Queer Eye star reveals mortifying celebrity gaffe

Queer Eye’s Tan France has lifted the lid on the truly cringe-worthy mistake he made when he came across a huge Game of Thrones star.

TV personality Tan France has lifted the lid on his wildly embarrassing encounter with Game of Thrones megastar Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

The Queer Eye For The Straight Guy’s style guru, 39, opened up in an interview with news.com.au’s podcast I’ve Got News For You about the huge gaffe that remains one of his “most embarrassing” moments ever.

France explained that it had unfolded when the pair were staying in the same hotel in the UK on separate press junkets, where he’d spotted the actor – and mistaken him for Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen.

“[He] was excited, I was excited,” he told IGNFY host Andrew Bucklow.

“We continued to talk and we met up again, he called me by name. And then finally I left, and I told my publicist, ‘Oh my gosh, [Mortensen] is staying at the hotel!”

France has spilled on his embarrassing celebrity encounter. Picture: Noam Galai/Getty Images

It was at that point that he was informed that it was, in fact, a different fantasy franchise leading man – Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who is better known as Jaime Lannister.

Lord of the Rings actor Viggo Mortensen.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Game of Thrones. Picture: Foxtel

“Oh my gosh, I’ve gotten his name wrong all day. I did a video for his kids, and I used the wrong name. All day I was calling this man Viggo Mortensen … And that was not his name.”

France added: “And I know this man! I had a crush on this man! It was probably one of my most embarrassing stories.”

The Queer Eye star was speaking to news.com.au to promote his documentary, Tan France: Beauty and the Bleach, which airs on SBS Viceland at 9.40pm tonight.

In the doco, Tan explores the issues around skin tone and colourism in society, and reveals for the first time that he bleached his skin when he was younger.

“I was slightly darker skinned than many within the South Asian community,” he said. “I would hear comments about wanting to lighten up if I wanted to get married or have a good job.”

Tan bleached twice, when he was nine and when he was 16 years old.

“When I think about it, I have nieces and nephews who are around about nine or 10 years old, it makes me feel physically sick to think that they would be aware enough of their colour and their disdain for their colour, that they would think they need to find a solution, one of those solutions being bleaching.”

Tan France: Beauty and the Bleach airs tonight at 9:40pm on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand