-[theme music playing] -[Reese Witherspoon reading]
So fun. Whoo!
-Cheers. -Cheers.
Hi!
[Reese] I'm doing a show highlighting powerful,
ambitious women in different fields.
Let's go back to the top of the frame.
Okay, how did I do?
[Reese] And I would love to share with you
what makes these women so inspirational to me.
[gasps]
Love, Reese.
I think I came out of the womb...
lighting shit on fire.
[laughs]
Pretty sure if somebody handed me a match, I would have burned the hospital down.
[Reese] I'm here in Venice Beach to spend a day with Pink.
Pink is one of the most successful and relevant artists
of the past two decades.
She's won three Grammys and countless other awards.
Her rebellious teen years not only helped shape her music,
it made her a hero to fans who felt like outsiders.
I'm gonna talk to her about being on a world tour,
being an international signing sensation,
but also being a mom.
Hi. [laughing]
-Hi. -Hey!
-Come and say hi, buddy. -Oh, my gosh!
-Hey. -Hi, welcome.
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Thanks for coming.
-Hi. -Say hi.
-Hiya. -Oh, are you having your first shy moment?
Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you for doing this.
-Yeah! -I'm so excited to talk you.
-Me too. -Yeah. Hi.
[Pink] Come in.
This is amazing.
[Pink] Thank you.
-[Reese] Hey, look! -[Pink] That's my mama.
-It's really nice to meet you. -Hi, I'm Reese. Oh, my God.
Yeah.
Your mom and my mom probably need to have a discussion.
-Uh-oh. Uh-oh. -Or maybe not.
-[baby cooing] -[Reese] Maybe there's a lot...
to share about, like, what it means to have
a creative daughter in high school
who's, like, trying to break all the rules.
Well, she lucked out. I didn't go to high school.
[all laughing]
She did.
Ah, I barely went to high school but my mother never figured it out.
Teenagers are the best liars on the planet.
I... I know.
-I thought I was so on top of everything. -Denial's a healthy thing
-that we all have once. -Yeah.
Yeah, totally.
How old are yours?
I have an 18-year-old daughter now.
[Pink] She looks just like you.
-[Reese] Aw. -[Pink] You guys are amazing together.
-I love seeing you in pictures together. -Aw, that's really...
It's amazing.
[Reese] Your daughter's at school, yeah?
[Pink] She is.
Isn't that interesting now you're in these dynamics
where you're parenting a girl?
[Pink] Yes. It's an interesting time
with everything that's happening now too, is...
the balance of I want my kids to be kids,
but I also want them to be aware of what's going on in the world,
and I need my girl to be aware that...
Of all... Everything she's walking into.
And it's such a tricky conversation.
-It is. -[Pink] That's what's so hard
about being a mom, is you have no idea
if any of the stuff you're doing... is landing.
Motherhood has completely rearranged every cell in my body.
I make decisions differently,
I speak differently, I think differently.
I...
I care more about those two humans than I care...
about anything else
and because of that, I care more about the world.
I care about the kind of world
that we're handing over to these poor kids.
And... it's my job and my responsibility
to try to affect it
as much as I possibly can while my fire is burning.
I was thinking the other day about the first time I... I wrote to you...
Yes.
...was when Ava was seven,
and you wrote a song called "Stupid Girls"--
[Pink] Yes, I remember.
I got that note, I was like... [squeals excitedly]
And I wrote you a note because
the most popular TV shows at the time were all a bunch of girls who...
I don't know if they were pretending, or they really were stupid.
-Yep. -But it was this cultural thing
at that time, like... to be stupid.
And I remember thinking,
"Did my grandmother really fight for our rights,
so that they could marginalize women
and say that we're too stupid to run for office, or too stupid to vote?'"
And when you wrote that song
it was like a siren call for me.
And I remember writing you like, with like tears in my eyes--
-[Pink] Yeah, I remember. -...about my daughter.
I do remember that, and I didn't have a child,
so my perspective was completely different at that point.
