A rare appearance by George Clooney in the next Graham Norton Show
Media 833
The of The Graham Norton Show airs on Tuesday, 2 June at 21:40 on BBC Entertainment, channel 120 on DStv.
Norton welcomes George Clooney in a rare chat show appearance, wrestling legend turned movie star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, House star Hugh Laurie, Jessica Hynes, US actress Britt Robertson and recording artist and actor Snoop Dogg.
Clooney, talking about settling in the UK says, “We've bought a place in a wonderful
little town called Sonning and we are re-doing the house so that we can live in
it, which would be nice. We will move in in a couple of months.”
Asked if he has a normal life there, he jokes, “Yes, we do normal things –
there’s a bathroom and we use it." Adding, “There’s a great pub we go
to. It’s fantastic and we drink all kinds of pints of things.” Asked if
the pub stocks his own brand Tequila, he says, “I bought them a few bottles – I
deliver now.”
Talking about his new movie, Tomorrowland A World Beyond, he says, “Brad Bird,
the director, sent me the script and said a part had been written for me, which
I thought was great. I read the description and it said, ‘50 year old
bitter has-been’ and I thought, ‘You wrote that for me, that’s so nice. Thank
you very much.’”
Revealing that attending Comic-Con during his honeymoon, to promote the movie,
didn’t go down well with his wife Amal, he says, “I got the call while on my honeymoon
and was told it was really important that I fly in. First I had to explain
that to my wife which didn’t play well. And then, the whole idea of
spending part of your honeymoon with people dressed up like Captain Kirk and
Star Wars’ characters somehow wasn't easy to explain to my new bride. But, I showed up and it was actually fun.”
Talking about playing a superhero in the 1990s, he says, “I always apologise
for Batman and Robin. It was a disaster and I actually thought I had
destroyed the franchise until they brought it back years later. I thought at
the time it was going to be a really good career move… it wasn’t.”
Explaining why he hated the experience, he says, “The costume was brutal to
wear and the director's idea of direction was to shout through a megaphone,
‘George, your parents are dead and you have nothing to live for… and action.’”
He adds with irony, “It was a fantastic experience.”
Clooney, talking about his big break in ER 21 years ago, says, “I worked for a
long time before that in a lot of questionable shows and everything changed
overnight. We went from obscurity to 45 million people watching and
everyone obsessed with the show. Before that I remember we had just shot
the pilot and we all went to the local restaurant to eat still dressed in our
medical scrubs. When a child started to choke on a French fry and we all
started shouting, ‘Someone do something’ everyone stared at us expecting us to
do something as they thought we were doctors.”
Asked if he is musical, given his family heritage, he says, “My aunt was a very
famous singer called Rosemary Clooney, my father actually had an album and my
other aunt Betty was a famous singer but my mother has no musical skills at all
and she messed up the gene pool. I didn’t know I couldn’t sing, I thought
I could and when we were doing O Brother, Where Art Thou? the Cohen brothers
sort of assumed that I could sing because I was Rosemary Clooney’s nephew,
everyone assumed I could. So when I finished recording a song for the
soundtrack no one said anything and just stared at the ground. When they
played it back it sounded like a baby seal being killed and I thought, ‘Oh my
god, it’s terrible,’ but I didn’t want to say that so I said, ‘it sounds
great.’ I eventually said how bad it was and they brought a guy to do my voice
and sing the song and it was a massive hit. They don’t let me sing
anywhere now.”
Talking about the pranks he plays on his friends he says, “When we were filming
The Monuments Men, Matt (Damon) was trying to lose a few pounds and was only
eating salad and was really serious about losing weight. I had the
wardrobe girl take in his costume in by just a quarter of an inch each
day. He was then just eating a grape and saying, ‘I don’t understand why
I’m getting fatter.’ I did that for about three weeks.”
