(SINGING) The story of my life, I take her home.

I drive all night to keep her warm and time is frozen.

00:00:15,968 --> 00:00:19,960 The story of my life, I give her hope.

I spend her love, until she's broke inside.

The story of my life.

00:00:32,435 --> 00:00:34,930 Written on these walls are the colors that I can't change.

00:00:37,923 --> 00:00:38,423 Hi.

Hi, honey!

How are you?

Good.

How are you?

I would dance for you--

I would dance with you longer, but I just

want to talk to you about how brilliant you are,

and then I'll dance with you after that.

That's sweet.

Hi.

Hi, y'all.

Hi.

It's good to see you.

Good to see you.

Yeah.

Great to see you.

It's been a while, and this is your first talk

show in a long time, too.

Yeah.

Yeah, a few years, I guess.

Yeah, you took some time off.

Yes, I did.

What did you do?

You took, like, six years off.

You know, it sounds more leisurely than it was,

because I can't be idle.

I had to work.

So I was working.

I just wasn't working in front of the cameras.

You know, by design.

Is "What If" the first thing you did in a long time?

Yes.

Since I saw you.

That was fantastic.

Yeah, it is.

Thank you.

Now, did you do "Judy" before or after "What If?"

I did "Judy," and then I-- as soon as I got home,

we went into "What If."

But I don't know if you watched "What If,"

but that was a fantastic show, too.

You were evil, and it was-- it must have been fun to play.

She's cray-cray.

Yeah.

Oh, it was so much fun.

Yeah.

Like, I would never say that, but Anne Montgomery would.

Uh-huh?

Yeah.

Yeah, it was really fun.

You'd look at the script every day, and you're like,

she says what?

OK.

So all right-- so "Judy--" so a lot of people don't even--

a lot of young people don't know who Judy Garland was.

She was Liza Minnelli's mother, she was in "Wizard of Oz."

Yeah.

And a lot of people really didn't know-- because Portia

and I watched it together, and I just

can't rave about you enough.

I mean, you are--

That's very kind.

Absolutely brilliant as Judy Garland.

And that must be so hard to take on an icon like that.

That's sweet, Ellen Thank you.

But because Portia hadn't really heard the whole story,

she was like, oh, my god.

That's so sad.

And a lot of people don't know, it's about--

it's a time of her life that people don't know.

Yeah.

So explain--

It's the end of her life.

The last, maybe, year of her life.

Mhm?

And she did a series of concerts in London.

And yeah, a lot of people think of it

as a tragic part of her life.

But I think in understanding the circumstances in context,

we can really see just how extraordinary she really was.

Not just with her God-given talent, but with the things

that she was able to overcome in order to continue

to perform on that level.

I mean, she's really remarkable.

I mean, one in a million years.

Yeah.

I mean, I think people don't know--

I mean, you'll see the movie and how

she became addicted to drugs.

It was not her fault. And she didn't

have any help along the way, and she was abused in so many ways

by her parents, by the system.

But you sing--

I mean, you can always tell when somebody

is lip syncing in a movie, and I turned to Portia

and I was like, she's singing.

This is, like-- she's actually singing Judy Garland songs.

And so were you known as a singer before this?

Well, not like that.

You know, this was a different thing.

That scene right there, that stage fright scene,

that was real.

[LAUGHTER]

You know, a real audience at the Hackney

Empire, where we filmed it.

And Rupert, the director, he was just

determined that this was going to be

an authentic experience between a performer and an audience.

But it was just-- and then how did they--

because you looked just like her.

What did they do to alter your face to look like her?

Because you looked exactly like her.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, we started with that fantastic wig, right?

Because you know, gotta start with that--

Fabulous wig.

Great wig.

And then they did a few little tiny prosthetics,

which I won't mention to you because I don't

want you to look for them.

If you don't see them, then good.

And we did less is more.

We started by piling everything on,

and then we started to extract, and just

make it as minimal as we could.

And then you put on some aging kind of makeup.

Which was hilarious, because by the end of the shoot

he's like, OK, we got the thing, got the thing, contacts--

OK, you're ready.

We got everything?

We got everything.

And I said yes, yes.

[GASP]

You didn't put-- you didn't do my lines.

And he looks at me, and he said--

so we haven't.

Oh, no.

That feels good, doesn't it?

No, it was-- it was great.

Yeah?

It was funny.

And yeah, you know-- no, it was good

that we had an authentic representation of the fatigue.

Yeah.

Right.

You know?

Sure.

Yeah.

Well, because it must have been exhausting to do that.

How long did it take for hair and makeup?

Less time, as the show went on.

- As it went on.

Well, it's good-- I know that you

got a long-standing ovation.

People are raving about-- that you're

the front runner for an Oscar.

And I can't-- I don't know what else is coming out,

but I agree.

I agree.

You're amazing.

That's nice.

Amazing.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Even if you don't know who Judy Garland was,

you must see this film.

It's just-- it's fascinating and heartbreaking,

and beautiful the way she portrays it.

And it's called "Judy," it opens September 27th.

We'll be right back.