- Thank you for singing with me.
That was beautiful. - Thank you for letting me.
- It's actually hard to sing with you.
I was telling the band.
Because you find yourself listening.
And I'm like, "Oh right, I'm singing harmony."
Like you totally lose track 'cause you're
that captivating. - Thank you.
Thank you very much. - Which is very rare.
I just wanna tell you.
That's all. - Thank you very much.
- And that song is so hopeful.
- [Cynthia] Yeah. - You forget.
I mean, we've heard it since we were kids,
but it's so hopeful. - Every time it comes around,
you're like, "Oh, that's a good concept
to think of." - Yeah.
Were you excited to be a part of the movie
and get to see that? - [Cynthia] Really,
really excited.
I was excited because that particular song is sort
of one of those soundtracks that you hear
over and over again when you're little and--
- [Kelly] Yeah. - And then to be able
to be here now as the Blue Fairy
for generations coming up to see that,
is really, really special. - [Kelly] Yeah.
(audience applauding) And you were just beautiful.
I was just like, "I wanna glow like that.
I wanna arrive at a party and glow like that."
But you've always been musical, right?
- Yes, yeah.
- Like since you were little.
So you directed your church choir,
is this right? - So, for a little bit.
They asked me to come on
and be the choir director.
The choir director at the time
wasn't able to do it for like a couple of weeks.
So he left and then they asked
if I would do that, but I got into trouble
because I kept sneaking in gospel music.
- Oh!
- So they got really mad at me one time
and just was like, "You can't do it anymore
because you keep putting in this kind of music."
And I was like, 'cause I was --
For context, it was a Catholic church.
So we really just do like,
hymns. - [Kelly] Hymns, yeah.
- And I wanted more.
- [Kelly] Yeah, no, that was me.
I grew up Southern Baptist
and we did hymns, mostly.
Yeah. - And that's it.
- And I love a hymn.
Hymns are beautiful.
But it's like also, the Lord made us have
other joyful noises.
- [Cynthia] Other joyful noises.
- [Both] Yes.
- So I would just put it in the run of--
- [Kelly] Can I tell you something?
I snuck Celine Dion. - [Cynthia] Well done!
- It was like, I snuck in, I was like,
"Yes, it's a song about Jesus.
And it's a song that is so powerful to me."
And I was like, I just love the song.
And in my head, it was spiritual.
The message could have been like spiritual,
and I totally snuck it in
and got in trouble, but I did it.
- Done it. Too late now! - You know what?
Sorry's fine.
You can say, sorry later.
- Exactly, right.
(audience cheers and applause)
- So we've been talking about your childhood,
and I know you grew up around a lot of women.
So how did that impact you?
- I think I just learned how to sort
of be me. - [Kelly] That's wonderful.
- My mom was always sort of very welcoming
of who I was.
She knew I was an arty kid.
She let me go and sing.
She let me be in like art programs,
all of that stuff.
And I think I just got to know myself
really quickly because I was surrounded
by women most of the time.
Went to a girl school as well.
So it's just like-- - [Kelly] What a blessing.
- That's who I am.
- But I think that's what also
makes you specifically magical.
- [Cynthia] Thank you.
- Like somebody so confident
and comfortable in their skin.
It's so wonderful that you had that support growing up.
That's so cool.
- [Cynthia] Thank you.
- 'Cause not all artistic--
Like we, we all didn't get that like growing up.
- Yeah.
- So, well you've been open about identifying as queer.
- Yes.
- So were you able to embrace that as a teenager?
Was that easy?
- No, because I don't think I had the language.
- [Kelly] Oh.
- To even know what was going on.
I think it's come much later to me now,
and it's wonderful to just be me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Really, yeah.
- Refreshing.
- [Cynthia] Yes, very much so.
- Yeah.
And I think it sort of made space creatively
to just sort of let go of whatever I was hiding.
I guess, you know, you don't realize you're doing that.
Putting so much energy behind it.
And once you take the energy away
from concealing something that is so a part of you
that you you can't hide it, you can put it elsewhere.
- Absolutely.
- Make more wonderful things.
- When you say like, you didn't know the language
you mean like there just wasn't a lot around you
that kind of even, you didn't even, you knew it
was happening, but you didn't know what to say about it.
- What to say.
Yeah, I knew something was different.
Particularly when I talk about that,
I knew something was different, but I didn't know what,
like how, what do I call it?
What do I say about it?
And now --
- I've never heard someone describe it like that.
And that's so poignant.
- Yeah, I think sometimes we assume
that every queer person knows it from the beginning.
Most of us do, but we don't necessarily know the language
until someone says, "Hey, this is, these are words
that you might want to use.
These are expressions that you might want to use."
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- This here is some space for you.
So you can speak about yourself
without someone else telling you.
- And I think finding your people, like when you're young.
- [Cynthia] Yeah.
- Like you're people to kind of help you.
- [Cynthia] Yeah.
- Like cultivate and all of us, you know,
our personalities, our character, like who we are.
- Yeah.
- Well we talked a little about running last time.
- [Cynthia] Yes.
- Um, I still don't.
