- Hello.
- I, the last time you were here.
I'm so excited 'cause I wanna talk about you
but I also wanna talk about your daughter 'cause I went,
I went down a deep dive with your daughter musically.
And your daughter went off to college
since the last time you were here.
- Yeah
(Kelly laughing)
It's fine, I'm fine.
- [Kelly] It's like, is it like you're fine
but you also like, you, you miss her,
but you love the free time?
- It's everything.
- Okay.
- You know what's not great is like the goodbye
at the airport or when you leave after drop off
is not awesome.
- Yeah, I have a six and eight year old,
I can't even go there.
- [Helen] So, you don't go there.
- I have time.
- Because you have a long time.
- I have time, yeah.
But I can get why that would be hard.
But also when they're gone you're like,
what do I do with all this time?
- [Helen] Yeah, you pray, you work.
- Yeah.
- I went off to London and did a play.
I like ditched emptiness and was like,
"Hope that goes well for you, I'm leaving."
- I love it.
I love London though.
That's cool. - Yeah, yeah, it was fun.
- Awesome.
I did a deep dive on her.
Musically, she is incredible.
Like such a great storyteller.
Love her lyrics.
There's this one song "Blue" that I saw that you posted
and I literally was like, "This is, I love this lyric."
It's, it's from "Blue" and it's called
"Just Another Thing You Say It's Only
A Little Bit True."
Who's been in that relationship?
(Helen laughing)
- Like, it's like so interesting.
- Yeah, she's in this band called Thea.
It's, she's @makenalei and her partner is @rheagarten
and they are Thea and the album's called July.
They have a new song coming out April 15th
and I'm not promoting at all.
- No, it's, you should.
- You know, she, she, she played this Krista Ritas
who is KCRW here, I'm sure you know,
like Morning Becomes Eclectic.
He put her on the air, Chris Muckly at Sirius XM
put them on the air, them.
And, and then he did this, he does this thing
called School Night and they performed and you know,
I'm her mom, I'm gonna like whatever they do.
But they started and everybody in her life
looked at each other, like, I think this is like,
a real thing, like this is happening
- Ethereal sadness.
Like, it's like beautiful.
- [Helen] They are sad, beautiful sounds.
- I love it.
That's my favorite.
And I think that that's a great escapism too.
That's why we, you know, you gravitate towards music
and there's, there's such a mood.
- And the two of them write the songs together
and they, I just hear them downstairs like laughing
or they'll write some sad lyric and then I hear that's cool.
- Do you as a mom, 'cause I've never,
I'm the artist at this point so I can't imagine
having a kid write some of those lyrics.
- It's mind blowing.
- Is that hard for you to listen?
Like if it's like sad?
- Oh, often before she'll play me one,
she's like, this is all made up.
- There's disclaimer.
- So I just liked, I'm just gonna believe that.
- She's lied.
Nothing about this is true, mom.
- No, certainly not about me.
- That's a good play.
That's a good play.
So wait, is it true that while she was still at home,
your, your daughter stop you from getting a tattoo?
- She did.
That has flipped around now.
And now I just took her to get a tattoo, but yes.
I was gonna get a tattoo and she just said, "Mama, no."
- Wait, why did she say no?
- Because it was a, an emblem of the Rebel Alliance
from Star Wars.
(Kelly gasping)
- You are a total Star Wars fan.
I love that.
- I mean, I don't know, but I did get one.
- You did get one?
- I did get one, which I've never showed off.
This is it.
- Oh wait, what does this, what does this stand for?
Exclusive? I like it.
- Yeah, this is breaking, the story's breaking right now.
You know, it's got some different meanings, but yeah.
You don't, don't mess with me is in there somewhere.
- I love that.
- [Helen] You know what I mean?
- I have, yeah, I have one on my middle finger
that's like that.
(Helen laughing)
I had a very bad night in DC once.
- Yeah (laughs).
- I was like, let's remember this so we don't repeat it.
(Helen laughing).
- I love, that's what I love about tattoos.
And like, I get not wanting to say all of it too,
I have certain tattoos that I don't say everything
that's about because-
It's own kind of thing. - They mean something to you.
- But it's cool.
I like my, I grew up with my mother not being, you know,
she's religious, so not, you know, it's just temple.
I've been decorating my temple for years though.
So my temple has like about 27 tattoos.
But, but I mean, but I think it's beautiful
and it has meaning and stuff like that.
But you said she got one too?
- I mean, I took her, we had fun.
I don't know, it's all, it's all new once they're adults.
- My sister and I broke my mom down.
She got a tattoo with us.
- Oh my God, you're kidding.
- She was like 60 something and she was like,
I'll just, I'll do it if y'all do it.
And yeah, it was so cool to do that with her.
And like, we have that for-
- If there's a, you know if there's ever
a matching tattoo request I will be there.
Hasn't come yet.
- And ours wasn't matching.
It was like in the same, like I'm the, my,
my, my mom is the sun, I'm the moon
and my sister's the star, so there's a, a moon
and a star in the sun.
- [Helen] That's beautiful.
- Yeah, so it's not like exact, we're not like,
you know Ola Mills matching outfits or anything.
But we, we talked about your love of La Dodgers last time
and I heard that when you went there-
- I am wearing Dodger blue.
- I like Dodger Blue.
(audience clapping)
- The beginning of the season.
- But, so the last time you were there
Billie Jean King was there and you got to hang out?
- Yeah, I had seats that were way far away from the field
and somehow some buddy in the dodger world said, "You know
there's some empty seats you can come on down."
And the seats were like, Billy Jean King was right here.
So I'm trying to act natural.