I wasn't even thinking... really, for the future,
I was thinking for myself as a girl, like, "Is this it?"
-[Reese] Yeah. -I'm the scary one?
Yeah. [chuckles] Can I say... you start to discover,
and so appreciate... This is going to make me a little teary,
but when women like you write a song,
that's why I write out to you.
Because my daughter listens more to you...
-[Pink] Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. -...than she does to me.
Well, that's why I decided to like to do this show, too.
Because I think it's the women that we see
who are prominent in our daughter's lives.
If they're going to be more important in certain ways...
I'm learning too that she'll listen to others,
and, so, being surrounded by so many different kinds of women
that are all passionate about what they do and unapologetic about who they are...
-[Reese] Yeah. -That's my greatest gift for her.
Absolutely.
There was a mom that, um, twittered me after the VMAs and she said,
"I just wanted to share with you, if you see this,
my daughter is nine..."
I think she's eight or nine.
"We shop in the boys' section at Target
and she's been bullied terribly this year.
She was thinking maybe it was time
to start putting on makeup and trying to be like the other girls."
And she said, "It's breaking my heart.
And then we saw your speech."
Recently I was driving my daughter to school
and she said to me,
"I'm the ugliest girl I know. I look like a boy with long hair."
I said, "When people make fun of me, it's... that's what they use.
They say that I look like a boy or my body is too strong."
And I said to her, I said, "Do you see me growing my hair?"
She said, "No, Mama."
I said, "Do you see me changing my body?"
"No, Mama."
"Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world?"
-"Yes, Mama." -[crowd cheering]
Okay.
"And after your speech,
we're back where we belong in Target, in the boys section...
-[chuckles] -...getting the clothes
that are comfortable for her so she can do her sports."
Oh, yeah. That's awesome.
And I'm just like, [sighs] "That's the stuff that is important.
That's the stuff that feels good."
Do you think our daughters will grow up in a world
where the standards of beauty are truly changed?
Not just lip service, but like...
truly we accept all ideas of beauty.
I think so. I do.
-I think-- -I think that there is always gonna be...
two sides.
And... and she's always gonna be around...
the... I don't know, the OG idea of beautiful.
That type of girl and the type of guy or girl that appreciates that.
But I think there's so much else now, and I think it's a rad time,
because you see more professional girl skateboarders,
more professional girl surfboarders,
more professional girls are getting into motocross,
and I think the movement now is gonna take it even further.
Well, I think, in great part to people like you who are artists,
who are so outspoken about it
and constantly pushing the edge of what is the social norm,
and why you have to conform...
And why do you have to have a body that only 1% of the population has?
Why do you have to look... Why did your hair have to be this way?
And let's celebrate the people who actually "don't belong," you know.
Yeah, and I think that there's not one type of beautiful.
The thing that blew her mind the most was that people make fun of me.
And she was like, "What do you mean people make fun of you?"
I was like, "Baby, they make fun of me every day, and guess what?
It hurts my feelings."
-Right. -Everybody has feelings.
It doesn't feel good.
But there is no way around it.
It's just you have to constantly figure out how to respond--
-[baby cooing] -[chuckling]
-[Pink] The ham. -[Reese] What do you think?
[Pink] The ham would like to speak to you like that on the floor.
[both laughing]
[baby gurgling]
Yesterday, this is what I got from my five-year-old.
I was driving him to preschool and he said,
"Mom, why do you, um,
some of the other moms get to drop off and pick their kids up and you don't?"
And I said, "Oh, well, I have a job."
And he said, "Well, my friend's mom has a job.
Will you change your job to her job,
-so that you can come to school more?" -Aw. Aw.
[Pink chuckles]
And I was like, "Buddy."
-[Pink] Yeah. -That was tough. It was tough.
-[Pink] Yeah. -But I think,
"What kind of a mom would I be if I didn't do what I'm passionate about?"
-[Pink] Right. -I'd be a really shitty mom.
-Right. -I'd be angry.
-Yeah. -I'd feel like my dreams didn't matter.
Mmm-hmm.
