- You know her from so many greats,
like "ER," "The Good Wife," and "The Sopranos,"
just to name a few.
Her new book, "Sunshine Girl: An Unexpected Life"
is out right now.
Please, everybody welcome Julianna Margulies!
(audience cheers and claps) (warm rock music)
- [Kelly] COVID hug.
I know, we can't hug each other, it's so weird.
- It's so, so weird.
- It's so weird, I know.
And I just, like, doing certain things on the show,
it's just still, I'm still getting used to it, but anyway,
what is mother's Day like for you?
(Julianna laughs) Yes!
- Let's jump right in.
- [Kelly] Let's do it, we were just talking about it.
- Mother's Day, well, I think this year especially,
we should all be just praising all the mothers,
because it is just known that (audience applauding)
most of the work fell on mothers during COVID, you know?
- Yeah, yeah.
- And in the pandemic, look at that,
everyone's like, yes. - Yeah.
- And I can't complain 'cause I have a very lovely life.
So, even though I was having moments of complaining,
because of the laundry, and the cooking, and the shopping,
and the cleaning-
- All of it is invalidated.
- All of that stuff. - Yeah.
- There are so many incredible women out there
who are single mothers, who lost their jobs.
Like, I just feel like this year,
that we should all just celebrate every mother.
That's how I feel. (audience cheers and claps)
- [Kelly] And that we've made it.
- Yeah, yeah. (Kelly laughs)
- My girl.
- But my favorite, you know, I'm not a big,
I mean, of course, it's always nice to get a little present,
but really, for me, all I want is a card from my kid.
- Me too.
- And coffee in bed.
- Oh, I, well, my kids are far too young
to do that. (laughs)
- Yes, so I started teaching my son
how to make coffee for me around seven.
- Oh, my daughter's about must be seven, here we go.
- Yeah, no, start now. (audience laughs)
- [Kelly] Okay, okay.
- Then, you know, if you're a little anal retentive
like I am, you might not want them to bring you the coffee
until they're a little older. (laughs)
- Oh, 'cause they- - 'Cause they'll spill it.
- Unless it has a lid, okay.
- Unless it has a lid.
But to me, sitting in bed with a cup of coffee
on Mother's Day with my husband, and my kid, and my dog,
that's my idea of a perfect Mother's Day.
- Yeah, I get it, just relaxing and not having to move.
- Yeah, and not having to move, or wash a dish.
- Amen, so, well, you're son, Kieran, he,
is he about to be 13, or he is 13?
- Kieran just turned 13 in January.
- [Kelly] Okay.
- [Julianna] He turned 13, teenager, I have to say-
- So, I have the five-year-old boy that just turned five,
So what do I have to look forward to with teenagers?
- Oh, you know, well, he's still at a great stage.
I don't know any further than 13, but-
- [Kelly] Okay.
- One thing I'll say is, I know, and most moms,
I don't know why boys are so smelly.
- Oh. (audience laughs)
- The smell starts happening in the feet,
the BO, it's shocking. (audience laughs)
- [Kelly] Oh.
- In our house, we were like, Kieran, you're rank.
- I am sensitive to smells, wow.
- Yeah, well, when their hormones are going,
those smells come up really fast.
So that's something you can look forward to.
- Mm.
- The other thing though is conversation, you know?
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- When they're this age, I mean, really,
from the age of 10 on, but at 13, he's learning so much,
and dinner conversation just becomes a different,
a different experience.
- A little elevated?
- It's elevated, and we have topics of conversation,
and especially during COVID,
when we were together every night, which is rare
for most families to have both parents home for dinner,
and you know- - Yeah.
- We would pick, we would all say,
what did you learn new about your day, you know?
That was his idea.
And I was like, I love it, okay,
this is what I learned, you know?
And just, there's an ease of conversation
and communication that I find really refreshing,
but he hasn't hit the I hate you stage yet.
And so, when that happens, I'll come back and let you know.
- Yeah, I love that your kid, we thought of that up.
My ex and I, like, when we were together,
we thought up at the dinner table,
like saying one positive thing,
and one thing that's not negative, but you'd like to change.
It is like pulling teeth.
Like, it's like with my four-year-old, he's like,
I'm like, what did you like about today?
And he's like, I don't know, I don't know.
He's already a teenager, I don't know.
(audience laughs) I'm like, okay, cool, thanks.
- Yeah, that's boys too, you'll say, how was school?
Good.
What'd you do?
Stuff.
- Yeah, I don't know.
- They don't expand.
Girls are like, oh, well let me, you know,
they're so much more communicative at a younger age.
- She goes into details. - Yeah.
- Well, we actually started out, we got in a fight,
but now we're good, and we're best friends again.
It's like a whole thing.
Anyway, they are different.
It's another rad mom hour again.
Give it up for Julianna Margulies and my band, y'all!
(audience claps and cheers)
So, their mamas are here all show long,
in honor of Mother's Day.
So we've got Stephanie over there,
who I've known for a very long time, ma'am.
(laughs) 'Cause Jason's been with me since "Idol,"
so, she is the mom of my band leader, Jason.
Hi Stephanie!
- Hi Kelly, thanks for having us.
- Oh, I love you, I love you coming on here.
So wait, you two look so much alike though.
I've always thought this.
- Well, actually, we do, you're right, Kelly.
I said, but I always say, I'm the one with hair.
That way you know- (audience laughing)
- So wait, did Jason tell you not
to say anything that might embarrass him?
