(audience cheering and clapping)
- We have like standing ovations happening.
It's getting crazy.
- Oh my goodness. How y'all do it?
(audience cheers louder) (Kelly laughs)
- So, so let's start with you.
So you're from Arkansas, right?
- [Symone] I am.
- So what was it like growing up, growing up in Arkansas?
- Oh, child. You know,
you're from the south too, aren't you?
- I'm from Texas. - You from Texas.
You was next door. - Yep.
- Okay, so you know how it was.
It was hard. It was hot.
- [Kelly] Hot.
- It was humid.
- It can get judgey.
- Yeah, it can get judgey.
- Especially if you're in a small town.
- Yeah, but you know, I was a shy kid
so I was very to myself and you know,
we had the bullies and all that stuff.
But, I discovered drag.
- [Kelly] Yeah, people don't believe me
that I was shy too.
- Really?
- So wait, now when do you discover drag?
When you discovered that,
did it kind of bring you out of your shell?
Because when I discovered music
that's where my personality came in.
- Absolutely, absolutely. - Yeah.
- And my mom, so my mom saw me for the first time
when I perform and she was like,
"Who was that? Where'd that come from?
I didn't even know you could talk some of the times,
how could you get up there and do that?".
- [Kelly] I love that though. - Yeah.
- But speaking of growing up, so let, let's see.
Jim as a teen- - Oh.
- [Kelly] cause I love this photo.
- Oh my. - [Kelly] Yep, let's see this.
- Get ready, get ready to swoon.
(everybody laughs) (audience claps)
- [Kelly] Here we go.
- [Jim Rash] I love how we fade out my sister's face.
(everyone laughs) - [Kelly] We didn't,
we didn't get the OK.
- [Jim Rash] Don't show her identity.
No, she's not speaking.
- [Kelly] I was, I was braces as well.
- [Jim Rash] Look at that, beautiful.
- So, what were you like back then?
- Incredible. Final answer. (everyone laughs)
Final answer. - Final answer, anything.
- Oh, I, you know, it's not a shock.
Totally, drama club.
Totally did all the, the the
questionable high school plays, you know,
"Flowers for Algernon". - Yes.
- Cause every high schooler wants to see
"Flowers for Algernon". (everyone laughs)
- [Kelly] Oh my God. I love it.
- I was like the dad of Charlie,
if you know "Flowers for Algernon",
and I, you know, I grew up in North Carolina
and so my version of New York was like, you know,
the mom's name is Rose, like,
(speaks with New York accent) "Rose,
What about Charlie, Rose?"
(everyone laughs) "I'm worried about Charlie."
That's what it sounds like in my head.
- [Kelly] I love that.
We would've been friends (laughing).
- Yeah, right?
- So wait, were, were you as good a dancer
as a teen as you are now?
Because we have really, this really great footage
that I just wanted to show everyone real quick.
- [Jim Rash] You get ready.
- [Kelly] Here we cut, there we go.
(everyone cheers and claps loudly)
- [Jim Rash] Yes. Yes.
Now you probably can't hear the music
cause you're like, "what's he dancing to?".
- I mean, are you dancing to Proud Mary or is it-
- No, just silence. (everyone laughs)
- [Kelly] that's just si-? - I love a good silent,
no, that's actually to
"A Lot of Livin' To Do" from "Bye Bye Birdie".
(everyone laughs)
- We're all shocked Jim - You got it, right?
Yeah, yeah.
It's floored everybody in the audience.
- I liked your shimmy.
- No, my friend sent that.
That was early pandemic
when we thought it was sort of cute,
we were getting puzzles
and we're just hanging at our house for like two weeks.
And he sent me the clip of Anne Margaret dancing.
He says, "I wanna see this recreated".
So that's what I did in my kitchen.
Cause that's why these hands are like this.
(everyone laughs)
I'm trying my best to do and that's where her hair
would be doing fantastic work and my bald head is not.
- My favorite too is when people don't realize
what your tongue is doing.
Like, you know, and your, and your tongue
is just like, "Mm". (everyone laughs)
- [Kelly] You don't realize you're like
doing something serious and I'm like,
"why is my tongue hanging out?".
- Yes. It's basically a constant neuro face-
- Pretty great. - and like that.
- Okay. So Symone, you were recently part of
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton's "Gutsy".
- [Symone] Yes. - I, I love that whole series.
- [Symone] Thank you - It was incredible.
(audience cheers and claps) - It was amazing, amazing.
- [Kelly] Yeah, I was so glad that they came on
cause I got to watch the whole thing and it was really cool.
How did that come about? How did that-
- Hey, look at that. - [Kelly] Fabulous.
- [Symone] Fabulous darling.
- Wow.
- Pretty bitch. (everyone laughs)
- How did it come about?
Like what, how did you become a part of It?
- Oh well they, they sent an email.
You know how all these things go,
And at first my, my manager, Hunter, he told me and I said,
"Me? Is this a joke? You, you playing with me?
He said, "Yeah", and then of course
I was honored and floored cause I was
You do drag, you do all these things.
I've had a lot of great opportunities.
But Hillary Clinton, wanna come talk to me?
- [Kelly] In Arkansas. - [Symone] Yeah.
- She's from Arkansas. - And we went back.
And we, we threw her a party,
at our friend's house back home.
Prom, drag show, party for Miss Hillary Clinton,
who would've thought?
- You did all of it. - [Symone] We did all of it.
- All of it. I love that.
- [Symone] Yeah, so I got to perform in front of her.
It was great. It was a fabulous experience.
- Yeah, the whole series was incredible.
- [Symone] Yeah. - I love that
you were highlighted.
It was really, really cool, I had to bring that up.
