When you’ve rubbed shoulders with everyone from Meryl Streep, Sir Ian McKellen and Tom Hanks to Madonna, Sir Paul McCartney and Naomi Campbell, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Graham Norton has met every A-lister there is to meet.
And it turns out… he has! Well, almost.
During a recent interview with Attitude magazine, the Irish presenter admitted he’s pretty much crossed everyone off his interview wishlist, especially after Julia Roberts made her long-awaited debut on his talk show at the end of last year.
However, there is one name left on there.
“We’ve really done very well,” he said of his famous guests. “I used to say Julia Roberts, but we’ve just had her, so Brad Pitt is about it now. We’re scraping a very glamorous barrel.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Graham insisted that most of his guests “are really nice and fun”, singling Kelly Clarkson out as among the most surprising as he didn’t “expect her to be as fun as she is, and she’s hilarious”.
Of his more difficult interviews, Graham added: “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.”
Last year, Graham admitted there’s a very specific reason he avoids having UK politicians on his famous sofa.
“It’s a silly, late-night show,” he said. “And I always think, if you’re a politician, you should have something more important to be doing right now than sitting on my couch.”
He also opened up about spotting the celebrities who get “competitive” with their fellow guests when it comes to their anecdotes.
Watch Graham Norton’s Attitude interview below: