Graham Norton has admitted that one of his interviews with Robert De Niro featured a hefty section that never made it to air.
Earlier this week, the Irish presenter paid a visit to the US talk show Late Night With Seth Meyers, where he and the host bonded over their interviews with A-list stars.
Asked by Seth about how often he has to “jump in and help” when a famous guest’s story is going awry, Graham quipped: “If there’s an easy way to end it, I will… ‘shut up! Save yourself! Run!’.”
He continued: “I remember, Robert De Niro, he’s a lovely man, but he’s not that chatty. He’s been on an enormous amount of times, and I’ve discovered that he’s a benign presence. It’s not like he’s having a horrible time – he’s having a nice time! – he just doesn’t like to talk very much.
“He was on our show, it must have been the fourth time he was on, and he was having such a nice time that he started to tell an anecdote! And we were like, ‘oh my god, Robert De Niro is telling an anecdote’. Well… it soon became clear why he doesn’t.”
Graham said: “It was properly like, you know one of those old ladies going, ‘it was on a Wednesday… no… I tell a lie it was a Thursday… no it would have been a Wednesday because I took the bins out the night before’ – it was like that.
“It was going on for some time. And bless him, he could tell that this is spaghetti in my head… and he looks at me and he goes, ‘why am I telling this?’.”
As Seth’s audience applauded, Graham added: “We cut it out.”
Graham previously spoke of his experiences interviewing the two-time Oscar winner last year, claiming: “I never blame a guest if they’re not good, because it’s no one’s job to be a chat show guest. But some of them… you know, it’s a struggle.
“Someone like Robert De Niro, he’s a lovely, benign presence on the show. But you know, he’s not chat show gold, let’s say.”
More recently, Graham has opened up about another famous guest who notably made for a “very poor” interview on the red sofa, and another whose emotional story wound up on the cutting room floor.