THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the First Lady REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY AS A CO-HOST ON THE ELLEN DeGENERES SHOW Ellen Studios Burbank, California We are back with my co-host, the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama. (Applause.) So you re really you are coming to the end. Do you have senioritis? Are you able to do anything you want to do? MRS. OBAMA: No. And my staff, I m like they re just whipping the cracking the whip. There s not a minute. It s like, we re finished! Leave me alone! (Laughter.) So, no, we re busy as ever. We re trying to finish up initiatives. We ve got all the last things we re cleaning up the house trying to get our security deposit back. (Laughter.) Is it a big security deposit? MRS. OBAMA: It s huge! It s a big house, big house. (Laughter.) So we re trying to patch all those little holes. (Laughter.) I see. Get those girls they re so wild, yeah. MRS. OBAMA: The girls. And we have the dogs, you know. It s a mess. (Laughter.) So thinking of all the things that have happened in the last eight years, it must be surreal. I mean, sometimes when you re in it, you don t step back enough to go MRS. OBAMA: No, there s no time. There s absolutely no time. These eight years have flown by. Does it feel like that? MRS. OBAMA: Yeah, yeah, especially this last period. It s like I can t believe it s already September. But whether it s the Fourth of July, watching the fireworks from the top of the White House, or watching my mom meet the Pope with the girls I mean, come on. Or when I visited. (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: Yeah. That was it s a memory that will be etched in my heart forever. No, right up there with the Pope, I m sure. (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: It was right there. It s like, Pope, the ueen, Ellen. Yeah, yeah. MRS. OBAMA: Right there. Those top three. (Laughter.) Or Ellen, the Pope, the ueen. You know. (Laughter.) You ll get perspective later. (Laughter.) But is there what are you going to miss the most about I know you re looking forward to, like you said, rolling a window down and walking, and doing things that you haven t been able to do, but what are you going to miss? MRS. OBAMA: It s really the people. Think about the girls have grown up in the White House. I mean, the staff that s there, we see them every day. These are people who have helped us raise our kids. They ve loved us. They ve taken care of us. And the minute we leave, that s it.
So it s really the people that we ll miss most. And I m sure the girls will have a tough time. They think they re ready, but when you ve grown up in a place I mean, imagine. They won t be able to just knock on the door and say, Can I see my room? That s not going to happen. So we re trying to have them step back and really appreciate the walk on the South Lawn, sitting on the Truman Balcony. So we just want to keep creating some memories for them as well. Yeah, because talk about not having perspective, they really have grown up and gotten used to that. And what an amazing experience they ve had. It s incredible. MRS. OBAMA: I m proud of them. They ve really managed this so well. I mean, I just love them to death. And the big thing I ve always worried about was making sure that they got out of this hole. And I m just proud that they re poised, smart, intelligent young women. (Applause.) They are. They are. I met them eight years ago when you brought them here to see the Jonas Brothers, and that was the first time that I met you and the girls. MRS. OBAMA: That s right, outside. Outside. And then MRS. OBAMA: I have that picture in my dressing room. Oh, do you? I mean, it s amazing when you look at how long ago that was. And then of course I know them a little bit now and they just are it s hard enough to raise children, period. But to raise children in front of everyone, in the White House, and they have done you ve done an amazing job. Do you feel like and I m sure you did feel pressure to be the first African American First Lady to like, there s some kind of responsibility? MRS. OBAMA: Well, one of the things I know from sitting in this position that every First Lady feels some level of pressure. I mean, this is a big platform, and you don t want to mess it up. So I wouldn t dare to compare my experience to any former First Lady. But I do take the role seriously, I do. As I said in my convention speech, I know that kids are watching us. They re watching what we say, what we do. And Barack and I have tried to make sure that what kids are seeing is something that they can be proud of. Because it matters. (Applause.) Well, you have accomplished that. You have accomplished that. And I know you know that, but you should feel very proud. Both of you should feel very proud. I mean, you like I said, we will miss you so much, because it has been a joy. And I feel proud to call you a friend. MRS. OBAMA: Well, it has been an honor. I mean an honor. And I wasn t the political spouse. I was very hesitant about this, but it s truly been an honor to serve, to travel this country, to meet so many great people. I have so much hope for this nation, and I hope that everybody else does too. We have some great young