Across his more than 3,000 talk show episodes, Stephen Colbert has interviewed just three celebrity guests who were “so attractive that he found it distracting.”
During a special reunion episode of Strike Force Five, the podcast hosted by network TV’s five late-night five hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver, Colbert was asked to name the guests he found most attractive.
“I’ll tell you who I did not expect to be wildly attracted to. I didn’t know what to do with myself,” began Colbert, 62, on the Wednesday episode taped after the group’s appearance on The Late Show. “I like this person’s work, but I never thought of them as a bombshell,” he said.
“I could not—I didn’t know what to do with my eyeballs when Michelle Williams was on for the first time.”
The five-time Oscar-nominated actress, known for her work in Brokeback Mountain and as Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn, made her first appearance on The Late Show in 2016.
“She sat down across from me, and I went, ‘F---. What is wrong with my head? I cannot—I better not look directly at her for this entire interview,’” Colbert admitted. “There was something about her vibe, her face, everything.”
Meyers, 52, who had interviewed Williams, 45, in 2019, nodded in agreement.
Williams was not the only actress to leave Colbert in a daze during their interview.
“I used to have a Rachel Weisz problem. I’ve recovered,” he said. “When Rachel Weisz would be on The Daily Show, I would leave the building for fear that I would say something stupid to her.”
“I was afraid I would stand in the hallway and go, ‘Hi. You were great in The Constant Gardener,” he said, pretending to fumble his words.
Weisz, 56, joined The Daily Show three times during Colbert’s tenure on the show, and numerous further times on The Late Show.
“Has it been weird to find out that this whole time you were her type, based on who she had?” Kimmel quipped, referencing Weisz’s husband, Daniel Craig, and previous partner Darren Aronofsky.
Colbert named one final actress that always caught his attention during interviews: Rebecca Ferguson.
Meyers quickly agreed, “I will say a great interview, great interview.”
“Because she brings game,” Colbert confirmed of the Dune actress.
The four late-night hosts still poked fun at Colbert’s open admiration for the actresses, however.
“This is not a surprise,” Colbert corrected, referencing his wife of more than 30 years, “Evie knows all this.”
“Who is hers?” Kimmel asked.
“Evie doesn’t have a TV show,” Colbert quipped back. “I think it’s me. I think it’s probably me.”
“Who’s Evie’s Rachel Weisz?” Kimmel persisted.
“What? Why would she need one? She has me,” Colbert joked. “I don’t understand. I don’t like the implications of this.”
Colbert finally relented, naming Andrew Garfield.
“He’s so attractive,” Colbert, who even kissed Garfield, 42, during their 2017 interview, said.
“Did he do it hanging upside down dressed as Spider-Man?” Kimmel asked.
“No, but we did get our fingers tangled in each other’s hair,” Colbert said. “It was really nice.”
