Here we go – the Ellen juggernaut is about to start, and I can’t wait for the woman who put’s a smile on my face every day to touch down in our beautiful country!
ACA EXCLUSIVE:
TRACY GRIMSHAW INTERVIEWS ELLEN DEGENERES
MONDAY NIGHT AT 6.30PM ON NINE
In a world exclusive, Tracy Grimshaw interviews Ellen DeGeneres for a special episode of A Current Affair on Monday night (February 25) at 6.30pm on Channel Nine. Get the full transcript here straight after it airs
Arguably the world’s favourite talk show host, DeGeneres is seen by a global audience of millions each day in more than 60 countries through her syndicated program, The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Grimshaw, a Walkley Award-winning journalist, cites the interview, which took place on the set of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as one of her career highlights.
“I thought I’d done pretty much everything in 32 years in television,” Grimshaw said.
“But walking out to interview Ellen, in front of her own audience of 300 people, on her set, was quite an experience.
“I was concerned that with all that post-show energy she would be playing more to them than me, but she couldn’t have been more engaged.
“We discussed her life, her struggles, bullying, Joan Rivers, coming out, fighting back from being broke and unemployable, where Portia wants to take her in Australia and, briefly, her knees!
“Her staff said afterwards it was a side to her she never shows publicly and she told them that she really enjoyed the chat. I hope our viewers do too.”
Segments of The Ellen DeGeneres Show will be filmed in Australia next month when Swisse Wellness brings Ellen and her crew Down Under as part of its global launch in the USA.
ELLEN INTERVIEW
ELLEN
So I know from Portia this is a big show in Australia so thanks for being here, you came all the way here just for this
TRACE
We flew in this morning
ELLEN
Wow you must be exhausted
TRACE
No we’re pumped, we’ve been watching the show, watching you dance thank you for having us
ELLEN nice meeting you trace
TRACE
Australians are very excited to see you what are you going to do in Australia?
ELLEN
I don’t know yet (laughs) I know we are going to Melbourne and Sydney – mel-bun – not Melbourne, and I can’t wait to just run around the city and find fun things to do…we’ll be doing a lot of twitter hits to let people know where we are , and do some fun things. I’ve been wanting to go to Australia for a long time
TRACE
I can’t believe you haven’t been yet, I mean you married an Australian, you have a piece of Australia in your home every day
ELLEN
I did, I do – I am from New Orleans and Portia has always told me how similar new orleans and Melbourne are and Swisse have been great and I’m just excited about the whole thing
TRACE
Are there places that Portia wants to show you? Like where she grew up?
ELLEN
Yeah she’s told me about one pub that she used to go to all the time, so she told me about this one pubs she loves and we’ve been online looking at differenet restaurants we’re going to go to
TRACE
Which pub?
ELLEN
I can’t say right now (laugh) or that pubs going to be pretty crowded
TRACE
That’s going to be a popular pub when you turn up.
ELLEN
I’ll let you know after I’ve been to the pub (laugh) after I LEAVE the pub
TRACE
You’ve been doing the show for 10 years now and I suppose there’s a generation, certainly Australians, who don’t necessarily know what a rough time you had before you started this show – you had a very successful sitcom then came out and then it was cancelled, has this show saved you do you think?
ELLEN
Um, no I think the show has been very good to me and I am very grateful to the show and I think the show is because people responded to it.
I think what saved me is me being honest and I think I somehow had the courage to do something and say something that I knew would possibly end my career and instead of making business more important I made my soul and my life more important and I think by being honest that saved me.
And then I was given the opportunity to do something where I could just be myself and if they responded great and if they didn’t great.
(audience cheer clap)
TRACE
The show had been incredibly successful – you don’t seem to have changed – and given that you were crticised at the time do you think that the world has changed – the world attitude has changed?
ELLEN
Yes, certainly there are a lot of people that are more…it’s hard because I grew up in the south, I grew up in new Orleans and I grew up with a lot of um – it was very racist when I grew up so when you grow up and and you hear certain things you just go well that’s how those people are and that’s how you learn from adults and I think that I had to step back and look at the world with my eyes, not somebody elses, not what someone else thought. But what I thought and I think more and more people now are stepping back and instead of being raised a certain way, more and more people are saying that’s not okay, and it’s not okay to judge people – people should be who they are and more and more people are doing that.
And I think there are a lot of people who don’t approve of who I am and who don’t understand and I can’t really do anything about that.
I wish I could, I wish I could make people see that you know there is nothing wrong with being who you are but that is their journey and their time, but I think there are a lot of people who still don’t get it and are scared of it and fearful and that’s a shame but I think that the show…
when I first started there were a lot of people who didn’t want to buy the show by the way – it wasn’t an instant ‘let’s put her on the air’. Initially the thought from a lot of people, station managers, was she’s a lesbian, these are housewives – they’re not going to relate to her and there was a lot of fear of what is my show going to be about…was I just going to wave a rainbow flag (laugh)and I said I’m just going to be me, I’ve always been me you just know a little bit more about me now and it took people a while to realize that I wasn’t on some kind of agenda so this was not an easy sell.
TRACE
Do you carry any resentment from that time?
ELLEN
Furious (audience laugh)
TRACE
But were you at the time though?
