my guest tonight is a golden globe
award-winning actress who stars on the
hit abc series blackish please welcome
our good friend tracy
ellis ross you look fantastic thank you
hello
it is so good to see you i see your hair
has grown even though you've cut it and
it's grown again
it it's uh no matter what i do it uh it
refuses to be quieted during this time
it has i don't think your hair should
ever be quieted i think you can scream
as loudly as it wants to conan
yeah it was very up you know worried
about the elections and it's been uh
it's just it is expressing a lot of
inner turmoil
right now yeah i think somebody's got to
someone's got to let's let's talk about
you and then talk much more about me
um congratulations you were named
fashion icon of 2020 at the people's
choice awards
on sunday now i congratulate you
that is also a lot of pressure because
you are a fashion
icon now listen
i it didn't feel like a lot of pressure
to me it felt like it finally
validated my shopping habit and
i finally like you i can put a check i
have to buy this i'm a fashion icon
and now i sleep you know these are my
pajamas conan this is now what i sleep
in no
not true i actually stole this from my
bo johnson's wardrobe at work
very nice i take things from wardrobe
whenever i can
mostly underwear and then i put it back
that's terrible
that's terrible it's bad i will return
this tomorrow
uh well you look amazing you always look
amazing uh you always go the extra mile
let me just ask you quickly i don't even
know how an award show works these days
people's choice awards how do you walk a
red carpet and then usually
the times when i've gone to an award
show it's a lot of hugging
handshaking you know cheat kisses what
are they doing now
uh none of that um so i
uh there were only two photographers
spread out distance they had partitions
between them
you weren't anywhere in proximity to
anybody else i actually
kind of overlapped with a friend of mine
jamila jamil
and we automatically magnetically like
started walking towards each other but
then we just moved into the bows
and it was a yes it's so nice to see you
and the air hugging
um the only issue with the red well
there's a ton of issues with all this
first of all it's very surreal to keep
doing stuff like that
in the middle of this because it feels
like what are we doing this is so weird
and then i would you know you wear your
mask until the last possible moment
took my mask off my makeup my lipstick
was like up my
cheek and um it's everywhere like you
probably look like uh joaquin phoenix's
joker you know just
exactly right here and and up on the
nose too but
you know it it feels fun to do
safely some of those things um yeah to
create
some semblance of like i really wanted
to go
because it was such a big deal but then
you're standing on that stage
and all you hear is the echo of your
voice because there's
no one there nobody there no one you
don't even
walk on the stage with somebody else so
it's you know it's all good these are
really
like there's such real things going on
in the world um
that a lovely joyful awkward award show
is just fine because there's
i'm i'm really glad that you mentioned
the bow because
um i started out doing the elbow bump
but for years in my monologue
i would give a little bow at the top of
the show
and i'm finding that that's the way to
go i see people and actually you brought
up
jamila jamil i saw her recently because
we both work on podcasts in the same
building and it's
there's hardly anybody there and
everyone's wearing masks and it's all
very safely done
but i saw her in the hallway and i did a
big bow which is
one should bow to you and to jamila
jamil you are worthy of a bow
although sometimes i'm bowing it like a
gas station attendant
i don't know this guy is this guy i feel
like
bowing is appropriate i feel like you
deserve a bow too and i feel like a gas
station attendant deserves a bow
not this one not the one okay i
understand that this guy was up to no
good i don't think he worked at the gas
station he was just wearing the uniform
and trying to steal gas caps
so it's not does not um
the elbow bump is honestly too close to
me
i'm like you're still way too close to
me right
so um this works and you can still make
eye contact with the only
sense that you get to see out of you or
you just get
you know i touch my heart a lot oh it's
this is a hug
right you know one thing i was doing for
a while is the elbow bump but i would
lick
i would lick it first and that was just
i don't know why i was doing that i was
trying to add a little bit of
eroticism to it and i got a lot of
complaints so that
i think i think i'm glad you stopped
that
this is why i need friends like you who
are fashion icons but also can tell me
when i'm behaving inappropriately
i want to point out something um you are
figuring out a way to still be
fashionable even during this
pandemic check this out i know that you
don't need to check it out but i want my
audience to see
this is you matching your mask to your
shoes
yeah which is i mean i can't that's high
level
conan yeah that is that is operating
in the upper 99th percentile
who thinks of that that's incredible
you're figuring out a way to make
the mask a fashion statement let me tell
you who thinks of that a fashion icon
but you're not a fashion icon wait a
minute no it's oh
um conan here's the thing
i don't go anywhere i am one of those
people who is
terrified of this pandemic and covid and
so
if there were some sort of actual bubble
i could be in
i would do it that was me visiting my
products
at ulta because ulta beauty carries
pattern my hair care products and i
wanted to see them because we have a
whole bunch of new shelf space
so while i've been home i have
continued shopping and it's a lot of
masks so i have purchased
some a beautiful collection of masks
that never get used
and that day i got to coordinate
nice nice but most you know i just go
to work with the mask and and then i'm
home i don't go anywhere
you you mentioned uh you have this uh
haircare line
yes so my my hair care line is called
pattern and it
uh on it's in stores at ulta beauty
and then it's also available online i
think you might be as hair obsessed as i
am i've been hair obsessed since i was a
kid
i wanted my hair to look like elvis i
wanted it to look like uh
jack lord on hawaii 5-0 i wanted a
swoosh and a sweep
