The Graham Norton Show

Jodie Foster says Anthony Hopkins terrified her, Russell Crowe talks about directing, Ryan Gosling reveals sport is not his thing, Tom Daley talks speedos and Greg Davies relives a near death experience, while Bright Light Bright Light performs live in the studio with Sir Elton John.

Jodie Foster, making a rare UK chat show appearance and talking about working with Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, reveals "I never spoke to him because he was so scary. The first day we had a read through and by the end of it I never wanted to talk to him again - I was petrified. We got to the end of the movie and really had never had a conversation. I actually avoided him but on the last day he came up to me and I said, with tears in my eyes, how scared I was of him and he said, 'But, I was scared of you!'"

Talking about her role in Taxi Driver, she says, "I was 12 years-old and had made more movies than anyone else on the film at that point." Asked if having such a young actor on the set affected the other stars, she said, "They were very uncomfortable about my character. Nobody knew how to direct me. Scorsese would say something like 'unzip his fly' and just start laughing and not know what to do so he would hand it over to Robert De Niro and then Robert would tell me what to do. And he was even more 'Robert De Niro' then, even quieter and more strange."

Asked if it is true that by the time she made that movie she was already a little jaded by acting, she says, "I'd done a lot of it and I guess I thought acting was a dumb job because all I ever did was say lines that someone else wrote. I thought that was a terrible way to make a living and I couldn't imagine I would do that when I grew up. But he [Scorsese] took me under his wing and taught me how to improvise and I realised there was more to acting than just saying lines."

Russell Crowe, talking about directing The Water Diviner, and asked it is true that he is a hard taskmaster on set, he says, "That's the best way you can be for your actors. It's what people used to do for decade after decade - you take time to let you actors settle in to prepare properly. It puts them in a place where they are not going to slow you down so it's quite Machiavellian as well. Basically I'm not going to waste my time."

Asked if he and Ryan Gosling had been friends before making Nice Guys together, he says, "We'd met and I thought he was something special so called him about the project and invited him to dinner at mine with my wife and his girlfriend. I found out on the day that my wife had invited all her girlfriends and her mum. I was like, 'No, this is meant to be a small, intimate thing, you've got a dozen girlfriends and your mother coming - he's going to notice.' and she said, 'He won't mind.'

"I then ring all these blokes to even up the number so by the time Ryan arrives what was supposed to be a dinner for four, ended up with 30 people there. I couldn't tell him because you have to be loyal to your spouse but now we are separated I can tell that story! It was a strange first meeting."

Ryan talking about having a Turkish massage that didn't quite go as expected, says, "I had an awful experience. This guy's idea of massage was to take one of my legs and the other arm and try and connect them behind my back. As he was doing this, his belly went in my mouth and you know when you have something strange in your mouth your brain sends your tongue to figure out what it is... It was traumatic!"

Revealing his amazement at Russell Crowe's rugby knowledge during a match with his team, Ryan says, "Before we started shooting he invited us to a bar to watch the match. He had this big bucket of ginger beer and a big bucket of vodka and I got more and more drunk - I could barely keep my eyes open - and by the end of the game Russell's inside all the players' heads and knew exactly how and when they are going to move. It's incredible. He was like the rugby whisperer - it was insane.

"Then, towards the end of the evening I am tanked and Russell has his arm round me and I look at the TV screen and Russell's on it accepting this trophy. I look around and everyone's wearing white hats. I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole and it was only when I went on set the next day that I found out we had been watching a taped game!"

Asked about the Mickey Mouse Club, in which he appeared as a child with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, and asked if it was true that he was fired from it, he says, "No. We were young and there were a lot of questions about sexy stuff and perhaps I shouldn't have shared the answers with them. I got reprimanded by the Mouse!"

Tom Daley, talking about training in the run up to the Olympics in Rio in the summer, he says, "I am back to training six hours a day, six days a week. It is terrifying that you train for four years just for that one moment. You get six dives and if you mess one up it's all over. It's a pretty cutthroat thing."

Teased about the size of his Olympic Speedos, he says, "They have to be small because everything has to stay in place. If you're spinning around the last thing you want to do is have something come out of place! And when you hit the water you don't want things flapping about because it would hurt."

Greg Davies reveals how he almost drowned. "I was swimming and got swept out to sea in Cornwall and I realised I was really struggling. I called out to a surfer for help and realised he was almost drowning too. In the end I rode a wave on my boogie board into the cliff and hung on to the rock. It was really jagged and I cut my hand. It was awful. I saw this lifeguard coming out on a canoe. He was really powerful and turned out to be Australian. The was blood running down my arms and I thought, 'Thank God, I'm saved.' He came right up to me and called out, 'Oh, mate, stop effing around!'"

Laughing at the story and Greg's Aussie accent, Russell, interjects, "That sounds just like something I would say!"

Bright Light Bright Light, appearing on television for the first time and singing with Elton John, performs All in the Name live in the studio before joining Graham for a chat.

Talking about the upcoming Bright Light Bright Light tour, and asked if it is his farewell tour, Elton says, "Not necessarily. I like playing and I'm a working musician and I love to do it. If your feeling fresh and energetic do it while you can. I'm not going to do it forever because I want to see my boys grow up."