Cover Girl: Ellen DeGeneres on W Magazine

Often times, talk show host and comedienne Ellen DeGeneres' beauty gets overlooked. Maybe because she doesn't get dressed up much. Maybe because she's in a relationship with another woman (actress Portia di Rossi). Who knows? But W magazine is tuned into it, and made her their cover girl for the March issue of their fashion magazine.

It's a lengthy article and interview, so there are some excerpts below. The complete transcript can be seen here.

W: We initially asked you to wear a dress. You considered it, but in the end you were passionate about not doing it.
ED: I know what this magazine is. It's a beauty magazine; it's a fashion magazine. For me to even be considered and asked to be on the cover—it's huge…. When I [first] thought about doing it, I thought, Okay, I'll be open to this. I'll play dress-up. Then I thought, I just don't feel comfortable in it. I don't want to apologize for who I am.

W: Do you enjoy fashion?
ED: I usually wear Jil Sander, or I wear Marc Jacobs, or I wear Viktor & Rolf…. I love Raf Simons, but I didn't know he was even doing the [Jil Sander] collection. I like Neil Barrett. I love clothes, so when I wear clothes, they're usually somebody's. You know, I'm not wearing Kmart.

W: Do you think that's the perception?
ED: Whenever Portia and I are on the red carpet, they're yelling out for her to tell them what she's wearing. But nobody cares [about what I'm wearing] because I have a suit on, even if it's a Gucci suit. That to me is frustrating, because I put effort into getting ready too. But I guess it's not as important, and I'm not as dressed up somehow. I also feel myself more of a person than a gender. When people show me clothing that seems very, very feminine, it's hard for me to embrace that, because it just doesn't feel like me…. It was fun [for the shoot] having somebody do that to my hair, and do that makeup. But would I want to do that every single day? No.

W: What will you wear to the Oscars?
ED: Everybody's sending me stuff. Gucci sent me this amazing package with all kinds of different designs and different fabrics, in a beautiful box with my name engraved in gold plate. I picked some fabrics, and they're making me something. Zac Posen made me a gorgeous tuxedo. Viktor & Rolf is making me something…. I wasn't planning on changing because it's just different suits, but I may do it, because I'd like to thank them all for making me stuff, for wanting to do that.

W: Let's talk about the show. Did you expect daytime television to be so grueling?
ED: Every single day, it is my stamp on everything—it's my name—so I have to answer every question. I have to make every decision. I have an amazing team, I have amazing producers, I have amazing writers, but at the end of it, it's me making the decisions on the writing, the tone, the editing…. I want the show to reach people and to be something positive. Because the world is full of a lot of fear and a lot of negativity, and a lot of judgment. I just think people need to start shifting into joy and happiness. As corny as it sounds, we need to make a shift.

W: It has been suggested that it was just that attitude that got you the Oscars, because the show had gotten too nasty and satirical.
ED: For whatever reason it's just the right timing for me.... It is a difficult thing because no matter how popular you are as a stand-up—you can go out and fill a 10,000-seat arena and be smart and funny—it's delicate to host an awards show and know where your place is and know that it's not about you, that it's about the people who are nominated, and respect that, but at the same time have your moment to show them who you are.

W: What do you think of Kathy Griffin?
ED: Very mean…. I know she had a big thing about wanting to be on the show, and we didn't book her. She did a whole thing that I banned her from the show. I didn't ban her from the show, because first you have to be on the show to be banned.

W: What about Sarah Silverman?
ED: I think she's hilarious. I think she's raunchy as can be, not my kind of comedy, but I think she's brilliant. Smart counts for a whole lot to me.

W: Time once quoted you as saying there's too much sex out there.
ED: I do think there's too much, and I don't have a kid. The lyrics of songs, everything; I just feel like every kid is growing up too fast and they're seeing too much. Everything is about sex, and that's fine for me. I'm not saying I don't like it. But I don't think it should be everywhere, where kids are exposed to everything sexual. Because they have to have some innocence; there's just no innocence left.

W: Even as a child in New Orleans, you made a conscious decision to have money?
ED: I wanted to have money, I wanted to be special, I wanted people to like me, I wanted to be famous…. When you're growing up and you see your brother [Vance DeGeneres, now a writer-producer in Hollywood] who's talented and gorgeous and all these things, you want to be all those things. I thought if I could find a way to be famous, people would love me. And then you get all that stuff—and I worked really hard to earn all that—and it sounds crazy, but I got the biggest, [most] wonderful blessing I could get, which was I lost my show, and I lost my entire career, and I lost everything for three years.

W: Why was that a blessing?
ED: Because I got to learn that I was strong enough to start over again. Because I was so angry. I thought, I earned this. I didn't get this because I was beautiful; I didn't get this because I had connections in the business. I really worked my way up to a show, a sitcom that was mine that was successful, that was on for five years. I did what was right: I came out, which was good for me, and ultimately it was the only thing I could do. And then I got punished for it. I was so angry, I was just so angry.

W: At the world?
ED: At the business. I thought, like, magazines were tearing me apart; I was the punch line. I guess that's why I'm so sensitive about negative comedy, because I was the butt of every joke. I was the punch line, and it hurt. And my relationship was very, very public. Then I lost everything, and ultimately I lost that relationship. But I had to look at my part in it, and I had to look at and understand other people's side of it.

W: Are you at all surprised by where you are now?
ED: If I had ever thought that my career would have reached what it did before it dropped, much less then come back…I'm truly in an amazing, amazing place in my life. But I don't want to say I'm surprised, because at the same time, I created it, I thought it, I wanted this. So when I look back on it, every single thing I'm doing is what I've wanted, and I believe that you get what you want.

W: How do you conduct your public life with Portia?
ED: We just don't put out there as much as I would have in the past. But it's silly to try to hide it. I'm not ashamed of it…. We're not joined at the hip, and we're not just a lesbian couple. We have careers.

W: Samuel Beckett wrote that "nothing is funnier than unhappiness," and there's a cliché to the effect that comedians are unhappy people. Is it possible to be happy and funny?
ED: I'm really happy. And I'm pretty funny.

Pictures from W magazine.