- This is my first question, because I know that you're
raised by a single mom that's a teacher as well.
- Me as well. - Yes.
My mom taught public school, fifth, sixth grade.
She's retired now, the last couple of years,
so she want's two grandkids more.
But yes, she taught public school.
- Yeah mine did too!
And when you went to film school,
nobody ever did that for me, like Shannon did,
like her teacher.
Did you ever have anything like that kind of assignment?
- No, no, not really.
I mean I knew because that was my mother's reason for
why I couldn't--
you know, "can we get the Star Trek toy?"
"No, we can't afford it"
- [Kelly] "No, why not?"
- It was always, "we can't afford it."
- [Kelly] We were broke too!
- So I just thought we must be so poor!
- [Kelly] Yeah!
- Because, but she definitely, well she did have one lesson
that she kinda tried to impart to me growing up.
Well I really wanted a dog when I was a kid.
- Oh yeah, every kid!
- A little house and a bath in here, and he'll bark.
And you know, pretty normal, be in a park, whatever.
And my mom said, "you're not responsible enough
to have a dog"
I was 10.
I was like, "I am responsible enough!"
she said, "you're right, why don't you show me
that you can do this? You have to walk the dog every day,
twice a day."
I said, "well okay, let's get the dog."
She said, "no, first you have to walk an imaginary dog"
(audience laughs)
I was like "it's, right, what do you mean?"
she said, "twice a day, around the block as if you had
the dog, so I know that you will do it
and you're responsible enough to do it."
So this woman, who I hope is watching,
(audience laughs)
gave me a leash! - I hope so too!
And I had to walk around the block with an empty leash.
- [Kelly] You look nuts!
- Twice a day.
And worse, we get to three weeks in and she's like--
- [Kelly] No!
- All right, forget it, I'm not giving you a dog!
(laughs)
(audience gasps)
- No!
- So she taught me the lesson of disappointment.
- [Kelly] Yeah, I was like, "you what?"
- Also came in handy.
- It's like all your hard work for nothing?
- I know.
- That is not a good lesson.
- Well she was like, "I didn't think you were gonna
follow through!"
(laughing)
- Oh my god, so you never got the dog?
- Yeah I didn't get a dog and then I thought
I was so deprived I did like the dumbest thing you can do,
which, that's the kind of thing you tend to do
when you're 18.
Which is how old I was.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And as soon as I moved to LA and decided to be an actor,
and had no money and no job.
And lived in a tiny apartment like, on Cherokee and Yucca
over there in Hollywood, like.
I was like, "I'm getting a dog."
(audience laughs)
- [Kelly] Damn it!
- So I went out and got a dog!
And not only get a dog but I got a husky.
(audience sighs)
Which is like the most, you know, they don't have--
- That's a hyper dog.
- They only roam, they only wanna escape.
You know what I mean, that's their like, mission in life.
- Yeah!
- But then I quickly realized like, "oh you have to get
the dog food, and like the vet costs money!"
(laughing)
- You don't have to feed it!
- I was "I'm kinda going broke on this dog!"
(audience laughs)
Has a sad ending to this story though, which was that
I used to leave the dog in a little space, shared space in
the apartment when I went out, so he'd have some floor time,
and the dog got stolen.
(audience sighs)
- That's wrong!
- This was before the little microchips and stuff that you
can put, you know, to track 'em down.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Yeah somebody stole the dog.
But it's telling that I didn't rush out and get another dog.
- You're like, "you know what, the universe knew."
- Well, yeah.
Somebody has spoken and he was probably
not living his best life with me.
- [Kelly] I did the same thing.
- I'm sure he had a very happy life
on a farm in Montana somewhere.
- I did the same thing though when I was young.
I was like, I think when you're out here, 'cause I moved
out here too.
And you want companionship or some kinda,
you get a bit lonely.
So I did that too, it was a dumb move.
- Yeah I think when you have the least money,
the smallest place--
- [Kelly] You make the poorest decisions.
- And you're the dumbest.
You're like, "let me find another life
that can depend on me!"
(laughs)
- 'Cause I'm holding it down solidly like myself.
- [Ben] Taken care of, yeah.
- All right come on guys let's go,
we've got 15 seconds left.
We're gonna go on eight, gives us time for a rebound
or a tipple.