-And that's important, too. -[Pink] Mmm-hmm.
It means something to the kids.
-[Pink] I think so. -[Reese] Because you have to own
-your success as well. -Yeah.
I think you're showing them that... I hope that we're showing them
that they can truly do anything that they want.
I think having a family is definitely a choice,
and it's not for everybody.
But I also don't believe you can have it all.
I don't believe that exists.
Because everything is a compromise
when you're a mom.
None of this is easy.
It's not easy to be an adult,
it's not easy to be a woman, it's not easy to be a working mom.
It's not easy to raise a girl or a boy.
It's... None of it's easy,
but it's all beautiful and worth it, and I would do it a thousand times.
Speaking of work and all of your performances
that are so rigorous and physical,
is Willow interested in the gymnast stuff and...
[Pink] Yeah, we have a silk in the playroom.
-For real? -Yeah. Care to see it?
Oh, yeah, that's so cool.
-[laughs] -Yes, I'd love to.
Come see. You wanna get in the silk?
-[Pink] Ta-da! -[Reese] Wow!
-Look at the mini silk. -The mini silk.
[laughing]
-Mini. -Isn't it funny?
Oh, my God. That's amazing.
It's so fun.
Does she love it?
She... I'll show you what she does.
But it's great for her 'cause she has all this hair.
Yes.
[Pink] And then she'll just spin
and do all of her little things.
-Wow! -And it's so fun.
That's amazing.
I could never have done that.
[Pink] When I started that
he was probably seven months old.
I knew I had to find my core again.
-Yeah. -[Pink] Last album...
I just had my first baby,
and I wore, like, this cute little shorts with the fishnets and the white T-shirt,
and I was... I was overweight for me but I was feeling myself.
And I remember that was my first thing back from having a baby,
and a comedian, a male comedian, went on Twitter and said,
"Put that shit away, Pink.
Nobody wants to see that anymore, you're a mother.
Have some respect."
Wow.
And so, um, me being the person that I was,
twittered back...
[both laughing]
Of course you did.
...and said "Well, sweetheart, next time you get invited
you can bring me a pair of pants."
-[laughs] -But the idea that I was so hurt by it,
I was so offended, like,
"Oh, I'm a mom now so I'm not allowed to be sexy,
and I'm not allowed to be strong,
and I'm not allowed to be an acrobat anymore?"
-Right. -"So now you want me to put my clothes on
-and just go away?" -Wow.
Nah, that's not going to happen.
-Sort of like "Stay in your lane." -Yeah.
"Now I have to wear mom jeans?"
[both chuckling]
-What's wrong with mom jeans? -[Pink] How dare anybody.
Mom jeans are cool now.
That's... That's momentary, though.
-I can feel that fading quickly. -[Pink laughing]
[laughing] I always say anybody who bitches about women,
like, post-baby, I'm like, "Next time,
you push a baby out your...
-your dick hole... -Yeah. Yeah.
-...you can comment... -Yeah.
-...about what my body looks like... -So, I told...
-...post-baby." -I told all the men in my life
that they have to stop calling each other pussies.
-Yeah. -Because...
I mean,
this is the strongest, most amazing piece of anatomy in the world.
-Look at that. -I said, "So now you have
-to call people balls, or ball sacks." -Yeah. Yeah.
So, now Carey, when he thinks I'm being weak, he calls me a ball sack.
-A ball sack? [laughs] -[Pink] Which I think is more appropriate.
I mean, one little pinch and you're on the floor.
[both laughing]
-I want to show you something. -Okay.
We're at the beach so you should see the beach.
[Reese] Oh, I want to see that.
-[Pink] Come on out. -Oh, wow! This is amazing.
Thanks.
This is my little hiding spot.
[Reese] I used to come down here when I first
moved to LA and I would rollerblade up and down the...
-[chuckles] -You did.
-So did I. -[Reese gasps]
[Pink] I had pink cornrows down to my ass.
[Reese] Wow.
I was the runaway. I did drugs.
I sold drugs.