Asked about the on-going pranks between him and Brad Pitt, he says, “I'm not
sure how it started but we have done some terrible things to each other. I had some stationery made up with his name on and would then send letters to
other actors from Brad Pitt. I sent Meryl Streep a letter from him with a
whole stack of dialect coach CDs saying that they may help her for her role in
the Iron Lady. I have sent letters to lots and lots of people from Brad
and I don’t tell either of them what I have done for a year or two and they are
like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I’m doing one now that I can’t tell you about but
in a year you are going to hear I’ve been arrested – I’m not kidding because I
think I’ve crossed the line. It’s exciting. But, I have a wife,
she’s a barrister, I'll be fine.”
Laurie, talking about his iconic character, Doctor House, says, “I can’t remember
any of the lines at all but when ‘action’ is shouted I start limping. I’m
like a dog that’s been prodded with electrodes.” Asked by Clooney if he
ever limped on the other side, Laurie says, “I switched the side I limped on and
the side I used the cane and no one noticed.”
Asked if he is back in the UK for good, he says, “Yes, but I did eventually buy a
house in LA. The rest of the cast bought straight away but I lived out of
a suitcase for a year and a half. Then I dipped my toe in the water and
bought a kettle, that was commitment to the country and the first seedling of
buying somewhere.”
Talking about the stunts on the new movie he co-stars with Clooney in, Laurie
says, “We trained and got very physical on judo mats. I had to throw a
punch at George and I was wearing this huge ring that missed him by a skin
cell. I could have damaged the most handsome man on the planet.”
Robertson, asked if working with Clooney and Laurie in the movie was intimidating she
says, “In the lead up to it maybe, but once I got to know them it was like any
working environment, well sort of.”
Revealing how she was instructed by the stunt co-ordinator, she says, “He asked
me if I would like to learn how to do a ‘movie star run.’ It’s a real
thing.” Doubted by Norton, Clooney leaps to her defence by demonstrating
his own movie star run.
Snoop Dogg performs Peaches N Cream live in the studio before joining Norton,
Johnson and Hynes for a chat about his new album.
Johnson, talking about his early days in wrestling, “I had no song, no trunks
and no boots. Most people had wrestled in the school gym, but the first
time I did it was in front of 20 000 people. I borrowed my uncle’s trunks
and the boots were too small. I was asked what song I wanted to walk out
to and as I didn’t have one they put on some techno garbage. When I
walked out the whole place shouted, ‘You Suck’” Adding, ironically, “It
was beautiful.”
Asked about doing his own stunts, he says, “It’s not an ego thing, I want to be
tied into the action.” Talking about his powerful physique, which he
maintains on 6000 calories a day, and asked whether he is frightened of killing
anyone in a stunt scene, he says, “When I was in The Scorpion King I wound up
hitting a stunt man, I clocked him really hard and he went down. I felt so bad
I bought him a Rolex watch. I did notice, when the story got out, that
guys would lean in a little close for a punch.”
And on his wrestling heritage, he says, “I am third generation, but my dad was
against me following him into the sport. He hated the idea and we had a
massive fight and there were tears and emotions and I didn’t understand it
until he said, ‘I’ve been in this business for 40 years and I live in a little
apartment that cost $500 a month. I don’t want that for you.’ I
finally understood and told him it was something I had to try and would he
train me. He said, ‘I’ve got your back, I’ll train you.’ What he
really meant was, ‘I’ll kick your ass every night for the next year.”
Hynes, talking about her BAFTA-winning role in W1A, she says, “It was
Kismet. John Morton, the writer, wrote a character who’s voice was one of
the character’s that I’d always done for family and friends.”
Revealing she wasn’t the first actress offered the part she says, “I was called
at the last minute because someone had dropped out.” Declining to name
the actress, she says, “She was much smaller that me so I had a very depressing
first day in wardrobe – nothing fitted.”
Asked about her ability to rap, she says, “I learnt to do it when I was a
teen.” At Snoop Dogg’s request, she performs a few lines from the rap, which he
declares, “Awesome."
And finally, Norton pulls the lever on more foolhardy audience members brave
enough to sit in the Red Chair.
This episode of The Graham Norton Show airs on Tuesday, 2 June at 21:40 on BBC Entertainment, channel 120 on DStv.
About the author
This is only some dummy text because I dont really know what to write. This is only some dummy text because I dont really know what to write. This is only some dummy text because I dont really know what to write.