think it feels so good. - Yeah!
Yeah. Yeah.
I loved to dance. Anytime, anywhere, anybody.
- Oh, you know she didn't even have a bar.
Anybody. That's amazing.
So wait, this is important.
You've joined the board of Governors
at the Academy since we last saw you.
So what exactly does it mean to be a governor?
- I joined the board of the Academy with, you know
the people give out the Oscars.
So now I'm there.
I mean, it's part of, in addition to what I do as an actor
and we're involved with changing rules, making new decisions
and making noise about what we need to do and to
approve inclusivity, how to make things better
at the Academy.
And they've been nothing but receptive, very supportive
of my community of what we need.
I mean, if we go to any of their events, they always
have interpreters there or any of the videos they show
they provide them with captions.
So I'm really honored to be
on the board of Governors at the Academy.
- It's so important. Yeah.
It's so important. And I think people know, you know
even recognize it more so now because of CODA.
Like because of a beautiful piece
of art that touched so many people
that that is what changed it, that domino effect.
So CODA brought much needed attention
like I said, to deaf accessibility.
So what's something that you still hope to see improved?
- I still hope to see more, I guess stories having to do
with deaf characters with our culture.
More deaf actors, directors, writers
deaf people behind the cameras working
as in crew members in our industry.
I wanna see more of that.
- You know, what's interesting about that?
Because you know, they're gonna have a different take
on it behind the camera of what you see, how
they experience a film and how they experience performance.
That's so important to have somebody on stage.
- Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.
It is.
- What can you tell us about the new show?
This is Accused, right?
- So this is something that I've always wanted to do
for the longest time.
And I flirted with this idea of doing something different
than what I've been doing, which is now directing.
And I directed episodic television
a new show called Accused for Fox and Sony.
And it's an anthology series, which means
that each episode is like a little movie
and every week there's a different story.
It's a great show and I'm really excited and particularly
because it's my episode and I've directed it.
- I love that.
Have you always wanted to direct
have you always wanted to do stuff behind the scenes?
- Yeah, I've always wanted to direct because I, you know
I have deaf eyes, so there's something on top
of what everybody else has. - Yeah.
- I'm more visual.
I'm always watching things and how things work on a set.
And now that I'm behind the camera and working
with actors, it's so much fun for me.
I mean, I get to work with actors one-on-one
watching how they develop their characters, watching how
they express themselves.
And you know, as an actor, that was a lot of fun to
be able to watch them.
And I had deaf characters and deaf actors to work with.
There was no barriers with hearing actors.
It's great. Of course.
Naturally I had interpreters and the set was
filled with interpreters everywhere left and right
and it was very accessible.
But in terms of working with the hearing actors, clearly
I used an, an interpreter who was from Canada
and I love Canada by the way.
But she was so polite as Canadians are
and she's a good friend of mine. Her name is Susie.
I'm calling her out and she was so nice.
But when I was really animated and I wanted to get really
into the script, I was looking at her and she was
like talking so politely and talking with her soft voice.
I'm like, wait a minute, I can't use that interpreter.
I just decided to just speak myself.
And that's what I did.
- You needed the passion behind it.
- Absolutely got into it.
But yeah, it's an interesting process and it was
an interesting journey for me.
And being the first deaf member
of the Director's Guild of America is amazing.
- What a cool thing.
- That means what? That means what?
Open doors
for other deaf directors. - Opening doors.
Yeah.
Which is so important.
And, and what is your episode that you directed?
What's it about?
What is it kind of entail?
- My episode is about a deaf woman who has decided to
be a surrogate.
And it's for a woman who is hearing.
And it just so happens
that after the baby is born, it's born deaf
but it has nothing to do with her being deaf.
And we see the journey
and the dynamics that go, that she goes through.
The show is, it starts with something
about a courtroom, but you don't know what's going to happen
and what the person is accused of.
And so the whole episode plays out
and you can see what happens along their journey.
- Good tease.
That was a nice tease.
Okay, so I have to bring this up because like me
you're a fan of tattoos, which we've talked about before
but there's one that means a lot to you, right?
- So I'm looking at the sunflowers here.
- Yes.
- And it's making me think of my mom.
I have her sunflower on my shoulder.
So she had a sunflower tattoo and I have a sunflower tattoo.
That's my mom there?
- I have a sunflower tattoo.
Right here.
- There's mine.
- I love sunflowers.
Oh. Oh, that's beautiful.
That's really beautiful.
I love that. It's so funny.
I have a sunflower tattoo and I also
my mother was against tattoos, you know
kind of religiously like growing up.
Your body's a temple, you're not supposed to do that.
Oh well.
And 20 later, my temple, it's my design.
So we convinced my sister
and I convinced her to do a tattoo finally, like one year.
And she ended up getting
she's the sun and I'm the moon, which I have that tattoo
and my sister has a star and we're both inside the sun.
So it's like, it can be a really cool thing. Yeah.
- Because my mom had one and I got it for her birthday.
You know, she's Jewish and Jews don't do tattoos.
- Yeah. - But I think I got it
for her 65th birthday I think it was.
And then unfortunately years later, she had Alzheimer's.
And I said to my brother
please can you take a picture of it?
Cause I can't remember which shoulder she had it on
on her left or right shoulder
because I wanted the same tattoo for myself.
And he tried to take a picture
of her but she's like, what are you doing?
And so we struggled to get for like six months.
And then finally we said, mom
we need a picture of your tattoo.
And she goes, what tattoo?
- Oh.
- Because she forgot. She forgot.
But we got a picture on the left shoulder
so I got the same thing.
And there we go.
- That's beautiful though.
Have her with you.
I love that.
So what you got into TikTok last year?
I need to show the world this.
Here's you doing the whipped cream challenge.
- What?
- Missed it?
- Merry Christmas.
- Look at the dog. And the dog.
- The dog. The dog is like, I love this challenge.
- Are you...
- Very happy.
- Are you ou still into TikTok?
- I'm going to get more into it.
I have plans to get into it.
I can't decide, you know, what we're gonna do
for filming the world, what our family is doing, just
like everybody else is doing with their families we'll see.
- Yeah.
I loved how not one of you was like excellent at it.
I mean, it's a weird talent to have.
- It's a mess. It's a big mess. It's fun.
You should try it with your kids.
- I know.
I honestly, they would any, any way they can inhale sugar
they'd be into it.
So yeah, I'm gonna do it with like broccoli.
It's the broccoli challenge.
- If I wasn't an actor, I probably would own a candy store.
- Oh, now my daughter wants
either she wants to run a candy store or bakery.
I'm like, all right.
- Both.
- Yeah. I'm like, I like those things. It's fine.