Brandon, 20's gonna pick you up full court, all right?
Three, you're gonna come up and set
the ball free for Brandon.
Brandon, you roll around to the right.
Garcia, come up as a back screen for Kenny.
Kenny, come out to the wing for the three.
Now then we got three options.
Brandon attack in right, or look for threes coming
off the screen.
But neither of those are there, go to Kenny for the
three in the corner.
You got this okay?
Don't just nod, I wanna hear your voice.
Yes or no?
- Yes coach.
(whistle blows)
(crowd cheers)
(clapping)
- Oh my god, it's such a great film.
Welcome back, I'm here with Ben Affleck!
And now here's a clip from his new film "The Way Back"
which opens tomorrow.
So we'll talk about the film in a bit, but I did wanna
ask you, is it true that you speak Spanish, like fluently?
- I would say passably.
- [Kelly] Passably.
- Yes I pass--
- I would love to even get to that point.
I feel like I can't, I always try but there's,
it's like unless you're like, immersed around it like,
constantly I feel like it's just not gonna happen.
- That's the best way to learn for sure.
I mean I did this like a little kids TV series
when I was young, and when I was 13, that season that year
was in Mexico.
So I was in Mexico for a year and that's how I picked it up.
So I learned how to like--
- [Kelly] Oh when you were little.
- Yeah.
- It's easier when you're younger.
- And the brain when you're younger, yes.
So you got the like, the older brain doesn't hold on
to the information.
I wouldn't know myself, but that's what I, people have
told me who are older. - 'cause we're so young!
- We are both very young.
- That you remember but--
(laughs)
- So your kids speak Spanish?
'Cause they teach all the languages now in schools,
I've heard.
- My daughter's 14, and she's a very good student,
and she's interested in Spanish, and so, I often help her.
And now, she's all of a sudden got into the grade where
she's like, in the harder Spanish classes and she's
getting better.
And she's like way at the point where I think she might
be passing me.
And that's when I was like, "no, this is not happening."
(laughing)
I don't mind that I can't do your math homework,
you're 14 years old.
- But you will not be better.
But you're not gonna be better at Spanish than me.
(audience laughs)
and so I've decided now I gotta like, take classes,
I gotta do something--
- {Kelly] You gotta get a tutor.
- To keep up, because I can't have my 14 year old,
she's like, "nah, that sounds ridiculous, you're not using
the imperfect tense"
I'm just like, "I only know two tenses!
Now, before and future! That's all you need."
- Yeah!
- Also the problem with Spanish is that you learn a bunch
of words, like I don't know all these words.
- Yeah.
- In Mexico, some good, some, you know.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Not for the show.
- Always a choice, I get it.
(audience laughing)
- And then you go somewhere else, like you go to Spain,
or you go South America and they're like, "no, that's not
Spanish"
I'm like, "what are you talking about, that's not Spanish?"
And they go like, "I've never heard the word before
in my life."
(audience laughs)
And you're just like, "They say it in Mexico!"
"Mexico didn't speak real Spanish!"
- Yes!
- And then they're like, "you have a Mexican accent."
(laughs)
I was like, "hello, I don't have a Mexican accent"
I felt like--
I mean it's sort of like, the southern accent and,
you know, here.
Oh your, it's a little more like Australia, England
and here.
We're like, you know, you go to Australia
and they'll be like, "oh mate (mumbles)"
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Like I don't know.
- Well you're good at all the things.
- What is a boobidiboo?
- You're good at all that.
- Not really.
- Is it just 'cause you're exposed to it as an actor
at a young age?
- You know, I did a lot of, yeah I like to mimic.
Like voices and stuff, when I was a kid.
I got a big kick out of that.
And so I used to like copy my friends voices and stuff.
And my father, when he lived with us, was a big
Richard Pryor fan.
- Oh yeah!
- Who was maybe one of, you know, the greatest stand-up
comedian ever.
But not PG!
(laughing)
(audience laughing)
I can remember, records would play, I was in second grade,
third grade, fourth grade and I would imitate him and do
the jokes.
And he thought it was the funniest thing in the world.
And then one day we did like, bring dad to work day,
and he came in to talk about being an auto-mechanic.
And I thought it was like, "oh now's a good time to launch
into the Richard Pryor thing, that makes my dad laugh!"
and he was like, "no!"