My friends were bad, bad, bad.
But all we were was kids that were hurting.
And kids that were bullied and kids that were different.
And there was nobody that wanted us anywhere.
We just... Everywhere we would go we would get kicked out,
and I was a... sensitive kid. All I needed was a hug.
-Mmm. -But I didn't get one, so I fought back.
And there was some teacher who told you, "You'll never be anything."
[Pink] Oh, many.
I think sometimes teachers and adults give you labels
that you're only going to live up to.
And I... I think that actually harms kids more than it helps them.
[Pink] If you leave kids like me alone
with no outlet for their creativity,
then bad stuff's going to start to happen.
And so that was me.
But I found my way and I knew I wanted to be a musician
so I had a goal in mind
and I had the stubbornness to go after it
and that's what kept me alive,
is that I knew what I was good at
and I wanted to do it.
I think this is kind of interesting, how long that you've been doing this.
I think you and I kind of started at the same time and I think--
That's amazing.
What do you think gives you staying power and longevity?
-I'm like a rash. I just won't go away. -[Reese chuckles]
And also I like to be uncomfortable.
I like to be honest. I like to be vulnerable.
I like to show everything that's wrong with me
-and then laugh about it with the world. -Right.
And I feel like people that were with me then, when I was 16...
are with me now, and I'm 38,
and we're all just going through the same stuff.
-[Reese] That's so true. -We're all just struggling together
and growing up together.
Yeah.
Sometimes... you don't really feel motivated
until you have something to prove.
Thank God, or I'd have nothing to write about.
I always like being the underdog and like,
-"You think I can't be dramatic?" -Mmm-hmm.
"Well, then okay, Oh, you think I can't be funny?
-Oh, guess what?" -Yeah, "Watch this."
"You think I can't start my own company? Guess what?
This is what I'm gonna do."
My first two albums were, "Well, you can't do this."
And I said, "Watch me." And then they said, "Well, you can't do this."
I said, "Watch me." And then the third record they were like,
"Do whatever you want." I was like, "Ugh."
-[Reese] Ugh. -"I don't want to do anything.
I want to go back to sleep."
[both laugh]
So, you're getting ready for tour, what are you... what are you up to?
I am. I'm in rehearsals every day.
You want to go?
-I would love to see it. -Okay. Let's do it!
You're not going to make me do things I don't want to do, right?
No. I promise. Maybe a little.
[Pink laughs]
I'm not nervous at all.
-Nah, you'll be fine. -Okay.
There's mats.
-Is there insurance? -[laughs]
All right. I'm a really good driver.
[laughs] Let's hope so.
Where do you start your tour?
We start in Phoenix...
Normally, I would go out for anywhere from 17 months to 27 months.
-But-- -Oh, my gosh!
...with kids...
I'm just trying to make sure that Willow's going to be okay...
and Jameson's going to be okay.
Mmm-hmm.
But, yeah, last time it was funny. I did this whole tour with Willow,
we went out when she was 14 months and came home when she was three.
And I'm with her...
When I'm not on stage I'm with her all the time...
-Mmm-hmm. -...because I'm a total helicopter.
-[laughing] -And--
-Did you think you'd be a helicopter mom? -No.
No. I didn't think I'd be so tough either.
I took on my... I'm bad cop.
You are?
I'm totally bad cop.
Carey's a sucker.
-No way. -He's total pushover.
-No way. -Oh, yeah.
And he promised me he wouldn't be.
He promised me he wouldn't be good cop.
Well, see, that's the kind of crazy stuff,
is you don't know what kind of parent you are
-until you're already in it. -[Pink] I know.
And you're in the soup and you're like, "This is who we are."
So, now with two kids I just need to... I need to figure out how it's gonna go.
And I just need to know everyone's going to be okay
and then we can start planning more dates.
Going on tour with children is really tricky.
It's exhausting. It's the hardest thing I've ever done.
But I'm very, very fortunate that I get to bring my kids with me.
And that I kind of get to integrate them into my life.