people. We ve got great communities. I just wish everyone had the opportunity to travel the country like we have had, because you would feel good every day about where we live. This is the best country on Earth. (Applause.) It is. It is. (Applause.) So I know education is important to you. That s one of your initiatives. And Let Girls Learn, that s another one. You want to talk about that? MRS. OBAMA: Well, you know, education changed my life. I mean, I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. My mom is here my mom and dad were working-class folks. And they stressed my mom is like, Don t point me out! (Laughter.) You re here, mom! (Applause.) May I say sorry may I say, thank you so much for giving us her. (Applause.) MRS. OBAMA: She never goes anywhere, but when I said I was going to be on Ellen, she was like, I m going! (Laughter.) It was like, Okay, mom. But my parents always stressed education, so I want to make sure that young people in this
country take charge of their education. We ve got a lot of work to do in terms of our schools, but we want kids to be aspiring to go to college and not just kids here, but young girls around the world. That s what Let Girls Learn is all about. There are 62 million girls worldwide that are not in school today. And just imagine what we re losing in terms of talent and possibility. We are blessed to have the public education system that we have today, and I just want to make sure our young people don t take that for granted. Because there are kids that would die to have the opportunities that we have here in this country. So that s some of the work that I hope to continue to do when we leave the White House. Absolutely. You re amazing. You re amazing. (Applause.) You are an inspiration. You do so many great things. You make me want to do great things. And right now I want to do something very nice for everybody everybody here is coming back for 12 Days of Giveaways. (Applause.) * * * * * Well, as you know, I m very athletic, and Michelle is a little less so. (Laughter.) But our next guest is considered one of the best athletes in the world. Take a look. (A video is shown.) MRS. OBAMA: From the Golden State Warriors, please welcome two-time MVP and NBA champion, Stephen Curry. (Applause.) Hi! MR. CURRY: How are you doing? Thanks for being here. MR. CURRY: Thank you for having me. This is amazing. MRS. OBAMA: Hey, you. MR. CURRY: How you doing? MRS. OBAMA: What s going on? Welcome to our show. (Laughter and applause.) MR. CURRY: Feel right at home, this is awesome. Thank you. Isn t this fun? You all know each other, right? MR. CURRY: Yeah. We spent a good amount of time at the White House. So hopefully I can go back a couple more times you know what I mean. We re both going to come back a couple more times. (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: I would love to have you both. You re always busy. MR. CURRY: Yeah. Well, we can make some time, right? MRS. OBAMA: You golf. That s your problem. MR. CURRY: I do. Yeah, you golf with Barack, right? MR. CURRY: I have a good time with Barack. MRS. OBAMA: Yeah, he spent a lot of time golfing with my husband. MR. CURRY: That s what he said on the course. MRS. OBAMA: Yeah, I know.
MR. CURRY: So he knows. He knows. So who s a better golfer? MRS. OBAMA: Steph. MR. CURRY: I m a better golfer, but obviously in golf, you put handicaps on everything so everything is pretty fair. The last two times I played I ve lost to him. What s your handicap and what s his? MR. CURRY: I m a two. I can t disclose that information. MRS. OBAMA: You know, you really do know. Yes, I know handicaps. (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: Okay. She doesn t know. What is your handicap? MR. CURRY: I m a two. I was told not to disclose that information on (laughter) our President s handicap. That s top secret. MRS. OBAMA: I don t know what it is. Okay, it s top secret. MR. CURRY: I m like Secret Service it s top secret. All right. But two, that s amazing that MR. CURRY: That s pretty good. Didn t have my A game when I played him both times, so I really wanted that would have been a story. MRS. OBAMA: He s a scratch golfer, though, right? MR. CURRY: He is, but you know how he s MRS. OBAMA: Scratch golfer. MR. CURRY: during his speeches, he has, like, this very kind of slow cadence, kind of draws you in? MRS. OBAMA: Yeah, we know. (Laughter.) MR. CURRY: He brings that same kind of vibe to his trash talk. So I ll hit a shot out of bounds and he ll just look like, Yeah, that s not a good shot. (Laughter.) I m going to need you to do better next time. (Laughter.) Like that kind of so it gets under your skin too, because it s like, I know I hit it out of bounds! (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: You should trash talk back, Stephen. Give him some things to say. MR. CURRY: I wasn t comfortable. MRS. OBAMA: Talk about his ears. (Laughter and applause.) Here s one! Here s one! As your buddy, you want to say, The shadow from your ears is really messing up my putt. (Laughter and applause.) Try that one. Yeah, I m sure he ll say that. MR. CURRY: Yeah, for sure. That is low. (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: That s what trash-talking is. That s what trash talking is.