ELLEN
I was furious at the time because when you are – I just felt like it was my fault, I was stuck living my life a certain way and how dare they not like me just because I suddenly revealed the truth of who I am in one aspect of my life – I’m saying I was gay, that was all I was saying. And I was so mad, I was so mad that I lost my show, and not just my show but for three years I didn’t have any offers. I mean literally the phone did ot ring for three years and I had no money, I was out of money and that tends to make people cranky (laugh) and then you know it was actually, I am very grateful for that time. I’m grateful I got to experience that, it gave me more compassion, I know what it feels like to be out of money, I know what it feels like to be up and high and I was on a top rated sitcom and very successful and people treated me very well and then all of a sudden just because of one revelation I was the joke.
I was the punchline of every late night talk show, I was made fun off on a magazine, and it felt horrible at the time and now I look back on it and I am thankful because it gave me the chance to examine myself and say who are you without fame, who are you without success, who are you without money? And I kind of found different parts of me that would not have grown had I not had that experience.
TRACE
Can we talk about the show, I was talking to your audience before the show and what they loved about you and what they said unanimously was your energy and your dancing – where did the dancing start?
ELLEN
It really started as a ridiculous accident, it started when I did my sitcom – when I was introduced to the audience before we taped the show, I have just always loved music and I love to dance, how do you not dance when you hear music. That’s just who I am, I can’t hear music and not dance so when they would introduce me I would come out dancing so when I started doing this show, after I did my monologue, instead of just walking to sit down here we just played music and as a joke I kinda danced a little bit and the next day I didn’t and then sometimes I would, then it became that I would dance into the audience and then I saw the audience respond to it which freed them up to just dance with me and I think people come here – it doesn’t matter who is on the show really, it’s just a place to let go and be free and I mean everyone in this audience is a stranger to each other. They come from all over the world, it’s daytime, it’s not dark in here, they’re not drunk as far as I know, maybe, I don’t know. And they’re all dancing and people just started dancing.
You know people grow up and they stop playing games, they stop playing hide and seek, you know we grow up and get so serious and stop playing and stop dancing. We get so busy with our lives and the only time we dance is maybe at a wedding and maybe if you’re drunk and you know nobody goes to clubs anymore and to me dancing represents freedom. And letting go and having fun and being a kid and I think that’s why they respond to it.
TRACE
Your humour is very kind and I know one of the things on the show is ‘BE KIND’ and is that because, comedy is very often about making fun of people and you don’t do that do you?
ELLEN
No I don’t, because – even before me being made fun off I just never thought…whenever I tell a joke or when I am talking about something I’m thinking about someone in the audience or someone at home watching experiencing that thing and if it was mean spirited – I don’t ever want someone to be hurt by what I say because I think people should laugh to feel better and to forget about what is going on in the world and not to laugh at someone else’s expense. It’s just mean spirited and it’s just mean and I don’t think people realize because they are used to it but it’s mean spirited to laugh at someone else’s expense. I had a chance to stop and look at it because I was the joke – I guess when I say be kind to one another I think I just want people to think because I think people are rude sometimes and I think people don’t pay attention to someone else’s feelings.
I think there are a lot of kids out there who are bullied and all kinds of things and I think that needs to stop and I think adults need to know it’s not just kids, they’re doing the same thing. There are adults out there bullying and they need to be kind.
TRACE
Have you ever had a converstation with someone like Joan Rivers who is very successful and quite mean – Have you ever spoken with her?
ELLEN
I’m scared of her (laugh) no I haven’t spoken to her, I mean I know Joan, I haven’t seen her for years but that’s just who she is and that’s how she grew up but that’s the antithesis of who I am.
TRACE
If someone had given you a crystal ball, say in 1988 and say this is what your life is going to be like, what would you of said?
ELLEN
I would have said….it was not a crystal ball that was real…it was a fantasy because I never would have imagined my life going on especially in the direction that it’s gone…because I really did think I wasn’t. you know that’s why I started doing stand up again – I wrote THE BEGINNING because it was how I began and I wanted people to remember that I was a comedian and I also called it that because I had to begin again. I had to show people that was me and then I wrote another HBO special and then I wrote HERE AND NOW And then I wrote another HBO special and I really thought I’d just go back to stand up and just tour and then out of nowhere FINDING NEMO came along and he wrote that fish for me, he wrote DORY for me and then this show came along and it took of.
I think it just reminds me that no matter how much we think we have control over things and we think we can guide our lives – we have some control over it, we can choose to do things and not to do things but I think what’s meant to be is going to happen and I think I trust that now
That’s why I think cared, I used to what people to like me and I still want them to like me but I know that I have no control over it I can just be myself. I am a good person, I’m a kind person, I live my life in a kind way and that’s all I can do and so lng as I go to sleep at night and know Ive done the best I can, that’s all I can do.
(audience cheers)
TRACE
You do the show everyday – we’ve seen this high energy, how long can you keep that up?
ELLEN
Well, I don’t know, we’ll see. I mean if my knees hold out (laugh) no seriously I just started working out with this guy and I am feeling so much better about myself and I feel that as long as I take care of myself and as long as, I can’t tell you and I say it to people this energy you can feel it.
People come from very very far away , they fly here and make plans and this is their vacation and they come here and bring this positivity, this joy and this love and I get to feel that everyday – it’s the most amazing feeling that that energy is coming to me everyday and I hope they get that and I hope I give it back to them and I feel like I have a purpose.
That’s why I started out as a comedian – to make people feel good and I’m doing that on a larger scale and I think if – I hope I can do this for a looong time
(audience cheer)
TRACE
Thank you
ELLEN
Thanks Trace, I’ll see you there.