Interview with Graham Norton

AE: Part of what I think, at least for me, makes the show work so well is that you have your major guests come on at the beginning, after you do your monologue, and they’re on for the whole time, as opposed to here in the States, where we trot them out for five minutes to promote their latest project and then they disappear and never really say anything interesting. How did you settle on that format?
GN: I think, in a way, we just discovered by accident over the years that it’s probably more illuminating to see how a guest reacts to a comedy bit, or a prop, a website. Because basically they’ve been interviewed a thousand times and they’ll have answers for every single question you’ll give them. You know, if you have O.J. Simpson on he’s not going to suddenly admit that he did kill them so there’s no point in asking all those questions.

Where I think it’s genuinely enlightening is to you see what makes someone laugh or how they react to various things, and also they have to think on their feet. They’re seeing something for the first time. And also I think it in a way helps guests relax because it’s not about them. Actually they don’t have to say a word. The show keeps going … even if they’re just sitting like a lump on the sofa. I don’t like when that happens, but we will survive it.

AE: I thought having the Dukes of Hazzard on was absolutely brilliant because while I personally have no interest in them, your interaction with them was hilarious and when you brought the singer out who performed that song about how he wanted to sleep with all three of them, it cracked me up.
GN: That’s one of the privileges of doing this show is that I’m like a spoiled brat. I can ask the people who are booking to try and get these people back together again. We had Cagney and Lacey on the show in the first season. This coming season hopefully we’re going to get Hart to Hart back together again, because I’m a big fan of Hart to Hart. I don’t know, you couldn’t do it every week, but once in a while it’s a fun thing to do.

AE: Is this just your excuse to meet the people you really like?
GN: It really it is. It really is a big indulgence. But the show does kind of work better if I’m pleased to see them. There are some guests who are offered who I just kind of like, you know what? I can take it a little bit, but I don’t know if I can take it that much.

AE: Do you know any guests who are confirmed for next season yet?
GN: I know Kevin Bacon is confirmed. We’ve had him before. He was very good. And who else is coming on? Minnie Driver is coming on. Tony Curtis is coming on!

AE: That will be interesting. You’ll have to ask him about his Brokeback Mountain comments.
GN: Did he make comments that were out of line?

AE: He and Ernest Borgnine made some observations about how they were not going to see the movie because of its content.
GN: I see what you’re saying.

AE: We wrote a great deal about Brokeback Mountain and it was disappointing when he said that.
GN: Because he told a really good story when he was on the show the last time about years ago he was in the south of France and he’s at a urinal taking a piss. The guy standing next to him was looking at his c*ck. And he thinks, “This is weird.” And then the guy goes, “Is it true that you made love to Marilyn Monroe?” And Tony Curtis goes, “Well yes it is.” And the guy goes, “Can I kiss it?” It made me think he’d be more open-minded than that.

AE: One of the things that I really enjoy about your show is that you’re so unapologetically yourself, and that includes the fact that you’re gay. What looks to be a very mainstream audience seems to have no problem with that. Have you always done that with your shows or is this something new and is that a surprise?
GN: If you are going out to perform, I think you have to assume acceptance. You wouldn’t put yourself in front of an audience if you thought they were all going to hate you because you were gay. So, I’ve never really found a resistance. They can hate me for other reasons – they don’t think it’s funny or whatever. But the gay thing’s never been a reason for the audience not to like me.

AE: To my American eyes, your audience looks like a group of people you could pick up off of any London street. They look like blokes who just came straight out of the pub and housewives who’ve been shopping – whereas, with Kathy Griffin, for instance, who does a sort of similar, out there, risqué humor as yours – her audience is heavily populated by gay men. I just can’t see such a mainstream audience in the US gravitating towards such an out performer as you. Maybe I’m wrong – I’d love to be wrong, but that’s part of what I love about your show. It seems to be part of the mainstream UK experience.
GN: I think it certainly has that feel. It doesn’t feel like niche broadcasting at all. We’re just on a regular network at a regular time. We’re on after another family show. Actually this year, I think there will be Heroes and then us and that’s the lineup for that evening. So it is very mainstream. In America it’s hard for this show to be seen as mainstream just because of the power of the advertisers and all that sort of stuff. You couldn’t really plunk it in the middle of a prime time schedule, I don’t think.

AE: I feel like it would be such a breakthrough if we had yourself or someone of your stature having a show like you do here. I feel like it couldn’t happen at this point. Everyone would be too afraid of it. But obviously you can’t prove a negative. You just have to wait and see if it ever does happen.
GN: It is funny how some people just find a show that’s the right fit for them and find the right audience. You find someone like Ellen [DeGeneres] who is herself. She’s not living a lie. And yet all those ladies . . . If you told the women in that audience that you’re going to love a lesbian, you’re going to just think a lesbian is the best thing since sliced bread, they’d have never believed you. And yet they’re standing and screaming like loons in her audience every day. I think that’s fabulous. I think that’s great.

AE: I do, too. I think it’s interesting that it’s been two lesbians who’ve been able to do that so far, Rosie and Ellen, and both on daytime television. I’ll be happy when that happens here with a gay man. I’d love to see Neil Patrick Harris host a talk show – he’s expressed interest in that before and I think that would be a really great nice thing to see.
GN: It seems to be a natural arena for a gay man, a talk show.