MRS. OBAMA: That is the trash part of the talking. MR. CURRY: That s not fair, though, he has 50 Secret Service out there so if I trash talk he just gives them the look and then I m out of there. (Laughter.) And we never see you again. We don t know what happened. MR. CURRY: It s nice knowing you. Let s talk about what you re doing together. You re doing something called Drink Up, which is I love that you re doing something about water because I am a big fan of water. I think everyone should drink water. It s good for you in so many different ways. It flushed out all the bad stuff. It s good for you. It s better for you than anything else that you could possibly drink. So tell us about Drink Up. MR. CURRY: You said it best. I mean MRS. OBAMA: Really. (Laughter.) It s like, duh. It s true. MR. CURRY: Teaming up with our First Lady and my partner Brita to encourage families and kids to drink more water more often, and try to get them an affordable option for better-tasting water. MRS. OBAMA: And one thing I m so proud about with you, Steph, is that you have you are supporting water, fruits and vegetables. I mean, you are stepping up and endorsing things that are healthy for kids and families. (Applause.) I want you to drink more great-tasting water with their Brita pitcher filters and a $200 American Express gift card! (Applause.) Hi! MR. COOPER: Hey! MRS. OBAMA: Hey! It s Bradley Cooper, everyone! (Applause.) MRS. OBAMA: Surprise! (Applause.) MR. COOPER: What a great show. Yeah, right? MRS. OBAMA: You look great! * * * * * MR. COOPER: You guys are great. Aren t they fantastic? (Applause.) I ve got to tell you, she has been begging me for years to do this and I was like, no, no. (Laughter.) And then finally I m like, okay, I guess so. MRS. OBAMA: All right, all right. Thank you for this. MR. COOPER: How many times have you been to the White House? Twice. How many times have you been there? MR. COOPER: The state dinner, which is technically the White House. MRS. OBAMA: That counts. MR. COOPER: Of course. I had just done American Sniper. And the tuxedo I only had one tuxedo, it didn t fit. And then I was so nervous that it would rip, and so I decided at the last minute
to 86 the underwear. (Laughter.) Because if it should rip, it s much better to not have underwear on. (Laughter.) MRS. OBAMA: For us. It s good for us, right, ladies? (Laughter and applause.) You look fantastic. MRS. OBAMA: He looks good. MR. COOPER: Oh, you re very kind. In every kind of way you look good, but is this for a part? Or is this just you didn t shave last night? MR. COOPER: Yeah, I m that much of a man. (Laughter.) No, it s for a part. You look good. MR. COOPER: Oh, really? MRS. OBAMA: Yeah. Really good. You look really good. (Applause.) MRS. OBAMA: But not only is Bradly adorable and a great actor, but you have just been amazing an amazing supporter of Joining Forces, your work with our veterans and military families. MR. COOPER: Oh, well, it s been an honor. (Applause.) What you have accomplished in eight short years is incredible, and I m just honored that you ever invited me and that we were able to do some work together. MRS. OBAMA: Our effort we ve worked for five years. We just celebrated the fifth anniversary. And we re really trying to rally the nation around our military servicemembers, our veterans and their families. (Applause.) MR. COOPER: I d always done I was a part of the USO before I had done a movie called American Sniper, which you came out publicly and talked about, which was a huge, huge thing for the movie and for the movement. And then I was able to really have my eyes opened to the issues of veterans, which are re-assimilating into civilian life. MRS. OBAMA: Absolutely. MR. COOPER: And it s the family and it s the home life. And that was really eye-opening, and that s what you ve helped so much. And actually I did a movie with Jacob Schick, who s out here played a Marine Corps sniper. (Applause.) Hi, Jacob. MR. COOPER: And he s got an organization called 22Kill, and I just was with them a couple weeks ago. We were in Walter Reed hospital. And anybody can do anything you can go to these hospitals, you can visit with vets. And it just means the world. It doesn t take much. (Applause.) You can go to our website and learn more about Joining Forces. And we will be right back. Thank you so much. Bradley Cooper. END