All about Ellen DeGeneres
Just keep swimming! The bubbly blue-eyed talk-show host once again voices the adorably forgetful Dory in the sequel to Finding Nemo
FINDING NEMO SAVED HER Ellen says her “Just keep swimming” line in 2003’s Finding Nemo was particularly apt as she was going through a difficult time when the movie was being made.
After establishing herself as a comedian and the success of her sitcom Ellen – fans called her “the female Seinfeld” – her career took a dive when she came out as a lesbian and had the lead character in Ellen come out as gay too. After clashes with TV network ABC about the show’s content, advertisers deserting the time slot and declining ratings, the series was cancelled in 1998 after five seasons. Her second series, The Ellen Show, was cancelled in 2002 after just one season and the star fell into depression as her career seemed to stall.
“Finding Nemo came when I was at my lowest,” she says. “In the time after The Ellen Show was cancelled while I was doing nothing, Andrew Stanton [writer/director of Finding Nemo], having heard my voice on TV and how rambling I was and how I never stayed on topic, wrote Dory with me in mind. So ‘just keep swimming’ certainly applies to me.” By the time Finding Nemo was released, Ellen was back with The Ellen DeGeneres Show, now in its 13th season.
THE STAND-UP SLOG Ellen dropped out of university to be a stand-up comedian, working as a bartender, vacuum cleaner saleswoman, waitress and an oyster shucker while trying to establish herself in the comedy business. “You have to be really tough-skinned because it’s hard. There’s lots of travelling, lots of being by yourself, lots of rude, drunk people [in comedy clubs].”
SEEING THE BIGGER PICTURE She now sees losing her sitcom as “the biggest, most wonderful blessing”.
“Because I got to learn I was strong enough to start over again. I was so angry . . . I thought, ‘I earned this. I didn’t get this because I was beautiful; I didn’t get this because I had connections in the business.’
“I really worked my way up to a show, a sitcom that was mine, that was successful. Then I did what was right: I came out, which was good for me, and ultimately it was the only thing I could do. And I got punished for it.”
But in spite of how difficult that period of her life was, Ellen says she wouldn’t change a thing. “I wanted to crawl up in a ball and climb in a hole and hide forever. I was embarrassed. But I got to learn how to sit back . . . and what judgment was and how to have compassion.
“And I learnt I was strong enough to come back and make it again.”
OUT AND PROUD “We don’t put it out there as much as I would have in the past,” Ellen (58) says of her relationship with her wife of eight years, Australian actress Portia de Rossi (43). “But it’s silly to try to hide it. I’m not ashamed of it.” She says she realises now her coming out was “a lot for people all of a sudden”. “They hadn’t seen that before; they hadn’t seen two women holding hands, or with their arms around each other on a red carpet.” She also acknowledges how difficult it was for Portia when they started dating in 2004. “It was harder [for Portia] because before we got together she wasn’t out. She wasn’t public. It was actually a big step for her to take.”
NO KIDS, PLEASE Ellen recently said she and Portia had decided not to have children after discussing the possibility many times, adding that they prefer their lives just the way they are.
“We decided we like our conversations not being interrupted and our furniture without sticky grape juice on it,” she says. “Also, I think in this profession it can be really tough for children. It’s hard for them to have to share their parents with the world.”
FINDING DORY The sequel to Finding Nemo reunites the forgetful Dory with her clownfish friends Nemo (voiced by Hayden Rolence) and his dad, Marlin (Albert Brooks). The blue tang remembers something about her family being in California, and the three set off to find them. Crush (voiced by the film’s co-director Andrew Stanton) the sea turtle is back, as is baby turtle Squirt (Bennett Dammann). Modern Family’s Ed O’Neill voices a grumpy octopus who helps the gang in their search, Diane Keaton is Dory’s mother, Jenny, and Idris Elba is a sea lion called Fluke.
ENOUGH WITH THE WHALE Even though Finding Nemo was released 13 years ago, Ellen says people still regularly ask her to “speak whale”. She had no idea fans would love that scene so much. “When I showed up [to do the voice] they said, ‘You’re going to have to speak whale.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I know what a whale sounds like.’ And then they wanted to hear it and I just incorporated words in the whale. And it really hurts your throat. It’s hard and if you saw what I actually look like doing that – it’s not pretty.”
So it’s not her favourite thing to do. “It’s draining. It’s hard to speak whale. So I speak whale only on occasion.”