Despite Kelly Clarkson’s starring turn in From Justin to Kelly, her children won’t be able to watch their mom’s silver screen debut.
“Well, it’s an Oscar-worthy number, and it’s called From Justin to Kelly,” Clarkson, 44, quipped during her final Las Vegas concert on Saturday, August 15, after noticing a fan’s Etsy-made shirt inspired by the flick. “Two words: Contractually obligated.”
As Clarkson said “obligated,” she held up her middle finger in front of the crowd.
Fresh off her American Idol season 1 victory, Clarkson and runner-up Justin Guarini costarred in the 2003 musical comedy about two college students who meet on spring break.
“It’s hard, you know?” she added on Saturday, before a concertgoer chimed in to praise the film. “It’s not, you’re watching it with loving eyes. It’s s***.”
Clarkson further recalled how she ended up in tears the first time she watched From Justin to Kelly on screen.
“Man, read the f***ing fine print, you know,” the pop star joked. “I didn’t know that if you won, you had to do a movie. Not all of us want to be Meryl Streep, we just like watching her, OK? I was like, ‘I don’t want to be in a movie,’ but they were like, ‘Yeah, but you won.’ And I was like, ‘And I feel like I’m losing? It doesn’t feel quite like a win.’”
Clarkson explained why it was “so hard” to film the musical flick in the midst of her valid hesitations.
“I respect actors so much because that’s what they do, even after [hosting] a talk show,” she said, referring to her now-wrapped The Kelly Clarkson Show. “It’s insane, like, how much rejection they get. They keep going, and it’s just insane. It’s such a cool thing I love, it was not what I wanted to do.”
While Clarkson noted that she enjoyed the From Justin to Kelly dance scenes, she has no intention of allowing daughter River Rose, 12, and son Remington, 10, to watch the footage. (Clarkson shared her two children with ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, who died in 2025 after a private cancer battle.)
“It is funny though, like, my kids, I’ve banned them from watching,” Clarkson stated. “My nanny’s, like, ‘I loved that movie when it came out.’ I was like, ‘And I judge you — all day, all night. I’m just kidding.”
Even so, Clarkson still holds fond memories of her time on the From Justin to Kelly set.
“I will say this about that: I got to work with Tommy Sims. … Justin and I really liked the producer. Working with him was incredible,” Clarkson gushed of the musician, 65, who cowrote the flick. “The music part, that was fun. See? You gotta find the positive, motherf***ers, you know? Turn that s*** into lemonade … and cry yourself to sleep.”
