Not every talk show experience is the same. This week, The good doctor star Freddy Highmore appeared as a guest on Jimmy KimmelLive! for a new interview with host Jimmy Kimmel. The conversation was quite pleasant, as Kimmel even revealed that Highmore had sent a friendly email prior to his performance to indicate that he was looking forward to it. Kimmel even joked about how abnormal this was for him to see from his guests.
“Nobody ever really looks forward to seeing me, so I appreciated that,” Kimmel said.
Highmore then explained how he likes how it is backstage Kimmel also. It’s a different vibe than how things were on any other talk show he’d appeared on, as Highmore goes on to tell Kimmel and his viewers. Not wanting to cause trouble, Highmore avoids saying which talk show host his story is about, only noting that it’s one who doesn’t like seeing guests interviewed for the show at all. To appease this unnamed host, Highmore recalls how staffers literally shoved him into a broom closet in the nick of time, apparently to avoid an unpleasant interaction that might otherwise have ensued.
“Other people, some hosts don’t even want to interact with you,” Highmore said, noting that he tried not to reveal too much. “I’m going to try not to say the name. This host doesn’t like seeing guests in advance, so I came backstage with some producers, and they looked up and they saw the host at the end of the hall, and they were real Real anxious.”
The Bates Motel star continued, “They grabbed me and threw me into the next door that was over there by the hallway. And it was a broom closet. A dark broom closet. And I was there about a minute, and they were these kind of cops from the Secret Service on their phone, like, “Are we safe? Are we safe? Are they gone? Can we bring him out?” [They were] terrified. And then I just walked away like nothing had happened.”
“So this is a much nicer way to spend my evening,” Highmore told Kimmel. “Thank you for being a decent human being.”
Freddie Highmore doesn’t name names, but hints
Of course, people will be wondering who Highmore is talking about here, but he made sure not to mention the talk show host in question. He did give a small hint when Kimmel started to put pressure on the actor. Kimmel joked that it was Kathy Lee Gifford, and as Highmore closed that off, he reveals that apparently the guess wasn’t too far off.
“Close to!” noted Highmore.
Highmore says he’s not sure the talk show host even knows how he was thrown in a closet to prevent the person from seeing him, just knowing it was “not a good time” for him personally. Kimmel then said to let people figure it out, assuming many will peruse Highmore’s IMDb credits to try and further determine who this person is.
We won’t speculate here by suggesting specific names, but we can note that multiple talk show hosts have been accused of cruel behind-the-scenes behavior in recent years, and Highmore was notably a guest on their shows. Couple that with the Kathy Lee Gifford clue above and it’s probably not that hard to make an educated guess.