On Bowie:
L: “People looked at me differently once I worked with Bowie, that’s for sure…”
BG: “Because I think Bowie was one of those people that if he liked you, it was like oh – I’m absolutely cool, don’t even try to consider that I’m not”
BG: “I remember bunking off school to go and see Bowie coming back from Berlin – he arrived at Victoria station in the big sort of Cadillac, and I remember being photographed and I remember thinking I might get in trouble because I’m being photographed if my mum sees it…”
BG: “I used to send him emails – I’d send these tirades of love and worship, and I’d get a line back”
On his family + upbringing:
BG: “I did everything I could not to be like my Dad but turned out that I was the most like him of anyone – the gay version of my Dad. I went out of my way not to be like him, and I guess I soaked it up because you can’t not.”
BG: “I wanted all the things that my parents didn’t have… there wasn’t much love… there was a tolerance… my parents did love each other no question, they just didn’t respect each other. So I grew up thinking that was normal – that screaming and shouting was what you did in a relationship and that constituted love.”
On himself and his relationships:
BG: “Why do I do what I do? I never know why I do what I do.”
BG: “It was doomed from the minute we laid eyes one each other – it was never going to work. I was this mad insecure queen from south London, he was a posh boy from Hampstead whose parents didn’t approve – and who knew how to have a relationship, even under the microscope.”
BG: “I am actually shocked when people really just don’t like me and I’m like – but you don’t know me, if you knew me you couldn’t possible dislike me as I’m not dislikable but there are some people that just roll their eyes”
BG: “Sometimes it’s avoiding that default behaviour – don’t tell me what to do and all that stuff – I don’t know about you, there was a point in my early career where I used to kick off all the time and have these massive tantrums you know because I think sometimes it felt like I was in charge if I said no and I wasn’t going to do it – and I always did it.”
On acting:
BG: “I want to learn to act, be a bit more confident, don’t want to feel those nerves when I’m on stage… and I didn’t realise you could get better at that, you have to practice.”
More weekly episodes to come featuring guests of the likes of Brian Cox, Kristin Scott Thomas, Richard E Grant, John Legend, and more.
