Ariana Grande is making a splash with her performance in Focker-in-Law, but no such thing ever occurred at Boca Aquarium — though she had Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller fooled.
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In a game of “True Confessions” while visiting The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on the Sunday (Nov. 8) episode, the pop star successfully convinced her A-list castmates — who each took turns trying to convince the others that a false memory was true, or vice versa — that she once accidentally plunged into a “giant fish tank” while visiting her hometown’s aquarium in Florida.
“I was little and clumsy,” she told De Niro, Stiller and Fallon — who was less convinced by the story but ultimately fell for the deception — while fudging details about her older brother, Frankie, scuba diving in the tank as she supposedly looked on at the age of 4. “I saw him, and I was like, ‘Ah, Frankie!’ And I just went over … I’ll not put her on blast, but my friend’s mom was holding me.”
After the three men all agreed that they thought Grande was telling the truth, she revealed: “The worst lie. The worst. I hate lying!”
Stiller got her back, though, telling the story of how he was in the room when Foreigner recorded its two-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “I Want to Know What Love Is,” which no one believed even though it was apparently true.
In addition to “True Confessions,” the three Focker-in-Law stars joined Fallon on the couches on the main set and recounted the stories of how they all met. After sharing a selfie of herself and De Niro meeting, of all places, backstage at Tonight about 11 years ago, Grande gushed about how “honored” she was to be invited to join the cast of the Meet the Parents franchise.
“I fell in love with [the script], and I was just like, ‘How have I earned the right to even read this, let alone join this incredible cast and play on set with the most incredible actors and comedians in the world?’” she told Fallon. “So it was very surreal.”
Leading up to the episode’s premiere, Billboard premiered a video of the trio singing “O Christmas Tree” backstage at Fallon in honor of the iconic 30 Rockefeller Plaza tree returning to its annual spot just outside the NBC building in New York City. Focker-in-Law premieres in theaters the day before Thanksgiving and also stars Skyler Gisondo — who plays Grande’s love interest Henry — Beanie Feldstein, Eduardo Franco and more.
While on Tonight, the movie’s leads and Fallon also teamed up for a sketch titled “Slow Clap Soap Opera” that found them portraying a very different type of family from the Fockers. The talk-show host, Stiller and Grande portray three siblings scheming for wealthy dad De Niro’s inheritance through passive-aggressive one-liners and a lot of derisive applause.
Watch the skit — along with the trio’s conversation with Fallon — below, and check out their game of “True Confessions” above.