We went to Budapest and we went to Berlin and the Holocaust Memorial.
-Wow. -[Pink] And--
It's the most beautiful memorial there, too.
-[Pink] It's so gorgeous. -[gasps]
Willow, she was like, "Wait. So, my mom's Jewish."
"Yeah?" "Well, my mom's Jewish."
"Yeah."
"Well, then, I'm Jewish."
"Yeah."
"Well, then, this could have been us."
And at six, it's just like, to watch those wheels turn, and...
That's very sophisticated.
And then, I asked her by the time we got to London,
I said, "What was your favorite city?"
And she said, "I think it was Berlin."
And I said, "Why?"
And she said, "Because there was a wall and people were separated
and there was a war and people were killed and...
now everybody's together
and there's no more wall and there's no more war
and that means that everything that's bad can be good again."
-Mmm. Wow. -And it's just in this
six-year-old little voice, and I'm just listening to her,
and I'm like, "You're amazing.
And you're totally right. Everything that's bad can be good again."
-Oh! It's so beautiful. -It is a total circle.
Isn't that so interesting how pure they are at their thought...
and then what happens to girls?
I see these young girls and they're nine and ten and 11 and going,
"I'm gonna start a club and
I'm going to be the President of the United States of America."
And then something happens from 12 to 16,
and I honestly have no idea what it is...
where they become so conscious of other people's feelings of them
and what they're supposed to be and what they're not supposed to be.
I said to Ava... [laughs]
One day she was reading something... something on her Instagram
and she said, "And they said this and that about me."
And I was like, "Yeah, but, you know, who cares?
I mean, you can't care about their feelings."
She goes, "Mom, I'm a teenager,
all we do is care about
-how other people feel about our feeling." -[laughs] It's true.
-And I was like, "That's so true." -[Pink] That's true.
I... How can I tell you to be... something you're not?
You've got to go through those feelings...
-[Pink] Yeah. -...to come out the other side.
Oh, I'm going to have no idea what to say.
I'm going to have no idea what to say,
just like my mom had no idea what to say to me.
When I wrote you that letter about "Stupid Girls,"
I thought you would think I was one of those stupid girls. [laughs nervously]
-I was like scared to write to you... -Are you kidding?
-...and I was like-- -I read the letter and I was like,
"Who am I right now?"
-Aw. -"Reese Witherspoon just wrote me a letter
and told me I was doing some good in the world."
I was like, "Cool, I can die now."
I thought, "God, she's so brave. She just comes out with it."
-And I always had like private... -I do it, but--
...secret feelings, like, "Ugh, I hate all these girls
pretending they're stupid just to make good television."
It drove me bonkers.
But I would never say it publicly, and I was like,
-"She said it." -Yeah.
"And then she did a whole video about it."
Well, I get... I get a lot of flak.
And I'm also, like, because of that,
if you you have an opinion and you're willing to share it,
you're... you are... immediately polarizing.
I cannot tell you the amount of times I've been told to "Shut up,
-sit down, sweetheart, and sing." -[gasps]
Wow.
And I've fought back to that as well.
You know, I pay taxes.
-Yeah. -I'm engaged in the world.
I'm educated about what's going on in the world.
I'm a woman, I care, I'm a mother, I have children.
Why should I not have an opinion?
It's been frightening for a lot of women
-to say anything controversial. -Mmm-hmm.
And that's [scoffs] silence that is not helpful.
[Reese] Is this where we're going?
[Pink] This is it. This is my home
-for the next three weeks. -No way.
Oh, I love this.
[Pink] This is Culver Studios.
And this is where we rehearse.
We need a space
that's big enough for the band, the dancers and all the apparatuses.
We need to be able to fly while we sing,
and I love it here.
[Reese] This is so petty, but I'm worried I ate food
and this is gonna make me [laughing] sick to my stomach.
[both laughing]
I'm gonna turn upside down and throw up all over your gym.
It all right, its happened.
-I'm gonna leave my purse in the car. -All right.
Because I'm not going to need my purse, am I?
