Graham Norton is revealing behind-the-scenes details of his time filming Taylor Swift’s “Opalite” music video.
“I filmed it in Croydon — they filmed most of it in London, and bits of it in America,” Norton, 62, said on the Monday, February 9, episode of the “Wanging On” podcast.
Norton went on to note that he met the photographer who shot Swift’s engagement photos with Travis Kelce. (Swift and Kelce, both 36, announced that the NFL player popped the question in 2025.)
“Sadly, no Travis there, but her mum, dad and brother [were] at the video shoot,” he said.
Taylor Swift is dancing through the lightning strikes in her “Opalite” music video. The video began with a fictional ’80s-style commercial for a cleaning spray that can “magically [transform] your problems into your paradise,” that Swift, 36, watched on TV. The video then featured Swift sitting on a playground set and in her house alone, […]
Norton admitted he was “a little bit” nervous about the experience. “We filmed the video in the back end of November, and I’m like, ‘Please release the video so I can tell someone I’m in it!’” Norton said. “I am so in awe of myself [for keeping the video shoot secret]. … 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.”
On Friday, February 6, Swift released her “Opalite” music video — the third track from her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. Norton appeared in the video alongside celebs Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lewis Capaldi. The group previously appeared on The Graham Norton Show in October 2025, which sparked the idea for Swift.
“The whole thing came to her in a blinding flash while she was on the [Graham Norton Show] sofa … and the next thing you know she’s written this whole treatment,” Norton explained. “Taylor properly wrote this; it’s all storyboarded, and she properly directs it.”
Norton gushed that Swift is a “marvelous director,” explaining that her ability not to get stressed is “extraordinary.”
“It was like a movie shoot, a massive, massive deal,” he said. “Everyone was lovely on set. It was a really, really fun experience.”
After the music video was released, Swift explained that she was doing promo for her Life of a Showgirl album on The Graham Norton Show when the idea hit her.
“I remember thinking I got ridiculously lucky with the group I was paired with. Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Greta Lee, @JodieSmith, and @LewisCapaldi,” she wrote via Instagram on Friday. “All people whose work I’ve admired from afar. When we were all talking during the broadcast, Domhnall made a light hearted joke about wanting to be in one of my music videos. He’s Irish! He was joking! Except that in that moment during the interview, I was instantly struck with an *idea*. And so a week later he received an email script I’d written for the Opalite video, where he was playing the starring role.”
She continued, “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. 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. You might even recognize some friendly faces from The Eras Tour.”
