- She's an Oscar and Golden Globe nominated actress.
She's got "Modern Love" season two
on Amazon Prime video coming soon.
She'll be starring in the new "Cinderella" movie in July
and she's got a new podcast called "Minnie Questions."
You can check it out wherever you get your podcasts.
Give it up for Minnie Driver everybody.
(audience cheering)
Hello.
- Hello.
- I am such a big fan.
Oh my God I'm so excited that you're doing my show
but I gotta ask you, how about that officer? 91.
He's still like, whatever I'm doing it.
- Thank you for your service, sir.
You are amazing.
I'm very, very happy
that you have a lovely lady in your life.
(Kelly laughing)
- I know-
lady friend was my favorite term of the day.
(Kelly chuckles)
So, what's one thing that you're so passionate about
that you think you'll do into your 90s?
- You know, I hope that I am still surfing when I'm 90.
I am an almost a lifelong lover of surfing
and a lot of my friends that I've surfed
where I've lived in Malibu for the last 25 years.
I surf with a lot of older people
and they taught me everything I know.
And I watched them stay
in shape and stay healthy and happy and vibing.
And so I hope I'm still doing that when I'm 91.
- What's been one of your wildest surfing experiences?
- Well, I lived for a little while
on the North shore of Oahu and I think quite mistakenly
go out surfing by myself, which, you know,
they're big, powerful waves and this big, powerful swells
but you know,
it teaches you to be respectful and you watch and you learn.
I went out and it was a great day.
But as you know, with a lot of breaks in Hawaii
out of nowhere, I suddenly saw the horizon
start to kind of bubble a little bit.
And this really...
It's, what's called the clean up set.
This giant outside set was coming in and I just froze.
I had no idea what to do.
There's the wave was about, you know
it was like a 15 foot face.
It was a big wave for me.
And there was this female surfer next to me.
And she was like,
"You know, you better choose where you gonna go?
Are you gonna try to take the wave?
'Cause if you're not,
you need to paddle really hard to get up over the peak."
So I started harder than I've ever.
It was like going...
It was like...
I felt like I was paddling vertically.
It was like in all of those, those movies where-
- That's what I was just thinking of.
Like I was thinking of when you're on a boat,
you know those movies when you're on a boat in a movie
and all this like perfect storm it's like that
and you're like going straight up and I'm like, "No."
Yeah, and then all of a sudden
it comes across and you're like,
"They're gonna die. How are they not dead?"
Like, it's like, I'm not an adventure seeker.
Is your son?
Is he an adventure seeker?
- Yeah, he can't help himself.
He's...
Oh, he's so cute.
He's a big strong guy and
he's really active and he's always playing
he knows like a little bull.
He hasn't figured out how-
He hasn't figured out his own strength yet.
- I'm so fearful that that will be my son.
He's obsessed with Peter Pan
I'm like, "You can't fly, please don't try and fly."
Like he just jumps off of everything,
he's really into Peter Pan.
I feel like I'm gonna live at the ER one day.
It's fine.
What's your relationship with your son like?
Is it y'all have a pretty strong bond?
- Yeah.
You know, as a single mom raising him
and he's a very emotionally articulate person.
He's amazing.
He is kind and he is considerate
and he makes...
He kind of makes friends wherever he goes.
He's like, I often think of
he's like one of those, you know, in Snow White's
going through the movie and like
the flower petals and the birds are kind of all around her,
Henry kind of crumps his way
through life with flower petals,
and sunbeams coming all around him, 'cause he's a good guy.
- What a beautiful thing.
I love the visual.
Your new podcast is called "Minnie Questions"
so what's it about?
- Well, I really like...
I really love asking people questions
and I love to hear how different their answers are.
And I used to do it when I was a little kid,
I would interview people.
I would ask the same questions to family members
and I've always loved the form of that.
So the concept was,
what if I asked the same seven questions
to a bunch of really cool, interesting people
and maybe we could create some kind of cultural anthology
to understand what a scientist's last meal,
that dream last meal would be
or the musician or the actor
or the author
to help us feel more connected
and also see how it individually.
- Here's a question.
If you could switch places with one person,
you live your life.
There's nothing wrong with you.
You're great.
But if you could switch places
with one person who would it be?
- Oh my goodness.
I would switch places with
with Elon Musk and I would do-
- Oh my God!
That's mine.
That is...
I am obsessed.
I've read like books on him.
I'm obsessed.
I think he's so cool and that's mine.
- Me too.
- [Kelly] I think he's so interesting.
