The Jonathan Ross Show | 30th March Preview (ITV1)

On this week’s The Jonathan Ross Show, Oscar nominated star of Spider-Man and new dystopian epic Civil War Kirsten Dunst, reigning Sports Personality of the Year and Lioness legend Mary Earps, star of hotly-anticipated Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black Marisa Abela alongside director Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Plus comedian and best-selling children’s author David Walliams, and Youtuber, rapper and presenter Yung Filly, plus the legendary Madness will be performing in the studio.

Jonathan is joined by director Sam Taylor-Johnson and actress Marisa Abela ahead of the release of the hotly-anticipated Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black. 

Quizzed by Jonathan on the rumours circulating that her husband Aaron Taylor-Johnson is set to become the next James Bond, Sam jokes, “You mean that I might direct a Bond film? The first woman director.”

Sam adds, “Carry on speculating. He’d be great.”

Speaking about directing her husband, Sam says, “It’s really interesting. When I directed Nowhere Boy, he wasn’t my husband. When I directed A Million Little Pieces he was.”

“He gets very intense. It’s quite interesting depending on what character he’s playing. Nocturnal Animals for example, was very hard. He was not washing, his nails were really long, he was drinking and he was watching a lot of serial killer documentaries. He wanted to be toxic from the inside in order to play such a toxic character. There was one morning when he woke up and thought the bed was on fire but we were actually saging him.”

On taking on the role of Amy Winehouse in the new biopic, Marisa says, “It was definitely nerve-wracking. You have to take that fear and use it as a driving factor in your preparation. I wanted to use that energy that I had. It’s an element of responsibility that you feel. I took that responsibility and I worked pretty hard. You have to do a lot of work to make her physically recognisable as the person that everyone knows. There’s that other side, the person, the human, the woman behind the music and also what we think we know about her - I think that was the most important thing to me.” 

Talking about her decision to cast Marisa in the role of Amy Winehouse, Sam says, “I had all these young women sitting outside coming in, and most of them had come in, in some shape or form with either a hoop earring or cat eye or something. Marisa had none of that - she came in as herself but she was the first person in the room. I was fiddling around with the camera, chatting with the casting director and I just looked in the lens and Marisa looked up and she completely transformed. She hadn’t even said anything. I thought, "That's her.”

Complimented by Jonathan on her impressive vocal abilities, Marisa says, “I don’t think anyone even asked me in the audition process if I could sing! I knew Sam and I felt the same way that whoever was going to play this part needed to be Amy from the inside out. 

“For me when I got the job I wanted to learn to sing as much as I could because this was her chosen medium - this is her artform, this is how she expressed herself. It felt so odd to do all of this work and then come to open my mouth to sing and cut to a studio recording. I trained really hard, I trained for two hours a day for four months.” 

Asked by Jonathan if Amy’s family have watched her film, Sam says, “They have seen it. I wasn’t there when they saw it and I haven’t personally heard from them but I imagine and from feedback I had was that it was quite an intense, emotional experience, as you can imagine.”

Marisa reveals how she gets into character and how she separates the role from her own self and says, “I do a thing where I like to use perfumes. It’s a sensory thing. I know my smell, my detergent and my perfume so when I play someone else, I like to use a different smell. I had an Amy perfume. I’d get home and wash it off and watch Bake Off.”

Jonathan speaks to Kirsten Dunst ahead of the release of her new film Civil War. Speaking about one of her early roles and working alongside Tom Cruise, Kirsten says, “He was lovely to me. I still get a coconut cake every Christmas. He’s a classy man. It’s the best cake I’ve ever had.” 

Kirsten reflects on her iconic kissing scene with Spiderman’s Tobey Maguire and says, “I remember Sam Raimi giving me a book of famous kisses to be inspired but also he really wanted to make it special even though it was kind of miserable actually doing it.”

Kirsten jokingly adds, “It was pouring with rain, freezing, Tobey couldn’t breathe so it was almost like I was resuscitating him.”

Asked by Jonathan about her new film Civil War, Kirsten says, “You are really dropped in the centre of a civil war in America. It’s kind of a road trip through the backwoods of America from New York City to photograph and interview the president - he’s a fascist president, it’s his third term.”

Speaking about working alongside her husband in Civil War and explaining how he wasn’t initially cast in the film, Kirsten says, “Another actor was cast that couldn’t end up doing it because of scheduling. Even in reading the script, that scene was chilling and the way he plays it...what happens in that scene really sets the film off to the trajectory and really ignites the film. He’s very casual about it which makes it even more chilling.”

Reflecting on meeting her husband, Kirsten says, “We did Fargo Season 2 together and then that’s when we became creative soulmates in a way and fell very much in love creatively and then we got together a year later. I love working with him. He’s my favourite actor.” 

Kirsten later touches upon attending an Oscars after-party, “Jesse’s film was nominated and it was nice to just be the date - no pressure. We went to Jay Z and Beyonce’s party. Jay Z hugged me. We danced and had a great time. I tried to dance near Beyonce’s friends.”

Speaking alongside her fellow guests about fans who have tattoos of them, Kirsten reveals, “I met a gentleman recently. It’s of me as Marie Antoinette. He talked about how it really opened him up as a gay man and helped him with his taste in film and femininity.”

Next, Jonathan is joined by comedian and best-selling children’s author David Walliams ahead of the release of his new book Astro Chimp. 

