Interview with Graham Norton

American audiences haven’t had that many opportunities to catch the comedic talents of Britain’s Graham Norton (who is actually Irish). His 2004 comedy talk show, The Graham Norton Effect, only lasted thirteen episodes on Comedy Central. He had a small but memorable part in the raunchy Another Gay Movie which came out in 2006 and fans of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List might recall his amusing appearance last year squiring Kathy around the streets of London.

Meanwhile, across the pond in the United Kingdom, Norton is almost as hard to avoid on television as is his compatriot John Barrowman. Currently viewers can get their dose of Norton on his self-titled program The Graham Norton Show, now in its third season, as well as on the reality show I’d Do Anything for which Norton is the “presenter” (think Ryan Seacrest on American Idol). As for his past credits, they are literally too numerous to mention here, but include a variety of other programs featuring him as host, presenter or as a guest star on such hit British comedies as Absolutely Fabulous and The Kumars at No. 42.

Fortunately for American viewers, the third season of Graham’s talk show made its debut on April 26^th on BBC America where it will air every Saturday night for the next several months. We recently caught up with the cheeky Brit to find out about the show, his personal life and much more.

AE: I have to watch a lot of crap because we cover popular culture for gay and bisexual men, and when I discovered your show last season, it became one of the highlights of my week. I’ll never forget Glenn Close kicking her shoes around on the stage.
GN: Wasn’t she just a brilliant guest? I loved her!

AE: I’ve been reading some of your past interviews and how your guests sometimes don’t get what you do, especially American celebrities. The way she got into it and went along with it was just great.
GN: She’s a serious actress at the top of her game. Her work in Damage is just brilliant. So there’s no reason why she should come on my show and play shoe-golf, but she did! And I just thought she was great, just a lovely, lovely woman.

AE: We both grew up at a time when the idea of gay men getting married was basically ludicrous, but now you can actually have civil unions in the UK. I’m curious. Would you settle down and have a civil union if you met Mr. Right?
GN: If I met Mr. Right, I don’t think I would, unless I had to. Unless it was an American and it would just make our lives so much easier, then I’d get married. I don’t yearn to get married. You know, it’s nice that it’s there if people want to. I’ve been to a few gay weddings, and what’s funny about them is, they’re not gay weddings – they’re weddings. They’re just the same as straight weddings in that they’re kind of awful. It’s really just, you know, terrible speeches, bad food, awful DJs.

AE: Are you dating anybody now?
GN: That’s a very good question. I don’t know, would be the short answer to that.

AE: Many American’s think that because the UK is so small geographically, everyone famous must know everyone else famous, so in that spirit, what famous gay Brits do you hobnob with?
GN: The only kind of famous gay people I could phone . . . I could call Rupert Everett. I could call Ian McKellen. I could probably get in contact with Stephen Fry. And now I’m running out, really. When you bump into people at things, then yes, I was at Elton and David’s wedding and I go to their white tie and tiara ball every year. Things like that.

AE: Speaking of Rupert Everett, what did you think of his recent comments about Hollywood and how they have treated him and other gay performers.
GN: Well, I think it’s true, but equally, it is difficult, I think. I mean . . . to play a romantic leading man, as a gay person in the audience watching the movie, I would find it harder to watch the movie if I knew that they weren’t straight. Whereas, if you’re playing kind of quirky . . . like if Philip Seymour Hoffman was gay, it wouldn’t bother me at all to watch him playing straight people. And equally, like Kevin Spacey, if he were gay, that wouldn’t bother me at all. Whereas, if Tom Cruise was gay, then that would kind of bother me. You know, Mission Impossible would be harder to watch. So, it’s difficult, I know. It’s an odd thing for me to say; I just know that it’s true.

AE: Why do you think that is?
GN: Um, I think because those leading man roles, they’re not really acting. You’re not watching a performance You’re buying into the cult of the star. You know, they’re really lacking . . . there’s really nothing going on in those big roles. It’s just about them.

AE: Are you surprised that the newest incarnation of your show has been such a hit? When your first season was extended, they had to move you onto a new stage to accommodate your audiences. Did that take you by surprise?
GN: We were on a different network before – we were on Channel 4 for a long time and then we took about a two-year break where we worked on doing other things, but we got this opportunity to do it again and we’re all enjoying it more than we ever have. Actually, I think it’s one of the best shows that we’ve ever done

AE: Sometimes it gets a little confusing which words you’re allowed to say on British television and which ones you’re not. Can you clarify?
GN: It’s quite confusing to us. And basically at the time of night we’re on, we’re on at about ten o’clock or so, you can kind of say anything, apart from the big ones, like you know, the C-word is still pretty taboo. Though, did Glenn Close manage to say that? I can’t remember?

AE: I heard that word one night and my partner and I were watching and we were like, wow – those Brits are way ahead of us!
GN: Jane Fonda said it on The Today Show.

AE: Yeah, but Meredith Viera had to then go on and apologize.
GN: Half an hour later! We laughed so much – it’s like clearly Meredith Viera was not listening at all! It’s like [it’s] Jane Fonda and Meredith Viera is going blah, blah, blah, blah.