(laughs)
- But I'm just letting you hold it down for the both of us.
- Sure, I can do that.
- But you're now about to do the London marathon.
So how has training been?
What's your playlist like?
- So playlists it varies depending on the day.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- If I'm having, like, if it's tough,
and it's been tough to get out of bed to get on the road,
I tend to ease myself into it.
So I'll listen to like a Yebba Smith
or I'll give myself I don't know, like an ease PJ Morton.
A really amazing.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But if it's like a good, good day
and I'm like, I'm ready for this Renaissance.
It's just easy.
- Oh, Beyonce.
Yeah, yeah.
(audience cheers and applause)
- So excited.
I think there's some fans here.
- Good.
- [Cynthia] There she goes.
- [Kelly] That's awesome though that people don't realize--
That's also, that was gonna be the cover of my next album.
- Fabulous.
- And then I was like, "Fine, Beyonce.
You take the glass horse."
I, it would look different.
No, but I, I love her though,
because I do feel like she has,
there's certain artists that I go to when I do work out.
- [Cynthia] Yeah.
- And I, it's like, I have to be like pumped up.
- [Cynthia] Yeah.
- I need them to like amp me up.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- That's awesome that you have that.
- That's what she does with me.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And I'm and the training's going really well.
We're sort of, I think we're four weeks out of it now.
- [Kelly] Do you start getting nervous
that you have to follow through?
- I had a moment last week where I was like,
"Ooh, I do actually have to do this now."
But I'm really excited.
I'm very, very excited about it.
- Are you convincing yourself right now?
(laughs)
- Maybe.
- I'm very excited about it.
- Well, I've done the marathon before
and I think for it sounds terrible,
but I'm always like, I know what the end goal is
and I know how, what it feels like at the very end.
And there's just such a wonderful sense
of achievement when you manage to get
to the end of that run which is 26.2 miles by the way.
- I would feel like Superwoman.
- Yeah, yeah.
There is that, there is.
There's like a real rush of adrenaline.
- 'Cause that's what I do in a car.
- [Cynthia] Right.
- I'm like, yeah.
It's just like 20 miles away.
We're just gonna drive there real quick.
- [Cynthia] Right.
- That's crazy.
- [Cynthia] Yeah.
- But it is awesome.
I love people like you, people like Kyle,
my bass player, he's crazy into marathons.
And it's amazing though that y'all are holding it down
for humanity to know what we could do.
- [Cynthia] Right.
- Like I don't need to do it because you know.
We now know we're capable of this.
- [Cynthia] Right.
- Like, yeah.
So thank you for doing that for us.
- I appreciate that.
Thank you very much.
- I love, I love that high you must get at the end though.
- [Cynthia] Yeah, yeah.
- It must be so gratifying.
To complete something so big.
- And like it can be anything
from like three miles to 20 miles.
The high that you get at the end
is really like, oh, I did this.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- This thing that I wasn't sure I could do
like two miles ago, I've managed to finish now.
Like it feels great.
Yeah.
- Yeah, so before you go
I have to ask something about British people
because I just wanna know chocolate covered gummy bears.
Is this like a thing that British people just say,
you know what?
Just let's watch.
Just let's watch this first.
- [Cynthia] Okay.
- Is it like a normal gummy bear or I'll find out.
- [Kelly] It's awesome.
It's awesome.
I don't know.
Depending on what flavor you would get.
You're not into it?
- I don't know, Kelly.
- [Kelly] Fine.
Gimme the bowl.
- I'm sorry.
- [Kelly] Give the bowl.
- It's, I think it's a textural thing.
- What?
Is, like, okay.
Is the distaste for chocolate covered gummy bears
a British thing or a Radcliffe thing?
You ever had one?
- I have had one before.
I don't like them.
- We were so close.
You know, our friendship.
It was so close.
- But here's the thing, I don't know whether
it was the maybe the brand I had.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- Or, and I now also don't know
whether it is a British thing
or whether it's just a me and a Radcliffe thing.
- Okay.
I'm gonna ask every British person
that has their bum on this couch.
I just, I'm just, I think we have some,
so I just thought thought we would try.
Maybe you need a different flavor.
(audience applause and cheers)
- But how can you tell what flavor?
- You can't.
It's like a surprise.
- Oh!
- [Kelly] It's a good surprise.
Look at that.
I'm not eating like sugar right now.
So this is amazing that I'm getting paid for it.
It's so good.
(audience laughs)
- Because--
- Let it, let it, let it sit.
Let it sit.
It's so good.
- The thing is,
it makes the gummy itself taste like chocolate.
So I don't know what flavor gummy I just had.
- Which is awesome.
- But then what is the point?
- Because it's that texture.
It's like the chemistry of the gummy bear and the--
You know what I just realized,
we went from running marathons to sugar.
That's what we do on the Kelly Clarkson Show.
See?
After taste.
(sings run) Mmm.
- (sings) Oh no.
- (sings) Yes.
- (sings) No, no, no.
(laughs)
- No, I love that for you.
- Thanks.
- Cynthia Erivo, everybody.
(cheers and applause)