- Give it up.
(audience cheers)
- [Nicolas] You guys are great.
(audience cheers)
You have a wonderful audience.
- Even my band. - [Nicolas] Hi band.
(Nicolas laughs)
- We're like so excited.
- I'm happy to be here
- Dude. I'm telling you, like, I don't know
if everyone's been this excited
but everyone is like, "oh my God".
Like you're just so loved.
Everyone loves you.
- Thank you.
You know, Kelly, I've been wanting to go
on your show because you're the only talk show interview,
who also happens to be a great artist.
- Oh, thank you.
- [Nicolas] You know, most
of these other guys are like comedians,
but you are a real massive talent so.
- Oh, you're so nice.
So wait, so you seem so musical.
I know that you love music.
Like what's your favorite kind of vibe to listen to?
- Wow, I mean, I started with my bass was classical.
Yeah, you know, Beethoven, Bach, Brahms.
- [Kelly] Whoa.
- And my family, they were interested in classical music.
My grandfather was a conductor.
He was also the first chair
Tinker for Tuscany's orchestra.
- That's awesome, wow.
- Yeah that was awesome.
And that was the base.
But then I branched out
into the Beatles and I got into all kind...
I'm very eclectic.
I love country, I love early country.
I like Cash.
I love Kline.
I love Campbell.
- [Kelly] Yeah. - Yeah.
- [Kelly] Oh Glen Campbell. - Yeah, oh Glen Campbell.
- Yeah, they're all so great.
- And you, I love the-- - You're nice.
(audience cheers)
- [Nicolas] I just--
(Kelly giggles)
You know when I get up in the morning--
- [Kelly] You listen to some KC?
- No, I put my headphones on, I start working out.
And I put on...
You rock on, "Walk Away".
You just rock.
(audience cheers)
- You actually know one of my songs?
- Yeah, you get me going. - Oh my God.
I thought you were being funny.
Oh, you're so nice.
- You help me break that extra mile.
Like I'm gonna do eight miles today.
I gotta put on Kelly's "Walk Away".
- You do like eight miles, wow.
(audience cheers)
I wish my music helped me work out (laughs).
It doesn't.
I love that, that's so nice.
So wait, so I heard that you had a performance
cause you like The Beatles.
Was there a "Yellow Submarine" performance or maybe--
- I was in first grade and there was a talent show
in Long Beach, California, flutist elementary school
and I sang the "Yellow Submarine"
and I had this thing I would do
to make my family members and friends laugh.
It was called the helium voice.
- Okay, I used to love to do that
when I was a kid with the balloons.
- Yeah, it's like that. - Yeah.
- And I would break into the chorus,
you know, "we all live in the yellow submarine"
in the helium voice.
- So you...
What is that?
Is that like a Munchkin from Oz?
- Let me see if I can get my helium back on (clears throat).
- [Kelly] Okay.
You can just do it?
♪ We're all living in the yellow submarine ♪
♪ The yellow submarine ♪
And everybody-- (audience cheers)
It still works.
- How are you making the voice happen?
- It's true, I am from Saturn.
- I am amazing.
That's a gift.
I don't know if I can do...
Well, I definitely can't do it now.
It would sound still manly right now.
(all laugh)
Did you rock it at the talent show?
- I won the contest because of the helium voice.
(audience cheers)
- First of all I have to say a first grader
that knows "Yellow Submarine", that's pretty cool.
- Yeah. - I wasn't that cool.
- Well, my brother was a...
Well, I'm sure you were always cool,
but my brother was a disc jockey
and he built his own radio station
and he would play all these incredible albums
from the late 60s.
And of course he played the, "Let It Be" album.
- Yeah.
- And he played "Across The Universe"
and I must have been four years old.
And I remember being frozen paralyzed listening
to that music. - Yeah.
♪ Pools of sorrow ♪
♪ Waves of joy ♪
- [Kelly] Yeah. - And it just...
It's my favorite song ever written.
Which is why I'm gonna announce some big news
for everybody. - Wait what?
- I am gonna have a little girl.
- I know that. (audience cheers)
I knew you were having a baby, I didn't know it was a girl.
- Yeah and her name because of "Across The Universe",
her name is gonna be Lennon, Lennon Augie.
Augie after my father.
And I'll call her Lenny for short but yeah.
- I love that.
