On this week’s show (7th February) Graham welcomes Hollywood great Robert De Niro, Elton John, singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, Oscar nominee Mikey Madison, TV presenter Holly Willoughby, and comedy favourite Alan Carr.
Elton and Brandi chat about their new album Who Believes in Angels.
Asked about working with Brandi, Elton says, “It is thrilling. I have always wanted to perform with her. She is one of my best friends and an incredible vocalist and musician. I wanted her to inspire me and for me to inspire her. Working together was like a roller coaster – it was so great.”
Brandi says of Elton, “He has been my greatest hero since I was 11 years old, and it has evolved into being friends and musical partners. There was a time growing up when there wasn’t a spare inch of wall without an Elton John poster. I have been in a band with him forever – he just didn’t know it!”
Talking about his farewell tour and finally performing at Glastonbury, he says, “I had never been and was resistant to playing in case I didn’t go down very well, but I was so moved. I don’t think I have been as happy in my whole life. It was one of the greatest days of my life and it confirmed that it couldn’t get any better.”
Mikey, talking about comedy-drama Anora, and her Oscar nomination, says, “It is surreal. Maybe I should be freaking out, but I haven’t thought about it at all yet because it is so unreal.”
Asked more about the film, she says, “I play a sex worker, and the most important part of my preparation was to portray that community as accurately as possible, so I met with women with lived experience, visited clubs and shadowed dancers. I tried to do my due diligence. I also learnt to pole dance because I wanted my character to be impressive – it was the most difficult thing. I trained so hard only to be told it wouldn’t be in the film. There is actually just one 10 second scene of me pole dancing which is the culmination of six months training and the destruction of my body!”
Holly, talking about reality show Celebrity Bear Hunt, says, “It is so nice to be doing something new and exciting and being on a proper adventure. Working with Bear Grylls has taken me totally out of my comfort zone. The magic of Bear is that he is really convincing and inspirational and even got me to do stuff and I am the scaredest person ever!”
Alan, talking about Amanda & Alan's Spanish Job, says, “I love Amanda, but she is very bossy and always telling me what to do but I am getting better at DIY slowly but surely. I never really know what tools are called – for a long time I thought a spirit level was a spirit guide!”
Robert De Niro joins Graham for a chat about his new political thriller TV series Zero Day.
Asked about doing his first TV series, he says, “I wanted to do something in New York for six months, and this was well written and smart. It is like doing three feature films back-to-back. There is a real pace to it with a lot of dialogue. I likened it to swimming the English Channel – you get to a point where you can’t see France or England and you can’t tread water – you just have to keep going every day to keep up with it. It was different experience. It was good but a lot of work.”
Elton and Brandi give a special performance of their song Who Believes in Angels live in the studio.
The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 7th February 10.40pm.
Next week (14th February) Graham is joined by Pamela Anderson, Stephen Graham, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sean Hayes, Ross Kemp, and Gracie Abrams.
Graham Norton Picture credit: BBC/So Television/Christopher Baines
