The “very strange” TV show that astonished Christopher Walken: “Never seen anything like that”
Even though he’s not exactly a technological whizz kid, Christopher Walken isn’t a complete Luddite. He watches movies and TV shows but prefers doing so the old-fashioned way.
Cinema’s favourite eccentric uncle doesn’t own a mobile phone, doesn’t have an email address, admits he’s got no idea how to use the internet, and has absolutely no interest in social media or streaming, which isn’t surprising when he was born in 1943 and seems pretty set in his ways.
Even when he starred in something made exclusively for streaming, the Academy Award winner had DVDs of Severance sent to his house because that was the only way he’d watch them. He prefers physical media and prefers watching the news on the small screen, but he was nonetheless captivated by one series.
Not just any series, though, but a bizarre British reality TV show that he stumbled upon while filming The Outlaws in Bristol. As strange as it sounds, or perhaps on-brand because this is Christopher Walken we’re talking about, the legend confessed that he’d become enraptured by Naked Attraction.
He’s not the only Oscar winner obsessed with the oddball dating show, either, with Emma Stone arguably its most famous fan. However, he’s 45 years older than she is and miles outside of the target demographic. And yet, he was transfixed by the concept of a show revolving around a fully clothed person choosing a date from a sextet of faceless naked folks.
“A very strange show,” he demurred to Interview. “Really incredible show. I’d never seen anything like that. It was a kind of dating show, and people would get naked. I mean, absolutely naked. I was really surprised to see that.” No offence to Walken, but what was he expecting, based on the title?
Even though he built his career on playing weirdos, criminals, psychopaths, and altogether offbeat individuals, Christopher Walken sitting by himself in a Bristol hotel room watching Naked Attraction and finding himself mesmerised by someone deciding who they should go on a date with by way of their nude form being revealed from the feet up is right up there with the strangest mental images anyone could conjure of the Deer Hunter and Pulp Fiction maverick.
It’s the duality of reality TV, and Walken, in a nutshell. He admitted to being offended by any series that focuses on hunting animals for sport, but had his mind blown by naked people trying to win a date. As audiences have discovered to their detriment throughout the 21st century, almost nothing is off-limits to cameras, with television executives and programme creators coming up with some truly heinous ideas.
Naked Attraction isn’t the most offensive, but it’s still weird. Having spent most of his professional life embracing weirdness in the performative sense, in a way, it’s entirely apt for Walken to get a kick out of the show. It’s not the kind of weird he’s usually associated with onscreen, but maybe he was drawn to it like an idiosyncratic moth to a peculiar flame.
