The 'Ugly Dolls' star opened up to ET about how she mistakenly revealed that her daughter's favorite characters were fictional.
Like Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy, sometimes you just have to let kids enjoy the illusion of make-believe. For Kelly Clarkson, this was a fact she learned the hard way.
Speaking with ET's Kevin Frazier on Sunday while promoting her upcoming animated comedy Ugly Dolls, Clarkson revealed that, in the process of explaining to her daughter how she voiced one of the main characters in the family comedy, she accidentally ruined the magic of Frozen.
"I pretty much crushed her dreams," Clarkson said, referring to 4-year-old River Rose. "I didn't really realize what I was doing."
"I was explaining to her, because she was confused, and I said, 'It's my voice. Like, you know, like how Elsa and Anna, there's a person that plays Elsa and Anna?' And I didn't get what I was doing!" she added.
While Clarkson said she "felt horrible" for being the one to break it to her little girl that the Frozen characters weren't real people, she admitted that her daughter is "very clever" and that she "would've figured it out" anyway.
However, that didn't make the moment any less emotionally painful.
"I saw her little face, and I just saw the wheels spinning, and it was like, 'Oh no! But isn't it exciting that you can meet the real girl that plays Elsa?'" Clarkson recalled. "I was like, let's flip this into a positive!"
While Anna might not be real, Kristen Bell is very real and every bit as regal as her animated counterpart. So maybe River might get a chance to meet the real people behind her favorite animated Disney siblings.
If there's one thing Kelly Clarkson is especially good at -- aside from singing and acting and all the other things she's amazing at -- it's handling awkward situations like a pro. Whether it's accidentally ruining her daughter's favorite movie or being mistaken for a random seat filler at this year's ACM Awards.
After the ACMs aired last Sunday, Clarkson took to Twitter to reveal the hilarious misunderstanding, writing, "The greatest thing by far that happened to me tonight was being asked to move because some guy thought I was a seat filler at the ACM’s tonight… literally, it made my night because he was so serious, and I just politely said no hahaha!!"
Clarkson opened up about the incident to ET, explaining that she'd invited Chevel Shepherd, winner of Season 15 of The Voice, to be her guest at the star-studded show. They walked the red carpet together and Clarkson spent a lot of the evening introducing Shepherd to some of the biggest names in country music.
"I was like, 'I might be a big deal,'" Clarkson recalled with a laugh. "And then like, you know, the universe [or] God just steps right in to humble you."
As Clarkson was sitting in her seat, toward the front of the auditorium, naturally, a band came in and she was asked to leave.
"This guy goes, 'Yeah, ma'am, we're gonna need to you move. We need the seat fillers to move for the talent to come in,'" Clarkson said. "And I was like, 'Oh!' I was not offended at all, I get it. Like, we all don't know everybody. I'm the worst, I never know anyone."
"So I turn around and I was just like, "Oh! Uh, well no, I'm not a seat filler,'" she continued. "I was [thinking] like, 'Please don't make me say my name.' You feel like such a tool going, 'I'm Kelly Clarkson.' But he didn't make me."
Clarkson said that one of the members of the band that came in later asked her in disbelief if the man had actually confused her for a seat filler.
"I was like, 'Basically the best part of my day has just happened. You've just witnessed it,'" she said, laughing.
As for her latest role in Ugly Dolls, based on the toy line of the same name, Clarkson has nothing but praise, and deployed that same self-effacing sense of humor while explaining why this is her first leading role since 2003's From Justin to Kelly.
"Yeah, that was the worst thing ever. I was contractually obligated to do that one. This one I volunteered," she exclaimed, adding that the movie provides a lot of fun for kids and their parents. "I feel like right now, everything is very divisive, very serious. [Ugly Dolls] is like a nice form of escapism and a reminder of the great parts about humanity."
Ugly Dolls -- which also features voice performances by Nick Jonas, Janelle Monáe, Blake Shelton, Emma Roberts, Pitbull, Wanda Sykes, Gabriel Iglesias, Charli XCX and Bebe Rexha, among many others -- hits theaters May 3.
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