Did Florence Pugh Share Her Fries With Meryl Streep? | We Live In Time | The Graham Norton Show

I mean, it is amazing to watch that, thinking that before this you were a non-singer. I mean, Lin-Manuel was on here, and he was talking about, you know, being so impressed by your singing. So, weird to take a chance on someone who... I mean, did you say you couldn't sing, or did you say, I don't know? Well, so, the reason why I'm Oscar nominated for this role is because of a friend who lied on my behalf. And his name is Greg Miele, and he's a massage therapist in New York. He works on all of, like, Broadway dancers and singers in New York City, and he's one of my best friends in the world. So, Lin was getting massaged one day on the table, and he asks Greg, he says, Hey, I have a thing that I want to make, and I might want Andrew to do it, but can he sing? And Greg, just immediately, without missing a beat, just said, Oh my God, he has the voice. It's Natalie Imbruglia meets Jennifer Hudson meets, you know, Ariana Grande and Aretha Franklin. And Lin's like, That seems excessive, but sure. And, you know, the massage ends, and Greg immediately calls me and says, Hey, buddy, can you sing? And he's like, Because you have to be able to sing, because now my reputation is on the line. But we all need friends who can lie for us. So, it's Greg Miele's lies that has led to this Oscar nomination, which is kind of an amazing thing, I think. And, of course, not the only star of the film musical here tonight, Rob Beckett. You starred in the, you starred in the Camila Cabello Cinderella. Yeah, I was. I was in the Cinderella film that came out last year. Look at you! It was for an Oscar, and I played a pervert! I thought my daughters were so excited, because I was in a Cinderella Disney thing, they love all that. And then I found out that Dad's playing the pervert, trying to get off of Camila Cabello. The main problem was, when I read the script, they said that he had a limp, this bloke. He was like a, he was pretending to be a war hero, so he had a walking stick and a limp. And I was like, I've not, you know, I've done bits of acting, but I didn't know how you do a limp. That's not like, I mean, it's accents first. Wow, the barber said very low of you. You've done, you've probably been to acting school. Yeah, did they do limp the first term? A whole year of limp acting. So I didn't know, but then, when I was getting the costume fitted, the bloke in there went to me. I was saying, I don't know how to do a limp here, I don't know what. I think I got a bit obsessed on the limp, I didn't think I needed to be. He said though, the trick is, if you get a stone and put it in your shoe, you nod in. Oscar nominators nod in. So, what you do is you put a stone in, and then you've always got the exact same limp, because you're literally giving yourself a limp, because it's in the same position. It'll be consistent, because that's the key to acting, as we know, Andrew. If you do a take and you've got it in that hand, don't switch hands or it ruins it, doesn't it? No? OK, don't worry, you'll get it, you'll get it. When you win an Oscar, they'll probably tell you all this. This took me a year to figure all the stuff out in one day. I know, yeah, I'm a very quick learner, so watch yourself. So I had the stone in, but when I get there and I speak to the director, I was like, yeah, the limp's sorted, don't worry, it's all good. And she went, oh, he doesn't actually have a limp, he's lying about his injury, so the limp needs to be inconsistent. No, indeed, old friend. So now, I've got a consistent limp, so now my acting, I'm doing about eight different acting jobs here, because I've got the pervert role going on concurrently, I've got the stone in my shoe, so now I'm having to try and act like I haven't got a limp, even though I have got a limp. So I've made it much harder for me, and the worst part is, all of this, you never see me walk. We must mention, not just this film and an Oscar nomination, you also appeared in now what is one of the biggest films of all time, Spider-Man No Way Home. I went to see it in the cinema, and when you guys appeared, the cheer was amazing. It's so cool, yeah. I'm far too old to be playing Spider-Man now, but they asked me back, and it's the sweetest thing ever. Because I put that to bed, I was like, I'm good, I'm done, that's lovely. And Tom Holland is just the best, so I just kind of became a fan again, and then they asked me to do it, and Toby was doing it, I was like, I've got to do it if Toby's doing it. And at least you weren't