Speaking alongside Kirsten Dunst about Tom Cruise, David says, “I did see him a week ago. I went to university with Simon Pegg who is in the Mission Impossible movie - he invited me and my son Alfed who is ten. We got to meet Tom and Tom gave my son a really inspirational speech. For about half an hour, I was thinking he doesn’t need a dad anymore. He’s given the most amazing speech. He was very generous with his time and very, very lovely.”

David asks Jonathan, “Do you know what my son calls you? The man with the toys. We’ve been round to see your toys and comics. He doesn’t know your name.”

Speaking about what inspires him ahead of the release of his new book Astro Chimp, David says, “Luckily my son is ten so he is exactly the right age to read my books. We go for long walks together, walking the dogs and he often comes up with ideas. He came up with this idea, mega monster - I wrote the book and now he says you need to give me 50% of the royalties. I said you'll get it one day!” 

Touching upon what else he is working on, David says, “When you write a book the wonderful thing is it often becomes lots of different things. We’re working on a Gangsta Granny cartoon series at the moment. There is a Slime cartoon film. There is another film of one of my books. Stage productions. I’m working on those things mainly at the moment.”

David adds, “Me and Matt Lucas are working on a new show together.”

Talking alongside Sam Taylor-Johnson about the rumours her husband is set to become the next James Bond, David says, “I love him. He’s an amazing man. Apart from being an amazing husband, father, friend, he is an astonishing actor. I think he’d be brilliant. He’s got physicality, he’s exactly the right age, he’s got this amazing body of work behind him. He would be a really cool choice.”

David adds, “I’m obsessed with Bond. I’ve got to meet all of them apart from Sean Connery. I got to be very friendly with Roger Moore, so much so that he phoned me up on my birthday about ten years ago.” 

Later, Jonathan is joined by reigning Sports Personality of the Year and Lioness legend Mary Earps.

Speaking about where it all began for her, Mary says, “I feel like the love of goalkeeping started quite young, maybe when I was about ten. I saved a penalty in my first game. That was it, I was sold.” 

Reflecting on narrowingly missing out on winning the Women’s World Cup in 2023, Mary says, “It’s hard really, you look back on it kind of bittersweet. To get to a World Cup Final is amazing and to save a penalty was of course a fantastic moment for me personally. But we didn’t come away with the win.” 

Quizzed by Jonathan on her contract ending with Manchester United this year, Mary says, “Yes, that’s true it’s coming to an end this summer. We’ll see what happens.”

On winning the Golden Glove award, Mary says, “It was an incredible year last year. Again, a bittersweet moment to lose in the final and I was miserable as sin. Football is a tough business but it’s so emotional and I love the game so much.”

Having also recently won the Sports Personality of the Year, Mary reflects on celebrating after the awards ceremony and says, “I’m not a massive party person but I like to celebrate big moments. I was fortunate that I was able to bring a few family and friends, the closest people who’ve seen me at the bottom as well as that being a massive high. It was nice to have them with me and celebrate that moment with them for all the rubbish they’ve put up with over the years from me and me coming home heartbroken about a game or a training session.”

Speaking to Jonathan about the backlash Nike received after choosing not to sell the kit worn by her, Mary says, “The narrative is always that goalkeeping doesn’t sell or doesn’t sell well. We had some pretty tough conversations that unfortunately didn’t lead anywhere. Until it became a much bigger story than I could ever possibly anticipate because of the incredible people back home that got behind me and all over the world. They managed to change something that I don’t think it’ll ever happen again basically - we’ve changed the world forever.”

“As a group of Lionesses we’re really strong in our values and what we stand for and I think that’s why we have such a connection with the fans.”

Jonathan is then joined by Youtuber, rapper and presenter Yung Filly following his collaboration with rapper Aitch. 

Speaking about being born in Columbia, Yung Filly says, “I was born there and I came here when I was like two. I moved back from 16 to 18 and then back here again, to play football. And then I realised I don’t really like football.”

Jonathan reveals that Yung Filly is considering changing his name to simply Filly who says, “I want to but I don’t know how they’re going to take to it. They know me as Yung Filly. I’m trying to do the transition to Filly.” 

Quizzed by Jonathan on the beginnings of his success on social media, Yung Filly says, “I remember I did a video on Snapchat and at the time I only had like 200 viewers. I put it on Facebook and it was a 50-minute video and it got a million views in a day. It was my ex cheating on me - me explaining the situation but in a comical way. I made it funny.”

On his life before fame, Yung Filly says, “I was a junior broker. I wasn’t the big dog in the office. I was doing alright but it wasn’t good of me because I wasn’t helping my mum. I was young and immature but now I’m helping mumsy."

Speaking about how his mum felt after he decided to quit his job and focus on his social media career, Yung Filly says, “She wasn’t happy. We were struggling a lot. Her concern was making sure I could still bring money for the rent and I did.”

Later, Yung Filly explains how he told his mum she could quit her job and says, “I retired my mum. She used to work in Poundland and it got to the point where people would see the resemblance between me and her. Some people would ask for pictures and she got really embarrassed. I remember I gave her a call once and said ‘Mum, you can quit your job. I’ve got you now.’ She didn’t know how to take it. I made her my PA. It’s not like work work!”

On collaborating with rapper and friend Aitch, Yung Filly says, “He’s amazing - one of my closest friends. The song was doing really well. I was just out of the top 40, I need a remix and I need to do it quickly. When it was time to think about who I was going to ask, I didn’t really want to do it with someone I didn’t know. When it comes to performing the song on tour, I’d like to bring up my mate and be travelling the country with my mate.”

The Jonathan Ross Show airs Saturdays at 9:35pm on ITV1.