Juliette Lewis got all choked up on Wednesday’s episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” – and it wasn’t from discussing the trauma her character endures as a stranded survivor of a plane crash on Showtime’s “Yellowjackets.”
Instead, Kelly Clarkson asked the longtime actor about one of her earliest timeless classics, “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
“I know that you’ve talked about this a billion times, but my family will actually kill me if I don’t bring it up, so you’re welcome,” Clarkson began, explaining that she watches “Christmas Vacation” with her family every year.
“How could I be mad at that?” Lewis said, genuinely warmed by the thought.
“It’s one of my favorite, I have never – like, I spend Christmas with you,” Clarkson said. “Like, everyone does. That’s an incredible thing to make so many movies, shows, music, but to have this thing that is so culturally just in our brains and in our – every year, different generations. Very few people are a part of something like that. Did you know it was gonna be like that?”
“No, I did not,” Lewis said, noting that she’s being interviews for “Yellowjackets” lately and at this point in her life she’s feeling especially reflective. “I’m mid-life, so I’m going through many important emotional, transitional things, seizing beautiful, learning how to appreciate what you have.”
“And so I get really – I’m gonna cry,” she continued, pointing herself in the face in mock embarrassment before choking up further. Clarkson grabbed the tissues. “‘Christmas Vacation,’ it’s so touching that every year as a little, I was just 15. Sorry, I didn’t mean to cry.”
“No, look, I cry so much on this show,” the host assured. “They have it here for me! It’s an incredible thing though to be a part of people’s lives every Christmas.”
“They’re like, ‘You’re part of my family,’ people have lost their parents or whatever – what it meant to them, it’s a tradition,” Lewis said, sharing interactions she’s had with fans about the movie.
“You’re a part of those memories.”
“So what I’m saying is no, you can never imagine that is ever gonna happen in a film you do,” Lewis said. “I was just 15 years old.”
Watch the full interview clip from “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in the video above.
