Taylor Swift’s new music video was inspired by Graham’s BBC talk show
Graham Norton has broken his silence on appearing in Taylor Swift’s latest music video that his popular BBC talk show inspired.
Taylor left her fans delighted on Friday (February 6) when she released the music video for her song Opalite, from her 2025 chart-topping album The Life of a Showgirl, her 14th UK Number 1 album.
Graham appeared in the video along with Peaky Blinders actor Cillian Murphy, singer Lewis Capaldi, About Time star Domhnall Gleeson, Past Lives actress Greta Lee, and British James Bond No Time To Die actress Jodie Turner-Smith.
Fans quickly realised that all of the stars featured in the video appeared on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show in October last year. Taylor returned to the talk show at the time to promote her latest album.
Appearing on the latest episode of his podcast Wanging On with Graham Norton and Maria McErlane, the Irish TV presenter shared just how he ended up appearing in the video that already has over three million views on YouTube.
“The whole thing came to her in a blinding flash while she was on the sofa… and the next thing you know she’s written this whole treatment.
“Taylor properly wrote this, it’s all storyboarded and she properly directs it. Taylor is a marvellous director – I didn’t think I had that (performance) in me,” he said.
Graham added: “It was like a movie shoot, a massive, massive deal. Everyone was lovely on set, it was a really, really fun experience.”
According to Graham, he got to keep a bottle of Nope-alite, a fictional spray which is advertised in the video, but was accidentally binned by a new cleaner who mistook it for an empty bottle of real cleaning product.
The video was filmed in November, just weeks after the stars met on his show, with Graham stating that he was ‘in awe’ of himself for managing to keep the video a secret from his friends and fans.
“On New Year’s Eve I was with a gaggle of gays and I just thought this is so good, surely I can tell them, but I didn’t. There was many extras in my scene, no one joined all the dots and realised it was everyone off the Graham Norton sofa,” he said.
Mainly filmed in Croydon and other parts of London, with additional parts filmed in the US, Graham didn’t have the chance to meet Taylor’s fiance, Kansas City Chiefs NFL player Travis Kelce. However, her mother, father and brother were on set along with the photographer who shot her engagement photos.
In her Instagram post announcing the video, Taylor called Graham ‘insanely charismatic and lovable’ and said that she ‘got ridiculously lucky with the group’ who sat beside her on his iconic red couch.
“I was instantly struck with an *idea*. And so a week later [Gleeson] received an email script I’d written for the Opalite video, where he was playing the starring role. I had this thought that it would be wild if all of our fellow guests on the Graham Norton show that night, including Graham himself, could be a part of it too. L
“Like a school group project but for adults and it isn’t mandatory. To my delight, everyone from the show made the effort to time travel back to the 90’s with us and help with this video,” she said.
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