On the Strike Force Five podcast, Stephen Colbert said Michelle Williams made him feel “wildly attracted to” her, alongside confessions about flustered moments with Rachel Weisz and others, as The Late Show prepares to end May 21.
The countdown to Stephen Colbert’s final episodes of The Late Show is getting harder to play cool, and on Wednesday he stopped pretending it was all just professional polish.
On the “Strike Force Five” podcast episode released May 13, Colbert, joined by Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, opened up about which celebrity guests have thrown him off—visibly enough that he admitted he struggled to even look directly.
“I’ll tell you who I did not expect to be wildly attracted to. ” Colbert began. before describing the first time Michelle Williams sat across from him.. “Like, I didn’t know what to do with myself.. I did not— I like this person’s work. but I never thought of them as a bombshell—I did not know what to do with my eyeballs when Michelle Williams was on for the first time.”
He went on: “She sat down across from me and I went, ‘F—. What is wrong with my head? I’d better not look directly at her for this entire interview.’ There was something about her vibe. Her face. Everything. … She’s so beautiful.”
The confession quickly became a running theme. Colbert also said he had a “Rachel Weisz problem,” recalling that when Weisz would appear on The Daily Show, he would leave the building to avoid accidentally saying something “stupid.”
As the group pushed for more names, Colbert added Rebecca Ferguson and Andrew Garfield to the list. Ferguson, he said, “brings game,” and Garfield, “he is so attractive.”
That emotional honesty is arriving as Colbert prepares to end the show itself.. His CBS late-night program is scheduled to finish on May 21 due to financial reasons, CBS has said.. The May 13 podcast episode is the first for “Strike Force Five” since 2023. timed to mark the approach of Colbert’s final Late Show installment.
Kimmel, speaking during the reunion, asked whether the end of the show has fully sunk in for Colbert.. Colbert’s answer was blunt and physical.. “It’s super real,” he said.. “I’ve sunken into it, actually.. What I’ve said is the rising tide of emotion has reached my chin. and now. the only thing to do is take a deep breath and swim like h— to May 21.”
When the conversation turns to what happens after The Late Show, Colbert described his mindset as that of “a college senior” while everyone around him presses him on what he will do next.
Colbert’s week of on-air closeness has also been part of the farewell ritual. The podcast discussion comes amid his latest round of celebrity kisses on the show. This week, stars included Fallon, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Pedro Pascal.
He has also previously kissed Garfield, Sally Field, Helen Mirren, Alison Janney and Jeff Daniels. And in one memory he replayed for the group, Colbert recalled a moment with Jane Fonda: “we did not make out, but she stuck her tongue in my ear.”
The show itself has been running for more than 30 years, with David Letterman hosting from 1993 to 2015 before Colbert took over in 2015. Speculation has swirled that the May 21 ending may be tied to politics, in part because Colbert has repeatedly taken aim at President Donald Trump.
For now, though, Colbert’s final stretch is being marked less by scripted restraint and more by candid admissions about the real-life effects of meeting a guest he simply didn’t see coming.
Stephen Colbert Michelle Williams Strike Force Five The Late Show Jimmy Kimmel Rachel Weisz celebrity guests