Hi.
Hello, Awkwafina.
Hi, Ellen.
So we met recently at a thing that Jen Aniston was--
Yeah.
And I remember meeting you backstage.
And it was a memorable conversation that we had.
Yes.
It stuck with me.
What did we talk about?
[LAUGHTER]
I was really nervous.
And then the prompter broke.
I don't if you remember that.
Yes.
But you had your phone.
Yes, I had my phone.
Yes, luckily.
But no.
You said don't ride the highs, and don't ride the lows.
Yes, I did say that.
It's the truest advice ever.
It is the truest advice.
You can't believe, because if you believe the high,
you have to believe in lows.
If you just kind of stay in your--
do stuff that makes you happy.
Totally.
Yeah.
No, you handled it very well because I
do remember that, that it broke and you
had your stuff on your phone, thank goodness.
Because most people don't write their stuff on their phone.
Yeah, no.
Yeah, that's the only thing I write on nowadays.
Really?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh.
No.
Yeah.
Well, what happens when you lose your phone?
I don't know.
I just write it in a notebook.
Then that's it?
Yeah.
It's tight.
Yeah.
It is tight.
So I have to ask you before we talk about anything
else about your cat because I saw a picture of your cat,
and I said what's the story of the cat in the meeting
this morning.
And they told me a ridiculous thing
that I kind of don't believe, but I'd
like you to convince me.
OK.
That he taught himself how to pee?
Yep.
Well, not just how to pee, but how to pee--
In a toilet.
Right, because they all know how to pee.
Human toilet.
You don't believe that.
No.
On its own.
You never tried to do that.
You just came home one day, and it was hovering over the toilet
peeing.
OK, There were paw prints.
That's my boy.
Yeah.
There were paw prints on the toilet.
And then I walked in.
I walked in on him.
And he was doing-- he did even look at me.
As you can see in the video, he's not even looking up.
He's doing his thing.
And I really didn't know what to do.
Yeah, because he would just pee in the human toilet.
It's really remarkable.
Now, does he flush?
He does not flush, and he also can't go number two because he
loses his balance.
Uh-huh.
Yeah, so yeah.
Yeah, so it's just the--
It's just the number one.
Just the number one.
So literally, all of a sudden it just taught itself
how to go in the toilet.
That's incredible.
I think it watched a lot.
I think it watched people, you know?
Man, you got to be careful what you do in your house.
Yes, exactly.
That your cat catches on to what you do.
Yeah, yeah.
That's impressive.
Yes.
That's a smart cat.
I wish my cats would go in the toilet.
They don't go in the toilet?
They do not.
What's wrong with them?
Something called a litter box.
They're very average cats.
They're not that smart.
So I understand your grandmother is very excited
that you're here.
Yeah, she is.
She loves you a lot.
Well, thank you.
What's her name?
Poa.
Poa?
Hi, Poa.
She's watching right now.
She's freaked out.
Yeah.
I saw a picture of her eating popcorn in a very unique way.
Yes.
She went to the--
yeah.
Those are two straws that are acting as chopsticks.
Yeah, that's my grandma.
Yeah.
So now she's going to see every movie you're in.
Yeah, because so I showed her a screener of The Farewell.
And she got up, basically, at the most pivotal part.
And I was like, where are you going?
She's like, I got to cook.
And so she left.
And I was like, OK.
So then I went on national television,
and I told that story.
And she felt so guilty.
And now she goes to see all my movies
and eats popcorn with two straws as chopsticks.
[APPLAUSE]
She got up in the middle of The Farewell?
She got up in the middle.
And then she went to go see it in the theater.
And she was like, I stayed, all right?
And I saw Jumanji.
Oh, my God.
It was good.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
That keeps you grounded, huh?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Now the Golden Globes, as we all know, was last night.
So congratulations.
Oh, right.
Yes.
Yeah.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
Thank you, yes.
Yes.
Whether you won or not--
I may have been in the bathroom-- but if you won,
congratulations.
Thank you.
And if you didn't, congratulations
on getting nominated.
Thank you.
Yeah, both were great.
Yeah, the Golden Globes we're talking about, of course.
We're talking about the Golden Globes,
which happened last night.
My date was Tom Selleck.
And we had a great time.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah.
It was really amazing.
That's not true.
No.
Who will you bring?
I invited my grandma, and she was like, I don't know.
And I was like, what?
It's the hardest ticket in town to get.
Anybody would love to go to the Golden Globes.
I think that you should tell her.
You should tell her that.
But no.
I mean--
I just did.
I'm sure she would love to come.
Yeah, she's definitely watching right now.
Yeah.
So you think she might come with you?
Yes.
All right.
And Awkwafina is not your real name.
No.
It's not.
You name is--
Nora.
And when did you change it to Awkwafina?
When I was 15 or 16.
And for what reason?
I've always been very awkward.
It's just a part of my vibe, like my aura.
Right.
It's a play on words of that.
Right.
So you said instead of awkward, because that would have
been just too on the money--
Right.
It would have just been awkward.
If my name was just awkward, yeah.
You made it fancier.
Yeah, that's a beautiful name.
I love that.
All right.
Well, you can always change it again.
There's no rule.
You can't change it twice.
So you can change it to awkward later if you want.
Yeah, maybe--
Unless you're not awkward anymore.
Do you still feel awkward?
Yeah, I feel awkward right now.
Yeah.
But I love it.
Not because of you.
That's my default. I run on it.
Right.
You don't want to get too comfortable.
No.
Because then who knows?
Everything's boring.
Yeah.
No, it's good that you embrace it.
Yeah, you should.
I have a lot of experiences being awkward for sure.
All right, I want to hear about all of them.
All right, but we have to take a break.
And then we want to talk about the movie, which
was really good.
Congratulations.
We'll be back.
More with Awkwafina.
[APPLAUSE]
That's Awkwafina in The Farewell.
It's such a great-- it's kind of-- it's
not a true story of yours.
It's a true story of the director or--
Lulu Wang, yeah.
Explain the movie.
So yeah.
So The Farewell it's based on an actual lie.
Lulu's grandma got terminal lung cancer.
And the family made the decision not to tell her.
So they stage a fake wedding as kind of a last chance
to see her.
In China.
In China, yeah.
And it's amazing too because she's doing all these exercises
to keep all the toxins out.
Yeah, yeah.
And she has no idea that she's sick.
Right.
Yeah.
It's amazing.
So again, you're nominated for a Golden Globe.
And the first award that you ever
got in your life-- is this true-- is the Gotham Award?
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Yeah.
Really?
I've never been like--
I've ever even made it into the group in my whole life.
I won a hot dog eating contest one time.
Oh, wow.
How many hot dogs did you eat?
Three.
So That's not-- but the way that they do it, it was a lot for--
I understand.
OK.
But that's amazing then.
Yeah.
It was really cool.
And then with the Globes-- and then
there's a possibility, they're saying, for the Oscars
that you may be nominated, which would make you
the first Asian-American woman to be nominated, right?
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, yeah.
That would be incredible.
[APPLAUSE]
Well, not just for that reason--
I hope you get nominated because we
do need more inclusion and diversity--
but I think that you're fantastic.
So congratulations to all the success.
Thank you.
That's fantastic.
The Farewell is available now to rent and to own.
We'll be right back.
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