- Hi.
- Oh my God, so it's interesting
this color brings out your eyes even more.
- Do you think so?
- [Kelley] This color, yeah, it's really pretty.
- Okay, it's so funny. Okay
Off topic, but I, I hated yellow.
I've always hated wearing yellow cuz I always-
- I do too most times, there has to be a specific color.
- Because of your skin cuz it brings out my green.
- [Kelley] It brings out my green.
- Yes.
- This has nothing to do with your film.
- No. But I like it.
I'll take a complement where I can get it.
- I was like, it's really pretty is what I'm saying.
You walked out and I was like, "Oh hey eyes".
We each have a son and a daughter. The same ages.
- Yeah. - [Kelly] Exact same ages.
So how, how's your world?
- It's, mine's, it's, they're really good kids.
I have, I do, yeah.
I have really good kids. Mine just turned eight.
Mine's about to be six in two months.
No, they're really great.
They're fun. They're like, a fun for us.
I will say Covid is a horrible experience
and everybody dealt with it the best way that they could.
But for us, our kids ended up getting really close
during that time. - Oh.
- And so I think that it was a very instrumental part
in their little lives that I think will be
I hope, beneficial, you know, for the rest of their life.
- [Kelly] That's so funny. I tell my kids this all the time.
Like, you're each other's buddies.
You're like two years apart.
Like, and especially cuz we went through divorce, right.
So they go to their dad's and mine.
So it's like anytime you travel,
you've always got each other.
So I always try and make them like buddies when they fight.
I'm like, no, no, no.
This is your wing man.
I was like-
- My dad when we had kids, he was like
the best thing you could do is have the, the, the
What did he say?
He was like, the greatest thing your kids can have
is a common enemy.
And if you are their common enemy
they will be the closest kids on the planet.
- I love it.
- And I was like, interesting advice, dad.
- I know, but I literally say that.
I'm like, no, you're supposed to stick over each other.
Don't tattle tell the time on me.
Like, unless it's something super important.
I'm like, don't tell me you can have your your thing.
- [Mila] Like, you guys need to figure this out
and then you can come to, there's a great game.
I don't know why I'm plugging this. Okay.
- It's a game called beat the parents.
- [Kelly] Oh my God. Love it.
- Oh, me too.
- Yep. Yep. Yep.
- [Mila] It's the best game.
- And so we do it against our kids
but we don't, we, we don't cheat.
Like, we're not trying to lose.
I wanna be super clear on this one.
- I, there are no participation ribbons
given out at our house. - No, no, no. Okay, cool.
- You have to win.
- Okay. Same same. - Yeah.
- And they have to wage like, you know, we win
we get to blah, blah blah.
And if, and then Ash and I are like
well if we win, you have to.
It's the greatest game ever.
- [Kelly] I Agree. - I love this game.
- Yeah. I don't let them win.
- [Mila] Neither do we.
- Those are weak parents that let their kids win.
You don't believe in your kids enough
that they can beat you.
So wait, so how's your social calendar with your kids?
Mine are, mine have
Everybody thinks I'm busy, but my kids are so busy.
- [Mila] Your kids go to school in LA?
- Yes.
- Okay.
So there's a, mmm,
I guess I grew up differently than kids today. I-
- I did, yeah.
- Yeah. So tell me if this is in your school,
this thing of like,
if you invite one kid to a birthday party
you have to invite the classroom concept.
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- That's gotta go.
Like, that's like, it's just, I'm so, so I'm sorry.
I love everyone in my kid's school.
Please. I'm so sorry.
Don't, don't hate me.
But it's too much.
It's just too much.
- There's always, Oh yeah.
I'm talking about their schedule.
But yeah, there's social gatherings for his birthdays.
- [Mila] Those are for me too
- There's always a party. - It's always a birthday
because you get admitted to 22 kids' birthday parties.
- I Know. So I used to be like you
and then we literally had a show where a little girl came on
and her mother had passed away and she had to move things.
No. And, and the sister
the older sister to take care of her.
And she was like
not one person showed up to her kid's birthday party.
- We're gonna cry.
- I know. So then I was like,
I we will show up like I felt cuz I'm like you.
I'm like, how do you fit it all in?
Like, plus the weekends are our off times
for most parents that are working during the week.
- Not anymore. - So it's like nope.
- Nope.
