Yahoo Lifestyle Chelsea Handler Talks Kids, Her Career and How to Survive Trump at She Media SXSW Session: ‘I Have the Body I Wanted at 20, and I’m 50’
Chelsea Handler wasn’t afraid go there — discussing her body at age 50, her decision not to have children and what she won’t let Trump take from her this time around — and more during her lively session at the She Media Co-Lab Whole Life Health program, held as part of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.
Handler, the veteran comedian, told the crowd that the cultural obession on youth is overstated. In her mind, she’s never been better after reaching the half-century mark. “I have the body I wanted when I was 20, and I’m 50,” she said during the March 9 conversation with She Media chief Samantha Skey. “So everyone — you have something to look forward to. It all comes together in your 40s and 50s.”
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The She Media installation is rooted in helping women navigate their paths to the later chapters in their lives and careers. Handler dove right in to the question that is unavoidable for women — and she sought to set the record straight about why she never had children.
“People think that since I don’t want children that I hate them. I don’t hate children,” Handler said. “I have a lot of children in my life, and I actually have a lot of bandwidth for children because I don’t have my own children. So, if I had my own children, I’d probably be a lot more centered on that, but I’m able to give out a lot, and I’m able to make contributions in a bigger way because of being freed up in that way.”
Like most Hollywood careers, Handler has had her share of ups and downs. She was a pathbreaker in late-night TV as host of E!’s “Chelsea Lately” from 2007-2014. Today she’s one of the industry’s most popular touring comedians. Handler didn’t hide her personal pride at surviving so long in an impossibly fickle industry. It’s taught her to trust her instincts.
“I have enough data to show me I’m the one who got me this far. ‘I’ve got you,’ like, that’s what I say to myself all the time. ‘I’ve got you,’ ” Handler said. “For me, it’s always staying in touch with kind of the little girl. This is what my book opens with as a chapter to my older self as a younger girl, of the kind of woman that I wanted to become like, how did I see myself being in this world? I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be independent. I didn’t want to rely on anyone for my money. I wanted to be someone who stood up for something. … And I wanted to show up for people, and so connecting in a helpful way to that essence of who you are as a child, who you are, before the world shits on you and you get your heart broken and you get disappointed. … It’s your job to bring her along the way and make sure you don’t forget who you are.”
Handler also generously detailed an experience early on in her career where disaster turned into a fantastic opportunity.
“I bombed so badly at the Montreal Comedy Festival the first year I was there, I was like, 27 or 28 years old, I think, … and I ate it big time, and I thought my life was over. Zach Galifianakis walked me to my hotel room and said, ‘You should be alone now. No one can help you.’ Not in a mean way, just like I can’t make you feel better. Just deal with this disaster,” Handler recalled. “That was my big break, and I sat in my hotel room and I cried,” she recalled. “I blew my opportunity, and then, literally, 72 hours later, I got another chance to do that set in front of the one executive that didn’t see me take it in Montreal, and her name is Grace Wu, and she worked at NBC, and gave me a development deal for my own TV show. So, within 72 hours of me having the biggest disappointment of my professional career, at that time, I had the biggest high of my professional career. And that is a story that I want everyone to remember. When something goes badly, there are rainbows coming your way always. … I think every failure gets you closer to success.”
Among other topics, Handler offered the crowd some advice for making it through Trump 2.0:
“I went through a lot of darkness and pain and ugliness during the last time we had this President. I’m not doing that again,” Handler vowed. “You don’t get to steal my joy. You don’t get to steal my happiness.”
(She Media and SXSW are owned by Variety parent company PMC.)
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