'Cause I wanna know that thing. (laughs)
- Okay, well, he did text me,
and he reminded me it was "The Kelly Clarkson Show"
and not "The Jason Halbert Show."
(audience laughing)
Well, he thinks he's got
the worst singing voice in the world.
- He does not.
- Yes, I agree, I totally agree with you,
I totally disagree with him.
I'm always asking him, why don't you sing more?
His voice is unique, I tell him it's like Rod Stewart.
And I do believe I've told everybody in the band
that Jason needs to sing more.
So, Jason, please sing for your mama. (laughs)
- Oh! - No, nope.
- So, okay, what I got from this is that
we need to do a duet, Jason, on the show.
- Okay, yeah. (laughing)
- Yes! (audience applauding)
That's what I heard, Alice!
- Season 10!
- That's what I heard, that's what I heard.
That's coming for you, mama!
I love this right now, his face is so red, Stephanie.
(audience laughing)
- Mission accomplished.
- Mission accomplished!
All right, all right. (audience applauding)
Well Julianna, so, is your son, do you embarrass him?
But do you ever?
- He says I don't embarrass him.
I will threaten to embarrass him all the time.
- [Kelly] Keep him in line.
- Just to keep him in line,
the only thing that embarrasses him
is when he was like three,
we got a video of him running around the yard
with his sun hat on, totally naked,
chasing after his grandparents' dog,
and with just everything hanging out, and I have it.
And I always say, just know that I will play that video.
- Promise this. - For sure, at some point.
(audience laughing)
Like, either your- - Graduation. (laughs)
- Graduation or your wedding or something.
But I actually said to him the other day, I was like,
would it embarrass you if, I don't know what,
I was doing something in the, it,
we were walking in the street in New York,
and he goes, mom, no, you're in a mask.
Like, right now. (audience laughs)
- Like, yeah.
- Nothing embarrasses him. - Nobody knows.
- The only thing that upsets him is
if anyone's ever rude to people.
(audience aws) - Oh.
- [Julianna] He gets very upset.
- That's great!
- Yeah, and calls them all Karens.
(audience laughing)
He was like, oh my God, that we spoke to that taxi driver,
she's such a Karen.
- Oh my gosh!
- And I didn't know what Karen was
until he taught me two years ago.
I was like, what, what's a Karen?
I didn't know.
- Oh my gosh, I know.
- He'll let, he's like you better never be a Karen.
And I was like, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!
- [Kelly] Then you will embarrass him,
then you will embarrass him.
- Yeah, then I would embarrass him.
- Well, your new book, it's called, "Sunshine Girl,"
so, why "Sunshine Girl?"
- So, Sunshine Girl was a nickname my mother gave me
when I was pretty much right out of the womb,
because I didn't cry. - Oh.
- I was very, I was just very peaceful and smiley,
and she used to say she'd come into my room
at nine in the morning 'cause I never woke her up.
Like, you know, and I'd be standing there,
wet from head to toe, just smiling.
So, she called me her Sunshine Girl.
And I ruminated a lot on that title.
But it made sense to me, because throughout the book,
I talk about how it's real disservice
to label your children, because it was a nickname
that was out of love, but it was crippling for me,
because I couldn't be anything else,
because I thought that's what was expected of me.
- Right.
- So with all the difficult stuff that happened,
I was the one who felt like I had to cheer everyone up,
and make everyone feel better.
- [Kelly] 'Cause you're a Sunshine Girl.
- And be like, oh no, we're moving where?
And we're living, I'm good.
You know, like, never having that.
And I brought it into my adult life,
where I didn't know how to set boundaries to say no,
that actually that, I didn't wanna be difficult,
because I was the Sunshine Girl.
- We are so similar! - Yeah.
- Yeah, and I was like, wow, I'm in therapy.
- Yeah. (audience laughs)
- I was like, no, it's so true that you're not,
I felt like that too, I was always the kid to be like, Ugh.
- Yeah- - Like I just wanna
make everyone, I don't wanna make any anybody uncomfortable.
I don't wanna, that's a lot of kids
growing up in those environments.
- Yeah, and to the other effect too, you know,
with you saying, oh, that's my melancholy kid.
Oh, she was always so melancholy, they'll grow into that
if that's what you- - You put that on them,
you project that on them.
- Yeah, so I feel like, it's one of the reasons
why I loved Michelle Obama's book title,
called "Becoming," because she talks in her book
about let your children become, don't ask them
what they wanna be when they grow up when they're seven.
Let them become that person they're gonna be.
And the same with nicknames, as much as you think it's cute,
you know, it stays with you in different ways,
and it comes out.
I was really, it was quite cathartic to write this book,
because I got to dive in pretty deep.
(Kelly mmhmms)
And I realized, I was like, wow,
I didn't really start drawing boundaries till I was 35.
- Oh my God, I'm 38, and just now figuring that out.
So, I feel better. (Julianna and crowd laugh)
Yeah, I'm like, I'm just saying, it's very hard.
- It's hard to change that narrative.
- When you have a life of habitual, like,
patterns that you, yeah. - Yeah.
- Especially if they're like embedded from childhood.
- Because it's what you know.
- And you think you're trying and you're doing your best,
and you think you're being compassionate,
and you think you're doing all these things,
and really, you're doing the opposite.
- Right. - Yeah.
- I mean, listen, no one wants to hang out with a martyr.
You know? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- It's not really fun.
- And no one wants to be with you either, it's exhausting.
So! (both laugh)
- [Julianna] It's exhausting.
- So, Julianna's new book,
"Sunshine Girl: An Enexpected Life," is out right now.
You gotta check it out.