There's always a party.
- There's a party.
Then there's like the classroom play dates
and then there's like the other play...
There's like, they're very busy children.
So we sometimes lie to our kids.
We don't lie.
That's a horrible thing to say.
I don't lie to my children. I-
- [Kelly] I Totally lie to my children.
I totally, I'm I'll tell, I, I'm like,
Oh Disneyland's closed today.
- No, my god. No you don't.
- Yeah.
- I don't, I'm not above it.
You can totally judge me.
Write a book on it. I don't care.
I totally lie to my children.
- I love you so much.
We just tell our kids we have plans
when we don't and then when the-
- That's lying.
- That's accidental lying, because...
Is that just justification?
- It's just a justification.
- We all lie to our kids. Okay fine. We lie.
- Its, it, you know, you try,
you teach them, you gotta, you know you
they have to learn no.
They have to learn. you can't do everything all the time.
But like, sometimes you're just tired
and you're just like oh, it's closed.
Yeah. So, such a a crappy thing.
- We also now have the excuse of football
which is Sunday's football.
Thursday nights football, Monday nights.
But football's on a lot in America nowadays.
And uh.
So we're like, there's a football game
on this college football on Saturday.
Why can't we go to Johnny's house?
Football...
I gotta watch football.
- See, I don't get that one cuz I
I don't really watch a ton of football.
- Neither do I.
- Hence the lies.
- That you don't do.
- So wait, I heard that Ashton recently. He said,
he talked about the first time he said, "I love you".
He said he was super drunk.
Is that real?
- Here's the irony in how real it is.
It happened to me and it happened to my mother.
So my dad told my mom he was in love with her
three months into their relationship.
Shmammered, fully shmammered.
And my mom went, All right, talk to me in the morning.
Like, we'll reconvene this.
The same thing happened to me with my husband.
Three months into our relationship.
He like showed up in my house
at two o'clock in the morning
and he was like, "I love you so much".
And I was like, Oh Lord have, I was like, "Go to bed".
And he goes, "I love you so much".
And I was like, okay-
- Super great. Go home.
- Yeah. Like go night, night night.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- But same thing.
And then in the morning, my dad and my husband-
- [Kelly] I think what we've learned here,
it's not about them
but you and your mom are very powerful women.
Like three months in and they're just like done.
I like that.
- Three months in.
But, but Ashton, I've known each other for-
- [Kelly] Oh That's true. That's true.
- [Mila] 20 years. - [Kelly] Yeah.
- [Mila] Yeah.
- A little show called That 70s Show.
Yeah. Yeah. That's true.
Totally forgot till just now.
So the new movie is called Luckiest Girl Alive.
It's very powerful.
Could you set up a little of the story for everybody?
- So it's essentially about
perception and reality a little bit.
Right? Like that's the best way that I can describe it.
And there's often times
and I've said this before and I'll say it again.
There was an on slew of films and books that were written
over the past couple years of a girl who dot dot dot.
Like, you know, and then some sort of thriller immerses.
And what I personally loved about this so much is that
it is partially based on the writer's life.
There's aspects of it that are pulled from her life, so-
- [Kelly] Which is devastating.
- Devastating, but also prevents people from being like
Well that would never happen.
Or that's not how it would happen.
And you're like, well, but it did.
And so that to me was really important.
The other thing was, the book was written by Jessica Knoll.
The script was written by Jessica Knoll.
And so often that-
- Usually they have screenwriters.
- That never happens. I mean, very rarely.
I shouldn't say never, but, but very rarely does it happen.
And Jess did every single write rewrite.
Every single draft, every single word is Jess's word.
So that I loved, but I also loved the fact
that there was just this counterintuitive voiceover
that happens throughout the film.
And so often voiceovers are done as devices
of like helping the story move along.
And in this case, it's almost the opposite.
It's just like an internal inner dialogue of what
the character's constantly battling of like
what is happening inside of her
versus what she's projecting to society.
- [Kelly] Which is like social media in a nutshell.
- It is. It's exactly like that.
- It's like, it's like what you're putting out there
is filtered from what's actually happening with that.
- It's exactly that. Which is why I don't have social media.
- I don't either. Well, I, Kelly Clarkson does.
I do approve things.
- Did you never have social media?
- I like in the very beginning.
