Miley Cyrus‘ star-studded Bright Minded series had a solid lineup for the Finale Friday episode today (April 3), as she chatted with Elton John, Selena Gomez, Kerry Washington and Jimmy Fallon.
The illustrious show host will take a week-long hiatus so she can recharge before giving more light “into dark times,” out of which this show was born to inspire fans quarantining at home in every time zone.
Find the four most pivotal moments from each guest’s segment below.
Elton John vows to not leave AIDS community behind during COVID-19 pandemic.
After raising $8 million for Feeding America and the First Responders Children’s Foundation during his iHeart Living Room Concert for America, the esteemed English singer-songwriter told Cyrus he couldn’t back down from helping those fighting coronavirus on the frontlines. “We are well-off people. We have no idea,” he stated. “We see images, we see postings by people who are working on the front lines. We really don’t have an idea what these people are going through. They’re going through hell.”
And the work he’s been doing with his longtime Elton John AIDS Foundation won’t stop. “I’m going to stick to my guns with the AIDS Foundation and make sure because of this global pandemic that’s happening, that the people who are suffering from another global pandemic don’t get forgotten,” John reassured.
Kerry Washington commits to women telling stories about women with Little Fires Everywhere show.
Washington stars and executively produces Hulu’s latest drama miniseries Little Fires Everywhere with previous Bright Minded guest Reese Witherspoon. She talked to Cyrus about how their camaraderie echoes throughout the female-led production. “Because our show is about being a woman — it’s about being a daughter, being a mother and how complicated those relationships are — I feel like it was really important for our power structure to be filled with women because it’s our experience and we can really bring that to the table,” the Emmy award-winning actress said in the interview. “Being on a team of all women, you just find that you’re speaking each other’s languages. When you’re telling stories about women, it should be with other women.”
When Cyrus asked her which women in the entertainment industry she wanted to shine a light on, Washington revered Lena Waithe, Issa Rae (whom she recently directed a season four episode of Insecure for), Shonda Rhimes (“She’s a beast!” she remembered her Scandal boss), America Ferrera and Eva Longoria.
Selena Gomez opens up about bipolar diagnosis, and the two practice Dr. Daniel Amen’s anchoring memory exercise.
As fans waited for the Hannah Montana-Mikayla Skeech reunion from Cyrus’ Disney Channel sitcom, the former Wizards of Waverly Place lead actress engaged the show host in an emotional conversation about her most recent mental health discovery. “Recently, I went to one of the best mental hospitals in… America, McClean Hospital, and I discussed that after years of going through a lot of different things, I realized that I was bipolar,” Gomez told Cyrus. “And so when I got to know more information, it actually helps me. It doesn’t scare me once I know it.” The Texas-born singer-songwriter discussed how growing up in the lone star state meant dealing with a lot of mental health issues alone.
Later in the episode, Cyrus indulged her in an anchoring memory exercise taught by Dr. Amen, Cyrus’ therapist and first Bright Minded guest. The show host started off by explaining how something as simple as the color yellow reconnects her to a fond memory with one of her brothers as the two used to eat bananas in her dollhouse before sneaking over to their grandmother’s house. During Gomez’s turn, she said a baby’s smell reminds her of when her six-year-old sister Gracie Elliot Teefey was born. “I was an only child growing up…. But when she came into my life, I remember having the chest-to-chest moment,” the fellow singer-actress relived while closing her eyes and exclaiming that the exercise worked in reducing her anxiety levels. “Nothing else mattered in that time, and this beautiful life just came in.”
Jimmy Fallon takes a backseat to “talk show host life,” but refuses to let The Roots go to Cyrus.
From the branded coffee mug to the memorable sign to the A-list talent, Cyrus impressed the NBC late-night talk show host with her social media talk show series. But she discovered the missing touch — a live house band, specifically The Roots. “The Roots are] the best thing that ever happened to me,” Fallon acknowledged about his regular troupe. “They’re so beyond talented… like they can play with Jay Z one night and then play with Tony Bennett the next night without even batting an eye.”
Even though the 27-year-old talk show host was out of luck getting them to switch over to her gig, she played a snippet of Diplo‘s remix of her Bright Minded theme song to prove she should pen Fallon’s very own version. He screamed at the beat drop as the two jammed out to the EDM jingle to end the episode.
Head over to Cyrus’ Instagram to catch Bright Minded‘s Finale Friday episode.