I want my brain to work like that.
- I want my brain to work like that
but I also want like still part of my brain
that would spend money in an incredibly
like different, creative way than perhaps
amazing, brilliant Elon Musk would spend it.
And I would still any spend, like you know
a billion in a day probably.
- Yeah, I know.
Isn't it just rough?
(Kelly chuckles)
No, I think it's amazing too.
All the things like innovative weird kind of things,
you know, he'll come out with something like
kind of strange and like what?
But I think all those weird things will lead...
They always lead to something amazing.
Like, you know, I'm so excited,
about what they're doing with space
and how he talks about,
AI and like all that stuff.
I think it's so interesting.
It's so funny you picked him.
That would be who I'd pick.
- That is funny 'cause it's like,
he's been on my mind and I did...
Well, I actually haven't read a bunch of books
but I started reading a book about him
and it is fascinating.
And it's really funny that you picked him as well.
See, now you've got to come on my show.
- Well, you know, I'll give honest, raw answers ma'am
so (Kelly chuckles) my mom is like,
"You could use a tiny bit of a filter"
and I'm like, "Why?"
- I don't think so.
I think it's good.
I think filterless is good.
- Is it true that you had a hard time dealing
with this sudden huge fame after?
And I want to ask this question 'cause after
"Goodwill Hunting," which I love.
I love everything you do..."Return to Me"...all of them.
But my question is because I feel like it was really hard.
Like mine was like 180 overnight-like fame
and I never really wanted fame.
I know that seems like such a cliche answer
that famous people say, but I didn't.
I just really wanted to be a background singer
and travel the world for all these different singers
and that was my big dream.
And so anyway, my life kind of took a turn
and I felt like it was a lot at once
and I couldn't go to the store.
I couldn't like all of a sudden it was like
I can't take it back.
I had this like complete meltdown
in my garage with my brother.
And I was like, "I can't take it back."
Like, I'm just, it's done.
Like, I'm just, it's out there.
I can never have a normal job to where people won't know.
And it's like, and it kind of freaked me out.
I'm totally fine now.
But I just mean like I freaked out.
Did you ever have that like right after,
cause that film was so huge.
- Oh yeah.
Yeah. It was very, very weird
because there's no one
except your family and maybe
a couple of your closest friends
who you could ever complain to about that.
Because from the outside, it really is like
you've you found the pot at the end of the rainbow
the pot of gold. You you've got, you got everything.
And yet with it comes this you, the way that you are then
processed the way that your image, the way that people think
that you are, everything is metabolized
by all these other people.
And it's very easy to lose sight of who you actually are
because you, you start seeing yourself reflected
in all the eyes of all these people and it's overwhelming
and weird and very, very, very strange.
And it's kind of like standing on the top of a, a big cliff.
And then free-falling.
- The advice I give any time anybody's like,
Oh, what advice would you give?
Because they're like a decade younger
than me or whatever in the business.
I'm like, don't read anything.
Like, you know, cause you're either going to get a big ego
or you're going to want to crawl in and hole die.
So neither are great.
So yeah.
- Yeah. And there was a lot of
certainly like in the nineties, like there was no recourse
like stuff that was written about you.
There was no social media to, to combat any
of those opinions that were offered up by, you know
armchair critics or just journalists who felt
like having fun with the new kid
in town or they just didn't like you or whatever it was.
So there was, there was
there was nowhere to put any of that.
And for all the terribleness
of the internet that we all know exists with trolling
and the, the, the nightmare of, of that whole world
I kind of love being able to have my voice be clear
and people can find what it is
I think about something.
And I can disseminate some rumor
before it's even begun or I can address something head
on in my own words, calmly clearly and, and, and nip stuff
in the bud, like stop it growing into, into bad stuff.
- Absolutely. I agree.
My career started out and all that stuff didn't exist.
All the social media.
And then literally like a few years into my career
it started and I was like, Oh
it was such a blessing to be able to go to just
kind of attack the rumor mill and say, that's not real.
This isn't true.
That's not what I said.
Like, it's a really beautiful thing to wait to
get to actually clear things up.
But I love talking with you.
I can't wait to do your podcast one day
once I've really thought about my questions.
Or maybe I shouldn't think
and just say what comes to my mind
but everybody, Minnie's podcast is called Minnie Questions
and they are great questions.
So you should check it out wherever you get your podcasts.
You should listen to that.
Also look for Minnie
in "Modern Love," season two on Amazon prime
and in the new "Cinderella" movie this summer.
She's doing everything y'all.