the oldest. But he's my Spider-Man, so it's like, I would practice his lines in the mirror when I was at drama school. I was very high at the time. My friend Terry McGinnis, and he would crack up, and he would look at me like, yeah, you'll never play Spider-Man, Andy. And then here we are. But me and Toby, we became friends, and we snuck in to a theatre in Los Angeles on the opening weekend, and we were just two middle-aged white guys in baseball hats and masks, and we just kind of absorbed them. It was special things in the middle of a pandemic. And it's one of those things, when you've had a big success in a role like that, going back to it, did it feel like a high-risk thing to do? Yeah, it was a stupid idea. It was a really, really scary thing to attempt, yeah. Especially just the costume. 38-year-old man in a spandex... They are unforgiving, those costumes. Yeah, they are. Intimidating, very intimidating. Now, Little Women is one of those things, like, we all know the story of Little Women, don't we, Tom? Absolutely. I pretend I do. There are three books that everybody pretends they know, mostly guys. Why pretend that I know Little Women? Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. I've never read a word of any of them. But I pretend I have. It is lovely. Well, you should do, because it is lovely. It is. What is it about? Lots of little... Teeny-tiny? Teeny-tiny, itty-bitty... Matthew Rhys genuinely thought that. He did. It looks like the Borrowers. Timely female. No, so Louisa May Alcott wrote the book, and... Yes, of course. And it's been going around for a while, and there's been lots of versions, and it's about these four sisters living in Concord. And they are all amazing artists, and they're all constantly struggling in a world that's built for men. And Greta... Fiction, then. And Greta Gerwig has directed her version, and, I mean, this cast was utterly unbelievable. So it's Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Eliza Scanlan, and yourself as the four sisters. Yes, yes. And you play Amy. I play Amy March, yeah, the youngest one. Who is... Am I right in saying this is the character that Greta Gerwig has kind of toyed with the most? Well, not toyed with. Amy March has had a really bad rep. Everybody absolutely hates her. And when I got the role, I told my friends, and my friend was like, Oh, I hate her! I was like, great! So Greta kind of just pulled out this woman that is in the book. Amy March is an amazing artist in the book, and she just kind of gave her more of a... more of a moment to understand her, and people are shocked by it. Well, you'd met Timothee Chalamet before this, hadn't you? Oh, God. I had met him about a year previous. We were doing the kind of award season rounds together, and I loved his surname, Chalamet, and every time I read it, I read it as Chalamala Bing Bong. And when I saw him at this event, someone was coming to introduce me, and I said in my head, I was like, Timothee Chalamet Bing Bong. As I was walking towards him, to the point where it's now become such a name in my family that my gran met him last week at... however many weeks ago, at the Paris premiere. And after she came up, she was like, I met Timothee Chalamet Bing Bong! So, Timothee Chalamet Bing Bong, but also Meryl Streep. I mean, you have scenes with Meryl Streep. I shared space with her. No, we shared a carriage for a whole day, and a room for a whole day. Does Greta Gerwig, does she give you a little pep talk beforehand? You're going to be in a carriage with Meryl Streep. You know, does anyone prepare you for it? No, you kind of just know that she's in the room, or she's somewhere in the house, because everybody's on best behaviour, and everybody lights really quickly, and everybody sets up cameras very quickly because Meryl's around. So, you always can tell that she's somewhere. Didn't you say that when you were doing an outside scene, like, she has this power. She speaks and things happen. Oh, she's... We were in a carriage for a long time, and it takes a while to reset shots because we were in horses, we were behind horses, and it took about 20 minutes each time. And it was cold, and we were in Boston, and Timmy came up and kind of jumped up on the carriage, and just as he jumped up on the carriage, a waft of chip smell came in, and she suddenly then wanted chips. And within about, I'd say, ten minutes, there was a gasping PA, like... ..with Wendy's fries ready to give to her. So, I sat in a carriage, dripping in my fine clothes, eating Wendy's fries down the street. Photographic evidence. LAUGHTER