-Our first guest tonight is Tony- and Academy Award-winning
actress who you know from films like "Chicago" and "Traffic."
She stars in the series "Prodigal Son,"
which airs Tuesday nights on Fox.
Please welcome back to the show Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Hello, Catherine. How are you?
-I'm good, Seth.
It's so lovely to see you. It's been a while.
-It has been awhile.
It's always a delight to see you.
How have you and your family been holding up?
-Pretty good, you know?
I mean, it's been an unprecedented year
for everybody.
I must say, personally, it was lovely
when we were in a vulnerable and unknowing time
to have my peeps, my loved ones around.
So, I had my son home from college
and my daughter home from school.
She goes to school in Switzerland.
So, we were all back in our bubble.
And supposedly, speaking to my son,
we fared better than many families.
He's like, "Mom, you don't understand --
people aren't talking to each other."
They're like, "No."
So, we played lots of games.
My kids -- and I must say, kudos to them.
I thought for sure, you know, they're all back --
not just them, but all their other friends from high school
all live down our street, right?
They were brought up right here all together.
And I thought it was gonna be party central.
You know, all these kids coming back from college,
congregating in the garage band garage,
which is usually ours.
But they really got it. So, we had a good time.
And they're finishing up now and looking forward to, hopefully,
a more kind of outdoorsy summer than we had last year.
-Well, that is a credit to them.
Did you feel a sympathy for the fact that, you know,
they were young people who were, in your son's case,
losing a year of in-person college?
-Yeah.
I live vicariously through my kids.
Let me tell you. I never went to college.
I was schlepping the boards of London and that,
touring "The Pajama Game" at 15 --
jazz hands, jazz hands, jazz hands.
You know, so there is a part of me that --
I mean, I had an education,
but I self-educated myself in my love for learning, you know.
And so my kids -- who got all their brains from me,
but don't tell Michael.
You know? I mean...
-You -- I just read a wonderful article.
I didn't quite appreciate how young you started.
You mentioned your early schlepping across the boards.
So, you knew at a very young age,
as soon as you got a taste of it,
that this would be what you were gonna do.
-Yeah, I was --
They did this big publicity stunt in Britain
looking for kids for "Annie," and then subsequently,
Micky Dolenz's directorial "Bugsy Malone" onstage.
Right?
So they came to Wales, they...
You know, they went down to my --
Where I live in Wales is the end of the track.
You can't go further west unless you get the Cork ferry
over to Ireland, you know?
So they came down in a publicity stunt, basically.
And so me, who had aspirations and was in dance school
at the church hall down the street, you know,
auditioned and I got it.
And that was the spark, you know, that got me into
this amazing -- I'm humbly grateful -- business
where it's just taken me on this wild journey.
But my kids who are in college, who I live vicariously through,
you know, it's like, they can't do what they're supposed to do.
You know, it's like...
It's like, I used to say to my kids, you know,
if they called me on a Saturday morning, if it was early,
I'd go, "why are you still -- why are you awake?
Shouldn't you be, like, sleeping?
What time did you get home last night?"
"Oh, I was in bed by 10:00."
"Are you crazy?!"
[ Laughter ]
"You worked so hard through the week and you're in bed?!
What's wrong with you?
What's wrong with you, son?"
So anyway, they do --
they love learning and they're having a great time.
But I kind of lost that part of my life.
Not that I'm complaining, 'cause I wouldn't be speaking to you,
which I always love to do.
So, I love to see them be teenagers and just, you know,
and excited to see where their journey takes them.
You know, they both love learning,
but they both are very good young actors.
They've never done anything professional
or anything like that, but as actors,
both my husband and I, Michael, you know, we...
there are so many other professions
that we'd like them to be in.
But it's very, very clear
that they've got that fire in their belly.
And for me, it's like, "Party on, guys,"
because it's just taken me on a great journey.
But I was never the son of Spartacus like Michael was.
-Sure, yeah.
-And that's a different kettle of fish.
That's a different bear, babe, you know?
And so even with that, those reservations,
but clearly, Michael had to prove himself
maybe more than the average bear
because his dad was Kirk Douglas.
And so, even with that deterrent,
they're like, "Nah, still love it."
-Do -- Obviously, they have two actors for parents,
but maybe you are the only accomplished dancer.
I'm not quite sure where Michael falls on the dancing scale.
But I'm gonna say it's safe to say
you're the better of the two. -Did you ever see the video?
♪ When the going gets tough ♪
That's as good as it gets, babe.
It's like, he can click in time to the beat.
Every now and again, he gets off course.
But he's a great actor.
Michael always says that when you're dancing,
"Always look at me from the waist up."
Because he can do the... but the feet...
-I believe, if my memory serves,
you're talking about the video to "Romancing the Stone."
The Billy Ocean music video. -Yeah.
Billy Ocean, yeah. Michael's pop video.
He's very proud of that. It's funny how actors --
It's funny how actors, like, for me it's like...
I sing and dance and all that stuff,
but there's a part that wants me to be the female Bono.
You know, to go out there in leather pants,
my glasses on, and rock it at a stadium, you know.
And so, for Michael, it's just always like,
"Yeah, that was my -- when I did my music video."
-The best is while you were saying it, I thought,
"That sounds crazy, what you're talking about."
And then I realize, "Oh, no --
that's a video I saw 100,000 times."
-Yeah. Oh, yeah. ♪ When the going gets tough ♪
-So, let him know it stayed with me.