On this week’s show (31st January) Graham welcomes double Oscar-winner Renée Zellweger, British star Leo Woodall, This Is Us star Sterling K Brown, stage and screen star Anthony Mackie, pop icon Cyndi Lauper, and singer songwriter Lola Young.
Renée and Leo chat about Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.
Asked about the new film having a dark side, Renée says, “It is very funny but it’s not quite the happy ending we were set up to expect in the third instalment. She’s a single mum and trying to process a little bit of grief and how to start again – yes, Mark Darcy is dead guys! But the dark moments are still done in her own way. No one gets to this stage of life without knowing grief and it wouldn’t be authentic without a little struggle.”
Talking about Hugh Grant being back in the film, she says, “I was hopeful but also surprised ‘cos he was dead. But if you are going to bring someone back to life let it be Daniel Cleaver. I am so glad they found him alive at the end of the third film so he could come back if he wanted to. He is so brilliant.”
Leo interjects, “I didn’t get to work with Hugh, and I was too shy to say hello to him. Everyone keep asking me, ‘What he’s like?’ and I have to say, ‘I don’t know, I haven’t met him!”
Asked if the fourth film was easier to make, Renée says, “It was weird this time. I thought it would be familiar and easy, but it wasn’t. I tried talking like Bridget as soon as I arrived in London, but it took a minute. I thought it would be habit by now but it’s not. Luckily, I had very strict dialect coaches along the way.”
Leo, talking about his character Roxter McDuff, says, “He was supposed to be Scottish. I went into the audition prepared to do it in a Scottish accent and once I did it, they changed their minds!”
Sterling, talking about his new thriller series Paradise, says, “There are a few curve balls – you think we are going to zig, and we often zag so the death of the president is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a very edge of your seat thriller and constantly has you asking questions about everything you see. The less I tell you the more enjoyable your experience will be.”
Asked if Dan Fogelman wrote the role for him, he says, “He came up with the idea 10 years ago and as he started writing it said he had my voice in his head, so I suppose it was written for me, but it didn’t start off that way. When I read it, I immediately said, ‘I’m in, let’s make it happen’. With the same writer and crew as This is Us, it felt like a homecoming.”
Anthony, talking about Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and revealing the moment he found out he was taking over the role, says, “I was at Chris Evans’ house for a party, and he said, ‘I am so happy for you, it’s really great.’ When I said I had no idea what he was talking about, he ran out of the room and got the script page and gives me the scene. He was like a proud dad! I said, ‘This can’t be real’ and we both hugged and jumped up and down. We were both so excited.”
Cyndi joins Graham for a chat. Talking about her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, and asked why she’s doing it now, she says, “I did a documentary and a companion album so I thought I would do the tour. I am 71 and this show is actually everything I love. It has music, art and fashion, it’s an artist collective. I am very excited.”
Lola performs Messy live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat about her number one single.
And finally, Graham pulls the lever on more foolhardy audience members brave enough sit in the world-famous Big Red Chair to tell their funniest stories.
The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 31st January 10.40pm.
Next week (7th February) Graham is joined by Robert De Niro, Mikey Madison, Alan Carr, Holly Willoughby, Elton John, and Brandi Carlile.
Graham Norton Picture credit: BBC/So Television/Christopher Baines