(audience laughs)
- Oh my gosh.
- I found out what it's like to be strangled by an
auto-mechanic.
(laughing)
- And that's when the parent's was like, "they've never
done this before, I don't know where it's coming from!"
- "Where did you hear this?"
(laughing)
- I don't know what's happening!
Okay well tell us about "The Way Back" tell us about
the new movie.
- We find this guy, very much like down on his luck.
He's drinking a case of beer a day, he's living in
a kinda dingy apartment, he's, you know, he's got a job.
He works construction, but he's separated from his wife,
and you can tell he's not happy and he's not
engaged in life.
- Yeah.
- And throughout the course of the movie you start
to find out kinda what happened that got him to that place.
And also he gets offered a job to coach the high school
basketball team that he used to play for.
And he was like a big high school star.
He doesn't wanna do it, he's afraid, he's nervous,
but finally he takes the job.
You know, it's one of those things where he thinks
he's gonna kinda come in and really coach them,
and teach them and probably he gets more out of it,
the relationship, than the kids do.
- That's what I was gonna say, yeah.
- It's really incredible and it doesn't pull any punches
in terms of, life is hard, we're gonna have problems,
you're gonna suffer, it's gonna be difficult.
Sometimes really, really hard.
But still says like, "things can get better."
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- You can conquer your problem,
you can climb over these walls.
You know, you can improve your life
and be hopeful and inspiring and that's what I really
loved about it.
- Yeah.
- And it's a joyful experience for me.
I really loved doing it, I loved those guys .
It kinda rekindled my love for acting and, you know,
I'm really proud of the movie.
- Yeah, it's one of those movies like, it means something,
it's like the message is so , it's not just like a movie
laugh-out-loud.
And those are all great too, but I liked it had a
really solid message, I like that like,
and I always say this.
We have a lot of different stories on this show.
Everybody's addicted to something, like,
it might not be so obvious that it's alcohol for you,
or drugs or whatever.
But everybody has that and I love the redemption
factor in the film and I think it's very relatable.
And is there a reason why you wanted to sign up
to do this one?
- Yeah well, I mean for all those reasons.
I agree with you like, compulsive behavior.
You know, we have this brain that works like
a reward center right?
Like, our brain tells us like we eat food, and it sends
a little bit of reward, dopamine or seratonin or whatever.
- Mine's sugar.
What?
Yeah.
(audience laughs)
- And so like you point out the fact like it's yes,
you can look at things kind of isolated and also go,
"well that's an opioid addict problem, that's an alcohol
problem, that's a compulsive shopping problem, that's
anorexia, that's overeating, that's gambling, that's porn."
and then all of a sudden--
- It all comes from the same place.
- You see that basically it's a lot of different behaviors
but what they're all trying to do is like, get out some
feeling of discomfort.
- Yeah.
- You know, they're trying to solve that by doing something
that is clearly not good for them, not healthy.
You know it, mentally you know, in the front brain.
But that like, other part keeps asking for that reward
and that good feeling and then you create kind of
two minds like, "I know I don't wanna do this
and yet I kinda can't stop."
and that's when it goes from being you know,
something healthy and celebratory, like alcohol should be.
Great, have a drink, celebrate if you can do that.
To something that's like, you know, this is clearly
not helping my life.
- Yeah.
- And yet I'm still doing it.
So why is that?
And I think the movie takes a good look at that
in a way that's not, you know it's not a sermon,
it's not a lecture.
That's like for church and school.
- It just humanizes it.
- You go to the movies to be inspired.
- Yeah.
- And to find out that like, what was really important
about me for that, you know, recovering alcoholic myself,
is that you're not defined by your problems.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- That's not who you are.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Whatever it is, the issues,
you're not the bankrupt person, you're not the overeater,
you're not the opioid, you're like, a whole big complicated
person and that's one part of it.
And also, we tend to see those problems when they arrive
in our lives and kind of sit in them and go,
"now I'm stuck."
You're not stuck, you can move past that stuff,
you can change your life, you can make it better.
- [Kelly] Yeah, I agree.
(audience claps)
- I love though that the film though, humanized that.
- Yeah.
- And it's just a really, really great message.
Be sure to catch "The Way Back" in theaters tomorrow,
I can't recommend it enough.