And it was a day, it was a big setback for Roe v Wade,
so to me the, it was so meaningful to get to meet
and thank this person who has been working
for women's freedom and independence for her whole life.
That I got to actually say "Thank you."
- Yeah, that's, I didn't even think about it like that.
- It was that day, it was the day that one of the big,
you know, backslides occurred so at least I had someone
to be grateful for.
And then she went onto the field
which I think she does every game.
She was like, "Come on."
"Really?"
So I got to meet Dave Roberts.
- Oh my gosh.
- It's on my Instagram actually.
You see me meeting him and I'm I have a smile
that's like from here to here.
And if you look carefully I just keep saying
over and over, "I'm so happy. I'm so happy."
- I had, so my, I didn't, I didn't grow up
in a ton of stuff but I, I loved Nolan Ryan growing up
'cause I'm a Texas girl. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And I met Nolan Ryan.
And I had the same grin.
It was just like a childhood thing
and he signed a baseball for me.
- It's different even than meeting entertainers.
- It is, because it's out of your world.
- Yeah, like how could they do what they,
how could know when Ryan threw that world,
how is that possible?
- So I get the smile from here.
I, I looked ridiculous, but I was happy.
So last time you were here, you told us
you were nearly blinded, like when you shot Twister.
So I heard that you literally choked
while hosting SNL's.
Do you have a theme of-
- Maybe, it's possible.
- How did you choke on a song?
- Well the, the cold opening of the Saturday Night Live
was a Christmas show and I suggested it be
in that first slot and Lauren Michael said,
"That's a good idea."
So I was already like, I could die happy then.
And I also wanted to be the one to say live from New York.
Like, you know, if you can grab that.
- Absolutely.
- But it was a Christmas thing where we're singing,
we played Carolers, Anna Gasteyer and Will Ferrell
and a bunch of other people, and it's snowing,
but of course it's snowing little pieces of plastic.
So I went "Live from New York at Saturday Live"
and one of the pieces of snow.
So then my next sketch was with Tim Meadows and I,
I was quietly choking, but no one seemed to notice.
- Oh my gosh.
- That's, I guess as a compliment or a problem (laughs).
- [Kelly] Skills, you're a professional.
- The show must come on.
- 'Cause that happened to me on a video shoot
and I took in dirt and because it was
like a dirt everywhere-
- And it can grab your throat.
- And it grabbed and apparently it wasn't dirt,
it was like crushed peanut shells or something?
Walnut, it was Walnuts, that's what it was.
And I was like, crushed well and I was like,
what the and I choked for.
I was not professional.
I was dramatic.
I was like (groaning).
I was like, something's wrong.
And it was like very dramatic.
Last borne.
Okay, so you spent a lot of time in Oakland
making your new show.
- I did.
- This is also, this is Blindspotting.
So do you, do people recognize you there?
Are they like what's up?
- Yeah, but they don't care 'cause they're too cool.
- [Kelly] What?
- I mean, they care in the nice way,
but not in the annoying way.
This is a-
- Get that too.
I love that.
I love fans.
- Yeah, people are like, "Love you"
and they're on their way.
- [Kelly] Exactly. - They're great.
- [Kelly] No, that's winning.
- Yeah, that's winning.
Or if you've done a show that means a lot to you
and they go, "I thought that" that's, or I'm sure,
if you have a song that they really got-
- It's like a deep cut.
And you're like, "All right."
- This is the second season of this show
Blindspotting on Stars, based on the movie.
- Which Daveed-
- Daveed Digs and Rafael Casal made and starred in
and now they've created this show.
This is our second season.
And it's, it's so beautiful.
I didn't make it so like my daughter's album, which I,
my daughter and her friend Rea Gartens album
that I had nothing to do with I can promote it shamelessly.
This is a beautiful show.
It's about the effects of incarceration
on the whole rest of the family and the community.
And it's a really laugh out loud comedy.
And there's incredible choreography
by Lil Buck and John Bugs.
And there's spoken word, which I do somehow.
So it's cool. - That's cool.
To stretch a different muscle, right?
Daveed is so funny.
Yes, I love him.
So you, you've described your character
as a hippie loud mommy.
Do you relate to that at all?
Because I do.
- I, when I first got the part,
I'm like, how am I gonna play this?
- You literally just said three things that are me.
- Oh, really?
Yeah, so, you know, I put together what she wears.
I've got a wig that's got a little more gray than I have.
And yeah, she's the loud, liberal of "No one
in the room's gonna say it, I'm gonna say it."
And then I got to work and it was time to get dressed
and I took off my Birkenstocks and put on her Birkenstocks.
I took off my leg, put on her leg.
I rolled up my graying hair and put her,
and I was like "There's no character here at all,
it's me."
- [Kelly] It's just like hanging out my skin.
- It's just me.
- [Kelly] That's fun.
- And I got hired to do it.
What, what did you learn about playing the role?
Did you know a lot about incarceration
and how it affects the family?
- Yeah, I mean, for different reasons I've been,
you know as a white woman had the privilege to learn
about it more slowly than other people in our country
because it saturates my community slightly less
than people of color.
But first of all, you know, the prison for profit thing
is, it's hard to wake up in the morning knowing that.
- I remember finding that out.
- Yeah, no, it's, it's devastating.
And this show, there have been beautiful books
and documentaries and movies made about that.
And this show is talking about the effects on the mothers
and the sons, and the wives, and the sisters,
and the best friends-
- And the loved one.
- You know, the concentric circle of, of suffering
That this system causes and somehow it's-
- You don't think about it.
- No, if you have the privilege not to think about it.
- [Kelly] Unless it's impacting you, yeah, wow.