Kelly Clarkson Had No Idea Lewis Pullman Is In A Band She Loves

Have you ever actually... No. You didn't ever... Do what? Touch an actual octopus? I'm not telling. You're... We're not telling anyone this stuff. It's nice to see you again. Yes. You look great. Oh, thank you so much. A team of people did this. It's a lie. Yeah. No, and also, happy Mother's Day this weekend. It's Mother's Day. It is? Yeah. Are you going to... Do you have any plans? We don't really do much. No. Yeah. No. I have no plans, and trust me, my children have no plans. Have no... Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Tweet, tweet. No, my kids freaked out on me. Like, yesterday, in the car, they were like, when we just found out it was Mother's Day, I was like, just, like, write me something nice. Like, I don't need anything. I was like, I don't know why you're freaking out right now. I wish my kids would write me something nice. Yeah. They're 10 and... They're 10 and 12. So they're, like, a little younger right now, and still, like, you know, are sweet. Maybe my grandkids will hear this and go, oh, gosh, Grammy and... I doubt it. Yeah. I sincerely doubt it. Oh, that's cute, though. Congrats on the new movie. It is so good. Thank you. So it's Remarkably Bright Creatures. Yes. It's so good. It's so special. I think my favorite part about it is that I hadn't read the book. I didn't know about the book. And I was obviously watching it because I knew you were coming. And it's one of those things where I feel like we don't have enough fresh ideas. You know, we're remaking stuff, and we're doing stuff like that all the time. And it's so good. It's beautiful. It's sweet. It's tragic. It's kind of got you going on this emotional roller coaster. Yeah. It is, you know, it's this ordinary story of an old woman, a young man, and an octopus. Yeah. That comes around all the time. And you had to act with, like, obviously there was no octopus. So it was like... Oh, you don't know. Yeah, well... Who said? No. Oh, you know. I'm not telling. It's magic. Okay, we're going to make... Okay, how was it acting with that real octopus? Well, I've acted before with people that aren't there. Believe me. I've been doing a duet with a dude one time. I was like, can you pretend to be interested in me right now? I was like, is this much work? Yeah. But I was given the book in galley, so way early on before it was even published. Yeah. And I read, like, two chapters and said, yes, I want to do this. So for a long... Years and years it took to find the right filmmaker to get the adaptation right. And I was a pain in everybody's butt because I knew that the book was this delicate piece of lace and there's a bit of mystery in it. And I would give them, like, 35-page documents of, wait a minute, this has been left out. Look at that from the book. Look on page 15. There's a whole thing here. And so we were constantly trying to weave things into it. So by the time I was in fabulous, gorgeous, remarkable Vancouver, which, if you haven't been there, go there. It's Canada. Our neighbours. Yay! So gorgeous. Specifically, by the time I got there, I knew him. Whether he was there or not, and I won't say, but I knew him so well. I knew what he felt like. I knew the sound of him. I knew the look of him. Marcellus. Yeah. And the voice is done by brilliant Alfred Molina. So good. So interesting how the octopus narrates it. Yes. That's from the get-go in the book. And that's one of the reasons I went, oh, hello. Because it's all narrated by Marcellus, the octopus. What he sees from his tank. His vantage point. And how critical he is of this species. But also funny. Very funny. Very funny, very witty. Yeah. All right, so you got to work with your son Peter on it, right? Yes. He's the producer of it. That's fun. It's out of his new production company with Brian Unglis, Night Owl. And so they brought it to me early on. And I said, yes. So it is the first. Now, subsequently, they have like four others. And he's in New Jersey right now shooting a limited series, Peter is, that he wrote and is running, show running. And he's just amazing. Yeah. That was a look at her new film, Remarkable Bright Features. You can see it tomorrow on Netflix. So was it nice? You had a female director and a female cinematographer, right? Was that nice? It's like a different perspective. You know what? You get to work in it. And it is all about the quality of who they are. So male, female, doesn't matter. And since I've been doing this job, since I've been in the business since 1964, when there were no men on the set. None. I mean, no women on the set. Only men. I was like, what sets were you on? Trust me, I was on both sets. There were zero women in the crew. They just didn't exist. And then slowly they started to come on more and more and more. But it's really been over the last, oh, I guess 10 years that you see women really in the crew, on all aspects of the crew. So I have worked with some women directors. But this DP, Ashley, is arguably the best I've ever worked with. One of the best. Right up with the great cinematographers I've had the great privilege to work with. So she's dazzlingly good. Yeah. Oh, what a great