and um i never grew out of it i don't
know what the problem is so maybe you
have some products
do you have anything that i could use or
is it is it no guys allowed
no first of all i don't think hair has a
gender and i agree with you i
feel like it's hair is a form of a form
of expression and it's one of the ways i
know for you like it's like an extension
of your personality for me too
my favorite thing is when you do this
yeah whenever you do
yes it's one of my favorite things you
do it's one of my favorite things to do
you know it's interesting it started out
as what i thought that it was my way of
attracting
a possible female mate and then it
turned out that it was really just a cry
for help
so once that was explained to me i made
my peace with it
because no one was attracted to this
they
they found it interesting but i think my
wife married me
despite the question i i don't know i
bet you if we talked to your wife she
would say that your hair is also if
did she would say it's the third party
in your relationship
but possibly true yeah i do think i have
products that would work for you the
styling products because especially
if you like a swoop and a swirl oh yeah
and you know what i mean and you want to
get some like height out of that hair
yeah
i bet you that our you know probably our
stronghold
gel or one of those would work i'm going
to check it out i'm going to check it
out because i'm always looking for the
equivalent of
hair viagra and it sounds like you have
that you this
sounds like this gel you have could be
really helping me you know the
i don't know that i've ever um called it
that
but in in on on that path i would say
that at my hair company
size matters so maybe
maybe it does go with it
we have a video of you playing with your
hair on i guess this was on instagram
[Music]
what
what i love about that is again um
when you when people learn to have fun
with their hair
i mean you suddenly they're i spend
hours without an iphone
because i'm just messing around with
this thing and i think i'm
better and better for it in order for us
to keep each other safe and to possibly
move
through this pandemic at some point i
think we've all had to really
change our habits and sort of what we
lean to
and so if giving your hair a swirl and
spending 10 minutes playing stupidly
with yourself
i think it's worth it you should phrase
that differently uh
probably um you know that's that brings
up a really good
point or question for me uh is uh
blackish i know that you're
you're continuing to uh film the show
how does that work i mean i know what we
have to do but my job is
in in my job is obviously much simpler i
can speak to this camera in an abandoned
theater with socially distanced crew
you're doing scenes with other actors
and it needs to mimic real life
how do you do that well the writers have
had
a really tough task the writers and
directors um
mostly this season we've had two-person
scenes so that we can keep a little bit
of a distance
and sometimes you know as actors we push
back me being one of them i'm like no
i'm not hugging him
right you know um but they're really
amenable
you know that's one of the things that's
had to shift for us uh we've been
working for two and a half months
everyone has stayed safe the crew
wears a mask and shield at all times us
actors wear masks and shield
except for when we are shooting so as
soon as they say cut the mask goes back
on um i think there's ways to do these
things safely
um and to still be able to enjoy the
benefit of working which i feel so
grateful to be able to do and
safely um i know that so many people are
not able to do that
and i i know the damage that that is
taking on our
economy and people's personal lives and
so i don't know it's been really
interesting but i think one of the
things that we've realized is you have
to shift the priorities of how we have
done our jobs so safety is number one
whereas it used to be like how much can
you cram into a day
right you know the the other thing is
and this is a suggestion for your
writers they don't have to use it if
they don't want to
but they could write it in to the series
that you all became welders
and you're wearing welders and
beekeepers so you're just that's part of
your character now you're all
you're shielded up all the time for your
character
i would love that i'll be honest um
i am one of those people but we do have
like banner
our props master um he wears
a welder shield and he has a mohawk but
we haven't been able to see it all
season
so he's put a mohawk on his welder's
cage that he wears um
i don't know we've after two and a half
months we've actually found
some of the joy again in in a new way
um i find it really wonderful to be able
to go
to work it's made me um so appreciative
and grateful for what we are able to do
and i don't know i don't think the show
has suffered which is a testament to the
writers and producers
well i think that sometimes things can
even creativity can flourish in times
like this
you know i'm just reminded that when you
uh
really put strain and limit sometimes on
people they do beautiful things
so um i'm glad that you guys it's such a
funny show i'm glad you're making more
of them i'm glad you're continuing to to
do great work
uh so i'm appreciative for that and uh
i'm also appreciative that you're even
talking to me now that you're a
fashion icon because not many
not many fashion icons want to spend
i'm not getting a lot of phone calls you
know i i don't know why you think that
as soon as they said i was getting
the fashion icon award of 2020 i said
the first
interview i will do and only do
is with phone and o'brien and if you
can't set that up
i'm not doing anything else
that's right and you turned down oprah
and she's mad
but she's used to going she's used to
going second to me let's face it oprah
had to get used to that a long time ago
she just she swallowed that pill and
said you know what i understand
i'll take a step back all right well
thanks for uh
indulging my delusion congratulations uh
once again you've always been
uh lovely to me and uh you're just a
very nice person and i'm glad to see you
flourishing
and looking amazing blackish airs
wednesdays
at 9 30 on abc tracy ellis ross be well
stay safe
stay safe i can't wait to see you in
person and i will bow
i'll give you the bow thank you thank
you thank you conan