Graham Norton opens up about 2015 Harvey Weinstein interview: ‘Chilling in retrospect’
Harvey Weinstein on the Graham Norton Show in 2015 (BBC)
The host of the Graham Norton Show said convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein was his worst ever guest.
Speaking at an event in Dublin to promote his new book, Forever Home, the beloved talk-show host, guest judge of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and Eurovision icon recalled interviewing Weinstein in 2015.
“I often talk around who my least favourite guest was, but someone reminded me, I have a really good answer to this now,” Graham Norton said, according to Joe.
“It’s Harvey Weinstein. He’s in jail, so he gets the prize for the worst guest ever.”
The Hollywood producer appeared on a 2015 episode of Norton’s chat show alongside David Tennant, Olivia Coleman and Jessie J. This was before over 80 women came forward with allegations of sexual assault against him.
Graham Norton attends the EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall (Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Norton recalled how the interview came out.
“It was weird, because he asked for my email,” he said. “And he emailed me something very nice, a complimentary thing. And then he decided he wanted to be on the show because he was going to promote something.”
He continued, explaining that Weinstein was incredibly persistent: “And it was a show that was fully booked, so I replied saying, ‘Oh, thank you so much, but the show is fully booked.’ He emailed back, ‘What if I blah de blah de blah?’ ‘No, the show is fully booked, blah de blah.’
“And he emailed back again, ‘But I think…,’ and I just had to turn to my booker and say, ‘Can you please deal with this?’ And at the time, I thought that sort of attitude, that kind of, ‘Oh no, I’m going on,’ that is what makes you a very good producer.
Harvey Weinstein leaving Manhattan Criminal Court on January 27, 2020 (David Dee Delgado/Getty)
Norton linked this perseverance to what we now know to be Weinstein’s predatory behaviour.
“But of course, now that we know what we know, that is what makes him a predator. It was that kind of weird, tunnel-vision thing. And it was sort of chilling in retrospect, because I was just laughing at those emails. But you realise, oh my god, that is an insight into how that man is.”