(audience cheering) So we mentioned
how groundbreaking that this movie is,
but what was it like for everyone to work
with an all LGBTQ+ cast?
That was cool, like the cast and crew.
- It was a lot of fun. It was like going,
cause you know we have our own little language with our,
we call each other family. - [Kelly] Yeah.
- So like it was so much fun to go and know that
everyone speaks the same language.
It was fun and it just, it didn't, it felt safe.
Safe is a good word.
- I was, I was, I'm so glad you said it.
I was, "guys, did it feel safe?".
Like, cause I, I feel like that when it's people I know,
like even on "The Voice" and I go back, we leave for months,
we come back, it's like family.
- [Symone] Mm-hm - Like you come back in
and it's, those are your people.
That, that's gotta be cool and it's gotta be a
comfortable environment to be able to really be creative in?
- [Billy Eichner] Yeah. - [Luke Macfarlane] Yeah.
- It also allowed all of us to make fun of each other.
- [Jim Rash] Yeah, - You know?
(everyone laughs)
- "Bros" - Once again love.
- Exactly. "Bros" is a comedy.
You know, it's not like a super serious thing.
We didn't wanna walk on eggshells
or be, you know, sanctimonious.
It's like, we want to be able to spoof each other
as much as we're spoofing everyone else.
- [Kelly] Yeah. - Because I think
it's important that we laugh at ourselves
and we laugh at everyone
and all of us being in the community allowed us to do that.
- Yeah. - Oh my God,
that was like the scene at the table
when you're all at the table (laughs).
- Yes, exactly, yeah. In the boardroom.
- And you're all sticking up for your individual,
(laughs) it was amazing.
So wait, was the plan always to have
LGBTQ+ actors in the principal roles?
Was that always from the get go?
- Pretty early on, I think the first decision we made
is that Luke's character, Aaron, my love interest
should also be an openly gay man.
And then I turned to Judd Apatow and Nick Stoller
who I made the movie with, and they're both straight men,
but I said, "you know what? What if
we're all openly LGBTQ in all the roles?
Because I think that will just make the movie
as funny as it is and it is mainly a comedy,
but it will add some meaning to it you know".
- Authenticity.
- Authenticity was so important
and luckily everyone went along with it.
And I think it's one of the most magical things.
You're sitting in a movie theater and you're laughing
but then somewhere in the back of your head,
you know we're all in the community
and that we've never gotten this type of opportunity to just
fill out the entire cast of a big studio comedy like this.
Like, you know, we've had "Bridesmaids"
and movies like that,
but we're very rarely a part of them, you know?
And we still relate to it and we love them
and we laugh and we're moved,
but it's nice to see ourselves up there
and I think it's great for straight people
to get a real peak at our lives also.
- Yeah, I mean we, we grew up watching
straight couples fall in love.
- [Kelly] Yeah. - And we laughed with them
and we cried with them,
and maybe straight couples can watch
a gay couple fall in love and laugh and cry with them too.
You know, we certainly have had lots of experience.
- [Kelly] Love is love and funny is funny.
Like yeah, I think it's all, it's all the same.
So I, I wanna ask you though, speaking of that,
like growing up, like what were like, I don't know,
what was like one of your favorite romcoms growing up?
- Mm.
- It's hard. - That's hard.
- It is hard. - So many.
- [Kelly] I just went through so many.
- I love "Moonstruck". - [Kelly] Oh.
- I love Moon Struck. - [Kelly} Nice.
- I mean growing up, so we're going back.
I love "Working Girl", "When Harry Met Sally".
= [Kelly] Yeah. - You know,
and we don't get those movies
in movie theaters anymore , you know.
- [Kelly] We don't really get them made anymore.
- They don't get made like "Sleepless in Seattle".
- So thank you for making one (laughs).
- [Billy Eichner] "You've Got Mail", exactly.
We just wanted to make a movie like that cause
I make a movie that makes you feel good
when you leave the theater and hopeful and you know,
- Usually people don't say "Moonstruck". Why "Moonstruck"?
- Well, it's a great movie Kelly Clarkson.
(everyone laughs) - It is.
It is a great movie but in fact,
it's usually not the one people say.
Why that one for you?
- It that was a huge movie when I was growing up
and I love Cher. Gay.
- I love Cher. (everyone laughs)
- She won the Oscar and it's a great,
I also grew up in New York.
It's a great New York movie.
It makes New York really magical and-
- [Kelly] That's why I love "You've Got Mail".
- I love "You've Got Mail" too.
- I was like, "oh, I should, I should definitely
move there and start a children's bookstore", like I was-
- And we actually, we just had our
New York premier of "Bros" in the movie theater
where I remember seeing "You've Got Mail" the day it opened.
- [Kelly] Oh wow.
- And we actually, very specifically, talk about
"You've Got Mail" in "Bros" in a funny way.
And that was very magical.
- That's my, that's my favorite one,
I think, that sticks out. What about you?
- [Luke Macfarlane] I love "Pretty Woman".
- (gasps) Oh. (audience cheers and claps)
- Yeah. - [Kelly] It's like-
- I, I love "Pretty Woman". I'm gonna own-
- [Jim Rash] There you go.
- I love Richard Gere.
- [Kelly] That one was always tricky for me.
- [Jim Rash] Like I'm not gonna clap for that.
- It is tricky.
- It's always tricky for me. I was like, "oh my gosh"
or like, "wait"
- I know.
- You're totally right but you know
those performances and the chemistry-
- [Kelly] The chemistry
- [Billy Eichner] It's about that chemistry.
- That's right.
- [Kelly] Gotta love tension. - Yeah.
- [Kelly] Thank you for making your romcom.
- You're welcome. - We love it.
- Hope people take us up on the opportunity to see it.