word, dazzling. I want somebody to use that adjective with my name. One of the themes is finding joy through tragedy. How do you find joy? I think that's different for everyone. When something happens that you're like, oof, this is too much. Like in life. I don't know. That's an interesting question. How do I find joy? You know, this is a very weird thing. Joy is at night when I can sit and have my glass of Chardonnay. Yeah. And it's still. It's quiet. And I'm with my little dog. Yeah. That's a new part of my life. Yeah. My little dog. And I can cross off my list that I got it done. And I can look to tomorrow. Tomorrow is joy. Yes. I'm telling you what. Crossing a list off is the best. Excuse my French foreplay. I'm telling you what. I love seeing it just go away. And I am. I conquered this today. Conquered. Because we've got a lot of **** on the list. I know. That feels good. Pardon your foreplay on that one. Pardon my foreplay. But congratulations if you're having it. So are you a clean person? Are you tidy? Uh oh. I say I am a tidy. Look. I mean yes. It's like a little like it needs to be like I have something seriously wrong with me because everything. I'm surprised I'm not in here going who's got the thing I need to get. But lift up your feet. So question. No question. Can you tell. So you can tell in my life. If my room isn't. If my closet specifically is a mess. Yeah. She's not doing well. Yeah. But if you walk into my closet it's great. She's fine. Oh man. You know. Yeah. It's my closet. That's the indication. I get that. Yeah. I totally get that. But I like being clean. And there's a spot for everything. Just put it up children. You know there's so much chaos going inside me. Yeah. And the only way I had control was to make everything neat. Yeah. If I could make everything neat and clean. Yeah. Fine. But if there isn't. Yeah. And if there isn't a place for it then you don't need it. Like just put it away and if there isn't a place for it you don't need it. Oh I need it. I need it. Are you a hoarder? Oh yeah. Oh we're opposite. Yeah. But I hoard it neatly. Okay. Oh my God. You're my mom. Okay wait. In the film you become a surrogate mom for a drifter played by Lewis Pullman. So you worked with his dad Bill right? In London? Yes. We did a play in 2019 in the UK. It's The Old Thick. Yeah. Oh God. You're both so great. So you're. And you're also. How was that? How's it. Do you find like the English audience any different when you're playing? I find audiences different where I go and sing. Every audience is different. Yeah. I mean they're all different. That's part of the fun and the challenge of doing stage is they're all different. Yeah. And certainly the UK was different but I found them incredibly welcoming. I was told that they were a bit standoffish. Oh. Is that standoffish? No I. Broadway standoffish. Yeah. No I didn't. I didn't find that either. No. They're like here for a party. Yeah. Really. I agree. You're turning 80 this year right? I am? Yes. Oh my God. Wait what? I love aging. I know everybody is down on this industry for years but it is a blessing. Not everybody gets to do each number. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So it's like it's such. I've had some young friends like pass away and it's like every year is such a blessing and everything you get to you know next year it's like oh what do I want to do with this time? Absolutely. You don't know how much time you have. I completely agree. That's a blessing 80 years old. What are you excited about? Different chapter. Being here. Oh my God. I don't. You know it is. I'm grateful that my legs and my feet and my hands and my arms have done all the things I asked them to do for 80 years. Almost 80 years. Yeah. And I work to walk away from the place in this society that tells me that I should be ashamed because I'm beginning to look like Droopy Dog or Deputy Dog or whoever that guy is with his face down here. I always tell people they're like are you going to get work done? I'm like no I'm going to just sharpay it up. Yeah. It's going to show you all what it's supposed to look like. It just is what it is. You know what I'm saying? Because you know old women are wonderful. They have done a lot. They have raised all these people here. And sexy and powerful and bold. Yeah. Old women have done that. Yeah. As well. Like that's why everybody keeps going oh are you sad? This isn't. I am sad but at the same time like what is the next chapter? You know and I think that's exciting that you have that. Well what are you 12? I'm 44. 44? My God that was the prime of my life. I mean I'm just saying I'm not. No it is. 40s are great. 