It had to happen eventually. The Wild Boars have gone Hollywood.
After recently making a splash at the Youth Olympics, the 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach have taped an episode of Ellen, marking their international talk-show debut.
The appearance by the Boars, who gained global fame after their historic rescue from flooded Luang Cave in July, is set to air this Monday at 4PM Pacific Time (PT).
But fear not, you don’t actually have to wait. The entire segment has already been posted.
Watch it now here:
Accompanied by a Thai translator, the team opened up to DeGeneres about the grueling 19 days they spent inside the cave without food or clean water.
“Did you think the water would just subside? At what point did you think you may not get out of here?” she asks.
“We never did. We always had hope and faith that someone will come to find us,” replies Ekapol.
At one point DeGeneres makes the four boys that celebrated their birthdays inside the Chiang Rai cave, put up their hands.
“Did you celebrate in there? Did you try?” she asked the Boars, who collectively chuckled and chanted “mai mee.”
That’s a “no,” explained the unidentified translator.
We can’t help but wonder if DeGeneres had her questions pre-screened by the provincial committee, like all the other media outlets. We’re guessing not.
Of course, in typical, feel-good Ellen fashion — perhaps as a late birthday present to some of the boys — she surprised the boys at the end of the show with a surprise appearance by their soccer idol, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
In the video, the kids can be seen beaming happily as the Swedish soccer player runs out and high-fives each of them.
“These kids, this team is braver than me and they showed their collective teamwork, and had patience, faith,” Ibrahimovic said.
‘This is probably the best team in the world.’
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