Natalie Imbruglia Visits The Tonight Show

Natalie Imbruglia stopped by the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night to promote her new movie ‘Johnny English’. Natalie also talked about her engagement with Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns, her previous role in ‘Neighbours’, and they played an old Japanese commercial she once did for Bubblicious bubble gum. Read on for a transcript.

Jay: Welcome back. My next guest, a talented singer and songwriter,
currently starring in the new movie “johnny english.” A very funny film
with rowan atkinson. Please welcome natalie imbruglia.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: Hey, you look great. Let me congratulate you first off. I know
you just got engaged.

Natalie: We did.

Jay: Congratulations. Very nice, very nice.

Natalie: Thank you.

Jay: To a rock star? Daniel johns?

Natalie: Daniel johns.

Jay: He’s with —

Natalie: Silverchair.

Jay: Silverchair. They were supposed to be here, right?

Natalie: They were, and he was —

Jay: He got herpes or something?

Natalie: He would love to come and do your show.

Jay: We’ldodo that sometime. Now, I know he’s a huge rock star in australia.
Is that a problem for you, like, when you go places? Do women throw themselves
— ?

Natalie: Well, I did go to south america with him on tour, and that
was a bit of a — that was very hard for me, the women.

Jay: What do they do?

Natalie: Well, I wouldn’t mind if it was just — but they like to fondle,
and you know, grab the bum, grab his bottom.

Jay: Grab the bottom?

Natalie: Yes.

[ Laughter ] I found that hard. Any womawould find that hard, right?

Jay: He probably found it hard, too. Hey. You know —

[ Laughter ]

Natalie: Oh, dear.

Jay: Now, you grew up in australia. You’re australian by birth, but
you live in london now.

Natalie: Yes, I’m living in windsor in the U.K.

Jay: Okay. Did you always want to sing and dance and all that type of
thing?

Natalie: Yeah. When I was — well, I never remember not knowing what
I wanted to too. My mom said when I was about 2 or 3, she said, “what do
you want to do when you grow up?” And I said, “I want to be a hairdresser
during the week and a star on the weekends.”

[ Light laughter ] Apparently. I don’t remember saying it. She might
have made it up.

Jay: Now, you did commercials and things?

Natalie: I did, yes. I did a few commercials.

Jay: Now, you did some in japan?

Natalie: Yes.

Jay: Now, you’re looking at me oddly. Why is that?

Natalie: I did a bubblicious bubble gum commercial.

Jay: Bubblicious? How old were you when you did that?

Natalie: It was my first job. I was about 14.

Jay: 14. I imagine something like that would probably be impossible
to get because —

Natalie: Oh, no!

Jay: I imagine japan being so far away and with the language, and they
use a different format, it’s almost impossible to get tape of a commercial
you did, like —

[ Laughter ]

Natalie: Can we get it over with?

Jay: I think we have it here.

[ Laughter ] This is you doing a — tell us about the commercial. How
did you — did you get this in australia?

Natalie: I got it in australia, and I had to be hawaiian.

Jay: Hawaiian?

Natalie: I had to look hawaiian, so I dyed my hair black. This is —
my natural color’s a lot lighter than this. So I died my hair back and
sat in the sun and got really tan. And they put me in this pineapple dress,
and I was supposed to be like a pineapple princess or something.

Jay: Well, here. Let’s take a look. Here we go. Take a look.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: What did you say in japanese? Do you remember?

Natalie: No, they dubbed me. I didn’t have to learn japanese.

Jay: Okay. Now, you did soap operas as well, right?

Natalie: I did. I was in a soap opera called “neighbours.”

Jay: Now, are they like our — are they just as, sort of bizarre?

Natalie: Yes.

Jay: Yes?

Natalie: Yes. The story lines are pretty crazy, and they rehash a lot
of story lines.

Jay: Were you a nasty character, a nice character?

Natalie: No, I was a country girl. I started out really sweet and nice.
And then — I was only on for two years. And I think, you know, the writers
got really bored. So before they ended up marrying me off, they kind of
— I ended up with nearly every guy “neighbours” is based around a street.

Jay: Right, right.

Natalie: So yeah. And they didn’t really care about what your character
was, they just kind of — so that was pretty bad.

Jay: Okay, okay. Now, tell me a little bit about —

Natalie: You don’t have any clips of that?

Jay: No, sadly, I couldn’t get that. Tell us about “johnny english.”
Now, I love rowan. He’s one of my favorites. He’s a comic. And you’re a
good comic, too. Was this your first real sort of comedy role?

Natalie: Well, I didn’t — I didn’t really have to be funny, which is
good. You don’t want to try to be funny next to rowan. I just — I just
approached it as a dramatic role, and then hopefully that made him look
more funny.

Jay: But just sort of like a bond girl from the ’60s. It has sort of
that ’60s james bond feel to it. All right. And you had to ride a motorcycle
as well.

Natalie: Yeah, I had to learn to — I had to learn to ride a bike.

Jay: You hadn’t done that before?

Natalie: No.

Jay: You seem like someone who would have ridden motorcycles and done
all those things.

Natalie: Well, I am a tomboy, but I never really got into motorbikes.
And they started me on a small one, and then I worked up to the 955 triumph.

Jay: Oh, very cool, very cool. Now, let’s see. We have a clip. Now what
is this scene we’re going to see?

Natalie: I think it’s, like, towards the very end of the film. I don’t
want to give too much away.

Jay: Well, you certainly didn’T.

[ Laughter ] I don’t think you have to worry about anybody — it’s a
comedy.

Natalie: You’ll see what I mean when you see it.

Jay: We don’t want to give — we’re not even going to tell you the title.
We don’t want to —

Natalie: All right, I get ejected out of —

Jay: Okay, here we are. Here’s “johnny english.” Here we are, take a
look. Here you are with rowan, the secret agent.

[ Laughter and applause ] There you go.

Jay: Now, did he make you laugh? Was he a fun guy to work with?

Natalie: He was very funny. Very funny.

Jay: Yeah, yeah? I mean, what sort of things would he do?

Natalie: Well, he’s very serious as well though.

Jay: He’s very serious, sort of, when you talk to him. That’s why I
wondered.

Natalie: So I remember doing a scene. Well, they were prepping for a
scene where he’s covered in fake poo. And what was funny to me was watching
rowan very seriously, you know, discussing with the director if he had
enough poo on his left shoulder.

[ Laughter ] These are the conversations they were having daily.

Jay: This is the scene where he’s stuck in the sewer, right? Okay. Well,
very cool. Well, the film is “johnny english.” It was very funny. I really
enjoyed it. I thought it was just — it’s like a “pink panther” kind of
comedy. I thought it was very, very good, and it’s playing in theaters
now. Natalie, thank you very much, and good luck on your engagement.