[Pink] No, not unless you need Tums or...
-[laughing] -[Reese] I'm scared.
What?
Aren't you scared you're going to fall?
Yeah. And I do.
-I fall. -[Reese] No, don't say that.
[Pink] Meet your new friend.
Oh, no, no, no. No, no.
-[Pink laughing] -[Reese] No, no, no. No, no, no.
-[Reese] Nope. Oh, hey. I'm Reese. -[man] Nice to meet you.
I'm going to be going on tour with you guys.
-Oh, good. -This is our new acrobat.
-[Reese] Hi. -You look ready to go.
-I'm a little nervous. -[all laughing]
Uh, so what's y'alls kind of thing that you do?
How do you begin?
The number usually starts with Cassan in the air,
he comes on and he picks up Alecia,
he drops her off and then they go into this whole partner spinning sequence
and she kind of lays across him and has this sexy moment.
-Mmm. -[Pink] But it's like my version of sexy
which is... it's a little aggressive.
[all laughing]
Let's set up for the first sequence, yeah.
-More sexy. -[woman] Ooh, sexy.
-[man] Super sexy. -Ankle.
[Reese] Toe point, love it.
This is not safe. This is definitely not safe.
Every mom radar is going off for me right now.
[man] Yeah, that's it.
[Reese] Wow!
That's incredible.
But you... you don't have a harness on at all.
-Not at all. -[woman] Cassan's her harness.
-Neither one... -[woman] Cassan's her harness.
-Your turn. -Oh, my God.
[laughing]
-[Reese] Okay. -I love how nervous you look.
-That's how I'm like, now. -[laughing]
Just smile.
-[Reese] Okay. -[all laughing]
Or give sexy.
Or say, "Please let's stop."
[all laughing]
Okay, I'm so nervous. Okay.
Tell my children I love them.
-[all laughing] -[Pink] Yep. Slide on in.
Oh, my God.
[chuckles]
-Well... -Go.
[Reese] Oh, my God.
[gasps] Oh, my God.
-Don't open your eyes. -[laughing]
Yeah, don't try to see where you...
Oh, my God.
Find the horizon.
Right, there's no horizon.
[gasps] Oh, my God.
[all laughing]
[Pink] And now you lay back
-Okay, wait. -You can actually help me.
What do I do with my arms.
-You just reach back and... -You can just string them around the side.
-...and just touch his whole face. -Does this look as sexy as she looks?
Do I look as sexy?
-[all laughing] -Are you... Are you excited?
-[indistinct chatter] -[man] Point your toe.
[woman] There. Beautiful.
-[man] Yeah. -Yeah, there it is.
-[man] That's gorgeous. -[Reese] Oh, my gosh.
-[all laughing] -Oh, my God.
That's a lot of spinning.
Okay, that's really fun. That's really fun.
[Pink] It's fun, right?
It's really fun and the dismount was so beautiful.
-It's like... -[all laughing]
Climb on out!
That's pretty much how I feel every night.
So all of that but higher
and more people, and, like, restrictive costumes,
no harness, and singing.
Yeah.
Cool. [scoffs]
Yeah, no biggie.
-Ah, well, thank y'all. -See? You did it.
This is awesome. I know, it conquered a fear.
Thank you for inspiring me.
-Thank you for inspiring my children. -Ditto.
Thank you for caring.
Thank you for putting yourself out there.
-We are so grateful to you. -Thank you.
Just keep doing it.
Get back to work.
-Yeah, right. Holy shit. -[all laughing]
[Pink] The most meaningful thing you could tell me as a musician
is that I mattered to someone
or made someone feel better about something they went through.
The awards come and go, most of them go.
But... [laughing]
And then now, you know, you're only as good as your last song and all of that,
all of those clichés.
And what sticks with you are the stories that you heard from people...
about how a song changed that moment in their life
or something you said mattered to their daughter
or just something... some kind of ripple was started.
I think that's what everybody wants is to matter, is to have mattered,
is to leave something.
[theme music playing]