Another day, another adventure in Miriam Margolyes’ gaydar.
The Harry Potter actress, who’s at this point perhaps even better known for her appearances on The Graham Norton Show, appeared on the interview show’s November 28 episode alongside Alexander Skarsgård. The Swedish actor was there to promote his upcoming “dom-com” Pillion, in which he plays a biker who initiates a BDSM relationship with a shy younger man named Harry (played by Harry Melling).
As Skarsgård explained the film to Norton and the other guests, Margolyes cut in to ask the real questions.
“But you’re not gay, are you?” she asked. “Are you?” There was a bit of a pause before Skarsgård answered, licking his lips.
“No, not really,” he replied as the audience laughed at Margolye’s bemused expression. “You do remember that day 20 years ago, don’t you?” he continued. The latter statement was a reference to an earlier story where Skarsgård said he had gone to see one of the actress’s homes to rent it while she was out of the country, but joked that he didn’t go through with it because of the sexual chemistry he felt between the pair.
Margolyes went on to call Skarsgård’s role “fascinating,” adding, “I’ve been enthusiastically gay for a very long time, and I’m always surprised by fellas who come across it later. But you’re having to act it. And how did you research it if you didn’t know much about it? Because we all do research.”
“I mean, these are all the questions I was going to ask,” Norton joked. Sadly, Skarsgård did not answer the follow-up. (It should be noted that he was wearing a hilarious “Hot Buffet ‘Available All Day’ eat as much as you like” t-shirt from Joe Sweeney, at the time.)
The exchange follows speculation surrounding the True Blood actor’s sexuality. In October, he spoke to Variety while at the Zurich Film Festival and made comments that some assumed was him coming out as bisexual.
“I found that in this case, it’s not really relevant what my background is,” Skarsgård said. “I mean, I do have a kid, but what I’ve done in the past, who I’ve been with, men, women… To me, what was important was that this felt like an opportunity to tell a story about a subculture I hadn’t seen portrayed this way – with so much authenticity.”