I mean like, I'm old, so like I'm forties
- Girl- - [Kelly] So like I'm
so, I like, I'm not old.
I'm like a fine wine.
But like, I, but I, I mean
in the very beginning because of being in the industry.
- Yeah.
- Like your label and management
everybody would kind of fuel you to do this thing.
And it's like, okay.
It's kind of cool you get to talk directly to your fans.
But it's also like,
one, I don't know if people really do want to know
what's really happening in your world.
They want the filtered version oddly enough.
- I agree. I think so.
- And, and I'm not that person,
which I'm shocked they gave me a show, but I,
I'm I'm very much like real,
like what I'm is what is happening.
- That's probably what people are attracted to. But I
- But I don't do well at social media for that reason.
I'm, I'm-
- I think I know I would've, I mean, thank God I was like
sleeping under a rock when all of this happened.
But I would've been canceled.
I have no, I have no doubt
that me being who I am would've gotten me in trouble.
- Yeah. Right. I was so glad it wasn't around
when we were like in high school.
- High... oh yes.
I'm, there's nothing in
like the things that I thought were smart
that I would've been like send.
That I was like, I'm so smart at 17
I'm so happy that those things I've not been like, boosted.
- We were lucky. A very lucky, fortunate generation.
- Yeah. We were the last
Cause then after us you're like, ooh girl
you wrote something 10 years ago,
you gonna get in trouble.
- I Know. It's like, oh. Or you see it and you're like,
you're gonna regret that one.
- I think about that all the time.
- Yeah. - And now I'm like,
I dunno if you do this with your kids,
but I'm like, look, no decision in life is permanent
except for the ones on the internet.
And I was like, Look, everything that you do
you can always say sorry, you can always fix mistakes.
You can always make yourself better.
I'm constantly making mistakes.
But if it's in the internet, that's it.
There's not much you can do about it.
- I love that though because people think that you always
do have to, cuz it's such a cancel culture.
I think that it is important to teach our kids too
that it's okay to say I was wrong
or oh my God, I learned from that.
Like I'm, It's okay.
Like you might have done something or said something
or thought something and that's because of maybe
how you were brought up.
But it's okay to go.
I don't really think that anymore.
Actually. That was not what I,
And I think that sometimes
it's hard in this culture for,
that's why people do filter themselves.
It's hard for people to be themselves
cuz they're so afraid they're gonna be canceled
or something.
- I think that I'm 39 and I'm like, oh my God
for the first time in my life-
- You're 39?
- Your genes are powerful.
- Should I start going downward?
- Wow.
- I tried to tell my kid recently for my 39th.
I was like, why?
So mommy's 27.
And she's like, "no!"
And I was like, "Whoa".
- [Kelley] Offended.
- Yeah. I was like, excuse me.
- [Kelley] You can pull that off though.
Which is so upsetting for the rest of us.
So, but so happy for you.
No. So you're also a producer on the film,
so this deals with tough topics.
So why did you, do you like talking about the tough topics
or because it's kind of challenging? It's quite challenging.
- I do. I, there's like,
I think a part of me that has control issues.
- Oh.
- [Mila] Right. Like I like to be, I like to have control.
- Yeah.
- And I so rarely have control as an actor.
I mean by so rarely,
You never really do.
- You put out a product and then you walk away
and then there's like a whole other team
that comes in and Frankensteins it together.
- A machine. Yeah.
- Markets it a certain way
and you have little to no say what happens
after you walk off set. And I think-
- Being an artist and musician,
- It is exactly the same.
- Not now, but in the beginning.
- Yeah. In the beginning it is.
You sing the song, you don't own it.
You have no like it's a lot of things.
- And it's passed off. - Exactly.
So for like being, after a certain period
of being in this industry, I was like, wait
now I wanna be able to have at least input
so that I can't put blame on anyone else other than myself.
Like I wanna take ownership if something goes wrong.
And so when it came to this
and for good days, I was like, God
there's so many ways to talk about really important topics
without making it feel like they're being talked at you.
And I was like, I'm in a position
where I can actually try to do it
and if I do it wrong, then it's on me and that's okay.
But what I don't wanna do is do a project where it's on me
but I didn't have any control of it.
- Yeah. That sucks when the ship is sinking
and you're like, it wasn't me.
- But they're like, I don't care. Yeah.
So this way it's super fun.