This week, I’m happy to highlight this interview between Katie Couric and Ellen DeGeneres as part of Couric’s @katiecouric weekly Web feature. Couric sat down with DeGeneres recently to talk about everything from changes in perceptions of the LGBT community during the past decade, the possibility of having children with her wife, Portia de Rossi, to her new job on American Idol. Excerpts from the interview are also available in the March issue of Glamour magazine.
Highlights:
On producing a high-energy show and thanking her audience after each taping: “It’s important for me to remind people to take that home with them, and maybe they’ll spread that (energy) with them … It takes a few people at a time to make a shift.”
On responding to negativity: “I have to remind myself if I hate that person, if I judge that person, I’m the same as them. So I can’t judge them. It’s hard — I really want everyone to be aware of openness, kindness and compassion … If I help shift that by just being who I am, great. If not, well, then that’s not my job.”
On fighting misconceptions and personal growth made since DeGeneres came out in 1997: “It’s someone willing to open their mind and say, “I don’t understand, but that’s their life. How does it impact me?’”
When asked for advice for young girls: “Find out who you are. It took me a long time to find out … I was really scared as a young girl. I was so insecure. I was so scared of what people thought of me, and if I was liked … Find out who you are, and be that person … Find that truth, and live that truth, and everything else will come to you.”
— Adam Griffiths, editor-in-chief
