Considering his legacy, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Elvis Costello has had quite a few exciting celebrity encounters in his lifetime — but, as he explained during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, one of the rocker’s most memorable meetings came way before his career even started. During a game of “The Colbert Questionert,” Costello recalled a story from when he was about nine years old, when he met classic Hollywood star Gregory Peck.
“I lived near Twickenham Studios when I was a little boy, which is where A Hard Day’s Night was shot, and the beginning of Let it Be, which became Get Back,” Costello said, referring to the films starring fellow Brits The Beatles. “We got the word that they were doing a scene in the park where we’d kick the ball around, and there was Gregory Peck! I’d seen him in a movie or two. I asked him for an autograph. I have no idea why.”
Twickenham Studios was the U.K.’s largest film studio at the time of its construction in 1913, and served as a film site for a number of iconic British films through the ’60s and even well into the 2010s. While Costello didn’t name which film set he stumbled upon, Peck’s resume includes unforgettable classics like Roman Holiday and To Kill a Mockingbird, so it’s possible that young Costello was witnessing a cinematic masterpiece in the making.
Elsewhere in the “Questionert,” Costello shared his favorite action movie (The Great Escape), his favorite seat on an airplane (aisle), the song he would choose if he could only listen to one for the rest of his life (whatever Ringo Starr picked), and more. Watch the full clip below.
This Colbert segment comes from an episode aired earlier this year, on which Costello sat down for a multi-part interview and performed his song “Magnificent Hurt.” Later this year, he’ll be touring in support of his new album The Boy Named If; get tickets at Ticketmaster.