On tonight’s show (9th October), British Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård, Hollywood great John Malkovich, The Bear star Ayo Edebiri, and American country musician Orville Peck.
Olivia and Alexander chat about their romantic fantasy comedy Wicker. Asked about the new film, Alexander says, “When I was sent the script, I thought it was The Wicker Man, the horror movie, so I thought it was going to be scary. Turns out it was a comedy with lots of sex.”
Olivia adds, “It is a wonderful and magical and it has everything in it – including lots you don’t expect. We had a lot of fun making it and we struggled a lot not to laugh. We had lots of vigorous love making but luckily there were no splinters!”
Asked about his role, Alexander jokes, “There is a purity to his soul that felt very foreign to me. I realised it is hard playing a nice guy – it was definitely uncharted territory for me.”
Talking about his wicker costume, he says, “It was real and made by the same artists that worked on Lord of the Rings. The suit was exquisite and it took them 18 months to make.” Adding, “I particularly liked the nipples – they had extraordinary craftsmanship, so I kept them,” before presenting Graham with them as a gift.
Asked about being on the catwalk during Paris fashion week, Olivia says, “They just called out of the blue and I can’t believe I did it. I can’t believe I said yes as it’s very un-me. But I thought, ‘52, grey hair, f**k it!’ It was so nice to be asked, and my teenage self was saying, ‘Do it!’ It was terrifying but I loved it.”
John, taking about Martin McDonagh’s dark new comedy Wild Horse Nine, in which he plays an ageing CIA agent, says, “Martin is a great writer, and great writing demands a lot of work – a certain level of work that actors like to do but it doesn’t happen much as a lot of what you read is quite a distance from great.
But when it is good you want to work and as we filmed on Easter Island all we did was work as there wasn’t a whole lot else to do.”
Talking about the film’s extraordinary critical acclaim and the 14-minute ovation it received in Venice, and whether he was moved by it, he jokes, “It is very nice that people like it and I am very pleased about its reception but since my covid jab, I cry at everything even when I am super happy.”
Talking about his 1990s hit movie Con Air, and asked whether it was true he never read the script, he says, “I was working on a screenplay with Nicholas Shakespeare when the script arrived. I took one look at it, guessed it was about convicts on a plane, and chucked it across the room. Nicholas asked me if he could read it and the next morning, he said, ‘I am delighted to be working with someone that has the integrity not to do something so terrible.’
“I said, ‘What are you talking about? I don’t need to read it, I got it. It’s Jerry Bruckheimer, Nick Cage, and John Cusack, it’s called Con Air, and all the characters are named after Victorian poets – that’s a $500 million movie – of course I am doing it!’”
Ayo, talking about her new film Clarissa, a new adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, says, “It is an amazing undertaking – a reimagining of the story in Nigeria. It is beautiful and poetic, and it felt very special and spiritual going to the place where my father was born.”
Asked about her impressive English accent in the film, she says, “I have done it once before in I Love LA. For some reason I go bitchy when I do British.”
Talking about The Bear, she says, “It is done – I don’t think there will be any more, but who knows. We had a nice run, and I am glad we went out in a way that made us all very happy. The role was obviously and completely life changing for me.”
Orville performs Too Little, Too Late live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat.
The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, Friday 9th October 10.40pm. Also available on BBC iPlayer.
Next week (16th October) Graham’s guests include Quentin Tarantino, Ellen DeGeneres, Colin Farrell, Gemma Chan and Suede.
Pictured: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgard, John Malkovich, Graham Norton, Ayo Edebiri, Orville PeckPicture Credit: BBC/PA Media/Jas Lehal