50s are even better. I love it. You and Marcellus. I wore this for two reasons actually. Wait why did you? Okay what are the two? Well one is that you know you love Canada. Your Canadian tuxedo. This is a Canadian tux. Yes. And two you spend so much time imagining Marcellus while I'm in the room. Yes. And now I just kind of I figured that I would give you a little rest. You've given me my own Marcellus. Yes. Have you ever actually held one? No. You didn't ever touch an actual octopus? I'm not telling. We're not telling anyone this stuff. My son and I did once and it was so cool. It felt so cool. I should have done that for research but I also wanted to like maintain a little bit of my skittishness around it. Yeah. Oh man well done. Congrats. It's such a great movie. I mean not on being a skit. I just mean well done on the movie. But you guys had met before this right? We hadn't. No. No? I had seen you in the flesh up on stage. Well you never came back though. Oh that's what it was. You never said hi. You know the old Vic is what it is and there isn't really any way to come back. You have to go upstairs to the pub up there and I never went to the pub. And it was such an amazing experience watching them up there. It was like you know watching your father up on stage kind of like when you're sharing the breath of somebody and they're kind of reincarnating another spirit. It's like I almost didn't want to puncture that. And it's a hugely emotional place. Yeah. I'm going to get to music with you here in a minute because I had no idea. Oh here we go. I've been listening to you for years. I had no idea. Anyway but describe who you play. I play Cameron in Remarkably Bright Creatures. And Cameron just sort of like shows up into this town in a van that breaks down and he's on the lookout for something. He's looking for somebody. He's got a real strong purpose but he's having trouble kind of getting things right. He's kind of lost. A little lost. My favorite thing is like the casual traumatic knowledge bombs that you drop. It's like it's just casually dropping like trauma on people. Like you state in your character just ****. It's like what? And it's like yeah and it just came out. That's my favorite part about your character. He's good at quieting a room. Yeah. Okay talk about the intergenerational friendship because we saw a little bit of it in that scene before. But y'all do such a great job. It's so funny. That was the easiest part. Yeah. That's not always easy with fellow actors right? In certain roles. Well it depends on the fellow actors. Yes. I think from the get go when we read together we just there wasn't nobody else in the room even though there were like five people you know going to like how is he doing? What do you think? We should hire him? And we just began and we began improvising and at one point you did it. You did this. You. You said. We were following this. Of course there wasn't anything there. I mean there wasn't even a set. We were just in an office room. There was an octopus though. There was an octopus and he was climbing all over the place. You said there he goes. He's going out the door and we just went out down the hallway of this building we were in and they had to follow along behind us going what did they say? How are they doing? Take the iPhone off the tripod we're going live here. And you're just going about it and they're all trailing behind you? Yeah they're all trailing along behind us because we were improvising and we were laughing later and we just we created our own world. Yeah. I love that. That's brilliant when you're comfortable and you're playing. Yeah. I think that's a fun thing. Okay we're going to get to music so here's the thing. I. Josh Brolin was on the show in L.A. years ago. Okay. And he tells me his daughter sings and I'm like oh that's cool I'll check her out. I went and looked it up and I was like damn. I was like I loved it. And her name is Eden. Yeah. And he came back and I said hey I listened to your daughter and I love the band. Attaboy. I was like that's the band right? And I love to focus more on the vocals. Obviously I'm a vocalist when I was talking to Josh but I have a playlist on my ranch. I drive the trails and just sit with my dogs. That's my peaceful time. That's my joy. That's where I find my joy. And I just go on trails by myself just going around whatever. And I have a playlist and Attaboy is on it. And I was reading about you and I had no idea you were the drummer. You know so it's like I just had been listening and I didn't know. And it's such a great band. Attaboy. Yeah. Well thank you. I listen to you so much. That's amazing. I like you and Sookie. Such a great vibe. Y'all's vibe is so cool. We're all friends from high school. High school friends. I didn't know. Yeah we did. We played in high school and then we were like about to graduate and we were like why don't we just do one recording of what we've done here. Because we're all going to go separate ways. And we did. We put it on Spotify. And then like 10 years later thanks to people like you and people who were just listening to it. The guitarist Freddy checked the bank account and he was like there's kind of some serious money in here. And he was like should we split it up? And we looked at it and we were like well it's enough to make another album. Should we get the band back together? It's so good. There's like a few artists that are like it's such a good vibe. It makes me feel good. Like y'all's music makes me feel good and it's so. Yeah that is. Y'all are so good. That's good to hear. So what are you doing with it now? Well we've got a new record coming out this summer. For a commercial break. Everybody give it up for Sally Field and Lewis Pullman.