- Thank you. (audience cheers)
- That's so exciting.
- Yeah I'm thrilled.
- [Kelly] You're gonna be a girl dad.
- It's gonna be the biggest adventure of my life.
So here we go. - [Kelly] I love that.
- Yeah. - [Kelly] Is that fresh news?
Cause I only knew that you were having a baby.
- It's been about three weeks
and I haven't really mentioned it anywhere.
So you're the first.
That, because I wanted it to be you.
- I love that.
Oh, I love the name Lennon, that's so great.
- Thank you.
- I'm so excited for you.
Are you excited about the baby world?
Is that exciting to you?
- I miss it.
All my boys are all grown up, you know?
- [Kelly] Yeah. - I have a 31 year old
and a 16 year old and I miss going to the toy store.
I miss rocking in the rocking chair
and singing lullabies but now I'm gonna get to go
to the toy store and get the little tea sets
and the Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven.
- [Kelly] Yes - And the Barbie dolls.
- I love that you love all that.
- Yeah I'm thrilled, I can't wait.
- That's so I love little babies.
There's dangers though.
Cause then it's like, you don't need anymore.
For me I'm like, but you see a baby
and you're like, "oh you're precious".
And I'm like, "you are so lovable".
Oh no.
Is it true that you proposed to your wife over FaceTime?
- Yeah. - Well don't say it like that.
That's cute. - I'm a romantic.
I want to get on one knee and offer the black diamond ring.
But because of what we were all going
through with the quarantine, I--
- Did you say a black diamond ring?
- Her favorite color is black
and she liked the black diamond.
So I custom made her a black diamond engagement ring.
- That is so cool.
- It is cool.
She's very cool.
- I'm telling you everything you say you were meant
to be a musician.
Everything you. (audience cheers)
Like, you seem so rockstar to me.
That's why I was like, you had to have been in a band.
- Well, I'm glad you say that
because I do think even in film performance I approach it
from a musical standpoint.
- You literally like bleed rock star to me.
That's why I'm always like,
that's why I was like, "he was in a band, right?"
Has to be.
Anyway, I love that, a black diamond.
- Yeah, so I did it on FaceTime
because I couldn't see her cause
of the quarantine issues and--
- Was she in Japan, is that--
- She was in Kyoto, she's from Kyoto.
- [Kelly] Yeah. - [Nicolas] Born and raised.
And yeah, I Face Timed her
and I said, "Face Timed, I love you.
"And I wanna spend the rest of my life with you.
"Will you marry me?"
And she said yes,
so it happened. (audience cheers)
But I did it on FaceTime.
- I love that though.
You couldn't wait, I love that vibe.
- I couldn't wait. - You can't wait.
Like, I'm impatient, are you impatient?
- Well I try not to be,
but the problem was like we spent
this wonderful time together.
I went to Japan.
I met her in a beautiful restaurant
in Tokyo and I escorted her back to Atlanta.
I was filming a movie in Atlanta.
Then we went to New Orleans.
Then we had a wonderful time in New York and then COVID hit
and then she had to go back and I couldn't see her.
And you know, we had built this beautiful momentum
and I didn't want it to stop.
So I said, "let's take it to the next level.
"I love you, please marry me", and she said yes.
So that's what happened.
- I love that. - On FaceTime.
- I love that you take life like by the horn.
That's exciting.
- Yeah, that's the only way to do it.
- [Kelly] Passion, yeah. - Yeah.
- [Kelly] So your father, I found
out was a professor, right?
- Correct yeah. - Was that hard or?
My mom was a teacher, not a professor
but sometimes it's hard when your parent is like a teacher
of some sort, you feel like guilt.
You get like, you know, red pens at home.
And like they correct everything you do.
Was that hard?
- Yes my grammar was constantly being constantly corrected.
- Yep. - You know, but he was also
I think very instrumental in my path.
Because he would say, "okay, Nicolas, here's a book,
a "Brave New World". - Yeah.
- I want you to read this book.
And then I want you to go inside the book
and I want you to become like a foreign correspondent
of the book and write the missing chapter.
So I had to insert myself into "Brave New World",
"A Clockwork Orange", Herman Hesse's "Siddhartha",
"Magister Ludi", "Steppenwolf", all these different books.
But what it did
for me was it made me think about character.
- Yeah. - And character development.
