-Welcome back.
-Thank you so much for having me.
-First of all, congratulations. You have a baby on the way.
-Yes, yes, yes. -Very exciting.
-Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]
Yes. Procreation is under way.
-It is under way. -Yeah.
-And you were actually --
You presented at the Tonys on Sunday night.
-I did. I did. -And how was that?
How was that experience? -You know, it was -- it was --
It was fun until I had to do the actual job of presenting.
Because I was -- I was sat backstage.
And they called me. And I stood up.
And I went to go and do my little spiel,
read the monitor and stuff,
and this happens to me sometimes.
Like, I'm still pretty active
when I take my SoulCycle class and everything.
But occasionally, I'll stand up and get profoundly winded.
-Uh-huh. [ Laughter ]
-And this was one of those occasions.
And I was like, "Oh, my God. I don't have access to oxygen."
[ Laughter ]
"Like, at all.
And I'm supposed to be reading in front of thousands of people.
In fact, millions of people."
So, yeah, I eventually, like, recovered and found my breath.
But I couldn't stop and say,
"Sorry, guys, I'm just really pregnant now."
[ Laughter ]
-I didn't want to detract from the nominees, you know?
It wasn't about me being pregnant in that second.
-Well, it's interesting because I was watching.
And I did not put the two together.
-Well, thank you for that.
-And I had a moment, though of --
-My husband did. He was there. And he was concerned.
"'Cause I've seen that happen to you
sometimes when you go up and down our stairs."
You know, but -- [ Laughter ]
-I wasn't concerned.
I just thought, "Wow, Claire is so excited about this award."
[ Laughter ]
"She's so..." -Well, I was.
-Yeah. -But, you know, hopefully
excitement translates, you know, in a slightly different way.
-Do you think that your shortness of breath then
was exacerbated by the fact that
you then had to speak on television?
-Maybe they had something to do with each other.
But, like, I've spoken on television before.
-Right, sure. -Like, for a few years now.
-Yeah.
-So I think pregnancy was the thing.
-That was the main thing? Yeah.
-But, yeah, so, anyway. -Anyway.
-There are humbling moments.
-Well, I also think that would be a nice thing
to tie back for your child years from now,
that you could show them exactly what they did to you.
-What this person has cost me. -Yeah.
-Oh, yeah. The list is long. -Yeah.
-Already. Not been born yet.
-But just for you to be able to be like,
"Don't make me show you the Tonys again!"
[ Laughter ]
"Go to your room!"
You have a 5-year-old. -I do.
-What is his reaction so far to the idea of an oncoming sibling?
-He's pretty -- I think he's keen.
I mean, he's mostly enthusiastic.
I mean, when we first told him I was pregnant,
he said, "That took a long time, Mom."
[ Laughter ]
"That took a lot of days."
And I was like, "Okay. Yeah, we've been working on it."
But -- So, yeah, so I guess he was into it.
But then there was, like, a little wobble.
And then he was worried
that I was going to love the baby more than him.
And then anybody who walked through the door, I was --
I loved more than him, you know.
But he seems to have gotten through that, too.
And now he hugs my belly.
-That's really great. -And it's sweet.
But I think it's going to go up and down.
-Yeah.
-How's your baby with number two?
-Well, it's a difference in age.
Yours is five now. -Five, yeah. He's like a person.
-The 2-year-old doesn't --
you know, I don't think he quite understands jealousy yet.
-Okay. -As an emotion.
But I think it's coming. -Yeah.
-But mostly, he just thinks --
he treats the 2-month-old like a joke.
Every time you say, "Look, it's your baby," he's like...
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah. I mean it kind of is. -Yeah.
-They're useless for a really long time.
-And the second one is really useless.
-Really useless. Yeah. -Yeah.
-Because the first one, at least, is interesting in the way
like watching "Planet Earth" is interesting.
-Right, right, right.
-You're like, "Oh, wow, they do this and they do that."
But now you're like, "I don't want to watch that episode of
'Planet Earth' again." -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-So he's great, but you kind of are --
I still feel like it's a preview to a movie
I eventually will want to see.
-Right. Okay. -Yeah.
-Well, I'm prepared. -Yeah, good.
So, this movie is adapted from a play
that I saw back in New York when it was here.
And it's about parents trying to get,
for those who couldn't tell from the clip, their kid into school.
Tell us a little more about it.
-Yeah, I mean, it's parents are trying to get
their 4 1/2-year-old kid into school.
This 4 1/2-year-old kid happens to love wearing dresses
and is sort of obsessed with all things princess.
And it's becoming clear that maybe he's not conforming
to these strict gender norms.
He's gender fluid, expansive.
The language is intense right now.
But yeah, so, and so they have a friend who is an educator,
and as they're applying to schools, suggests that maybe
they make more of this fact rather than less.
And suddenly they're just thinking of him
in these different terms and they're -- I don't know.
They become kind of anxious
that he's going to be labeled by society.
And it's really called "A Kid like Jake"
but the emphasis isn't so much on the kid.
It's really the parents and just this crisis
that they're kind of -- they spiral into.
But ultimately, I mean, it's really just kind of a portrait
of a marriage and a family.
And it's about parents just trying to figure out
the best way to understand who their child is
and help them navigate their way through the world.
So I think in some ways it's really specific
and it's this very topical idea of gender identity and politics.
But it's also just about, you know, releasing your children
into the world and trusting that they're going to be fine.