On this week’s show Graham welcomes Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Olympic Gold Medalist Mo Farah, funny man Lee Mack and British band Hurts. The Socialite finds out more…
The brand new series of The Graham Norton Show premieres on BBC Entertainment on the 7th May and viewers can look forward to seeing Gwyneth Paltrow say Iron Man is a wimp, Mo Farah reveals he still wants to be a footballer, Lee Mack talks about his indecision about Not Going Out and Hurts perform live in the studio.
Gwyneth, chatting about her upcoming movie, ‘Iron Man 3’, says, “In this one I do get to kick ass. I get to do a bit of action and I get to wear the Iron Man suit for a while – it’s very cool.”
Asked if wearing the suit is heavy and horrible, she says, “It’s quite cumbersome but not so bad. I thought it was going to be terrible because in the first two movies Robert (Downey Jr.) would put on the suit and start sweating, he’d have a nervous breakdown and would meditate and cry. He was in hell. So, I was like, ‘Wow, I’d better start mentally preparing myself for the suit,’ and I put it on and was like, ‘This guy is a wimp, it’s really not that bad.’”
Gwyneth, chatting about her son Moses, says, “He loves Iron Man, he is a big fan. I’ll never forget his face when he saw me walk out in the suit. It was a really good moment.” And, on whether he understands she is an actress, she says, “I love watching his seven year old brain put together who I am. We were at a Justin Bieber concert and Moses said, ‘Maybe Justin knows who you are from Iron Man.”
Wearing a figure hugging backless cat suit, Gwyneth reveals, “I train all the time. I’ve got to try and keep this thing (indicating her toned body) together, I’m 40, I’ve had two kids and they’re making me take my shirt off in Iron Man.”
Chatting about her latest cookery book and asked if her husband Chris (Martin) cooks, she says, “He has only cooked twice and both times the fire brigade came!”
Mo, talking about last year’s Olympic games, says, “You train for so many years to get it right and it was amazing for me. To have the Olympics on my doorstep and to have the crowd behind me was amazing. Happy Times.”
Revealing running wasn’t his first choice of career, Mo says, “I always wanted to be a footballer, I still want to be a footballer. I thought I was good, but I wasn’t that good. I’m a much better runner for sure.”
Asked if he is nervous about running in Sunday’s London Marathon, given what happened in Boston, Mo says, “We will have a minute’s silence as a mark of respect and then the race as usual. It’s what I do every day. This is home for me and I will enjoy it, it’s very exciting.” Asked why he is only running half the course and whether he will be tempted to complete the run, he says, “My aim is not to keep going. This year is just a practice for next year when I will do the full marathon.”
Lee, talking about his own physique and lack of running ability, says, “I can’t run as one of my knees is lower than the other.” Inviting Gwyneth to check out this anomaly, he says, “The doctor also said my testicles are at two different levels,” Gwyneth cheekily checks out and confirms the unusual arrangement!
Talking about how he is going to end the ‘will they, won’t they’ storyline in the current series of ‘Not Going Out’, Lee says, “We couldn’t make up our mind so we recorded two endings. I’m not giving anything away, but the choice was, ‘should we move it on into a family sitcom or do we keep it as it is for a while.’ We have now decided.”
Hurts perform their single ‘Blind’ live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat. Confirming they have indeed thrown out all their normal clothes in favour of their trademark black suits, Theo says, “It was to make things easy, you can get changed really quickly and you can get dressed in the dark. I haven’t owned a pair of trainers for six years.”
And finally, Graham pulls the lever on more foolhardy members of the audience brave enough to sit in the red chair.
The Graham Norton Show, ep. 3, BBC Entertainment, DStv channel 120, Tuesday 7th May 21:00
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