And so I thought that was actually a beautiful exercise
that he gave me.
- I would love to do that now
at the age of 40, I think that's so fun.
- It is.
- You just create your own-- - It was challenging.
- [Kelly] Yeah, like the hidden chapter that didn't...
That's so cool.
- It was the missing chapter, yeah.
- That was a look at his new movie.
It's so great.
It's called, "The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent".
The new movie is amazing.
Nick plays different versions of himself in it.
Was it weird when they asked you to play yourself?
Cause it's an exaggerated version of yourself.
- Very strange. - Yeah.
- It was the most daunting thing I've ever done because--
- When you first read it, were you into it?
- No, I was like, no muscle in my body tells me
to make this movie.
I like to hide behind a character.
But this character's name is Nick Cage.
I mean, what are you guys gonna do to me?
There's other Cages running around.
I don't wanna humiliate them.
I don't wanna humiliate myself.
- You didn't, it's brilliant.
- Well, thank you.
But I thought it might lapse into like in Andy Sandberg
Saturday Night Live sketch or something.
- [Kelly] No.
- Thankfully I had a good director
and he kept it about people.
So that was good.
- [Kelly] A great director. (audience cheers)
And it's like, it's amazing how the story unfolds.
And like, you don't see some stuff coming.
The LSD trip in the car (laughs).
It is like amazing. - (laughs) It's fun.
- [Kelly] Like how you look at him
and how Pascal looks at you.
- Yeah, he's so good in the movie.
- Pedro Pascal, yeah it was amazing.
You two, your chemistry.
It's amazing. - Thank you.
- Like I love when you get like
starts together that you didn't (mumbles).
And it's like the most amazing chemistry.
- Well, thank, you know, he is not only a great actor.
He's such a nice man and it's easy to work with Pedro.
You know, it was kind of like we had similar interests.
We love movies.
And we would just talk about movies, kinda like the way you
and I are talking.
And then the director--
- And that's kind of like what your characters do.
- Yeah.
Just talking about movies.
And then we would say "action".
And we just kept the conversation going.
- Wait, speaking of action (laughs),
that's my favorite part.
- There's a part in the film where he's out.
Cause he got drunk. - [Nicolas] Oh right.
- And they're trying to wake him up.
- [Nicolas] Yeah. - And they say, "action".
And he just springs up. (Audience laughs)
- That was great, that was funny.
That was Tiffany, Tiffany did that.
- Tiffany Haddish is in it.
The cast is incredible, but it's so amazing and narcissist.
Like the whole...
It's just like action and go.
And it's like, it's so perfect, like the humor is perfect.
It's really good.
So you also play a young version of yourself
which is another great part. - [Nicolas] Yeah.
- Cause you make out with yourself.
- (laughs) Well that wasn't in the script, yeah.
- It wasn't in the script? - No.
I put that in because
that's what it felt like. - I love you.
(audience cheers)
You put that in the script?
There's this part.
I don't wanna wear the whole movie.
- No, tell them. - There's many great moments.
But it's like, there's this moment.
You're naked by yourself and you're just like, "yeah".
It's like, it's amazing.
- Well yeah, that character's name is Nicky.
He's the younger version of so-called Nick Cage.
And I based that character on--
- He's super narcissistic. - So arrogant.
So irreverent, so obnoxious.
And I based him on
when I was on the Wogan show in England.
I went on that show and I was promoting "Wild At Heart".
I did front hand springs and I was doing karate kicks
and throwing money in the audience.
The guy was awful, I was awful.
I took my t-shirt off, put a leather jacket on
and I go, "that's who I want to be",
in massive talent movie to be picking on Nick Cage.
- It was amazing.
- But what happened was I said,
okay, well this whole experience
for me is weird and uncomfortable and awkward.
Kind of like if I were making out with myself
and I thought, "yeah, Nicky should French kiss Nick".
And, so that's where that came from.
- Me on my couch, I was like, "what?"
I died laughing.
Cause then your reaction after is brilliant (laughs).
- "Nick Cage smooch is good.
"You tell em".
- "You tell everyone", that's amazing.
Nick cage, everybody.
(audience cheers) - Thank you.
Y'all have got to see this movie.
It's called "The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent".
It's incredible, it's in theaters everywhere now.
Go see it. (audience cheers)