Stephen Colbert had been saying this celebrity’s name wrong for years—then he was called out on live TV
The British actor Daniel Craig is quite picky about how his name is pronounced; in fact, he reprimanded veteran talk show presenter Stephen Colbert for mispronouncing it. “I have a bone to pick with you,” he warned the comedian while appearing on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' in December last year to promote his latest romance drama 'Queer'. People reported that the 'James Bond' actor educated Colbert about a grammatical term - 'diphthong' during their hilarious banter. “Yeah, six shows — say my name,” Craig requested the late-night host. Colbert called out the 'Knives Out' actor’s name, to which Craig instantly replied, “Oh now you’re doing it right.” “Why, did I say, ‘Creg?’ ” Colbert asked. “Yes. It’s a diphthong — I don’t say ‘Colbet,’ ” Craig shot back to the amusement of the audience.
A diphthong is a word comprising a vowel sound in which the tongue shifts position to generate the sound of two vowels as per the Cambridge Dictionary. "Daniel … Craig — did I not say, Daniel Craig?” Colbert inquired repeatedly. "Daniel Creg. You don’t hear the difference?” Craig corrected multiple times. “Ooh, I hear the difference. That is subtle," the television producer noted. “That is a subtle difference and I apologize,” Colbert apologized. “I don’t want you — Daniel Craig — mad at me," he added. The two then symbolically ended their differences by shaking hands, Colbert then asked whether he had been making similar phonetic errors during the 'Kings' actor's previous six appearances on the show. Craig nodded and said: “It’s fine… it’s fine, whatever.”
Colbert then jokingly added that Craig could call him “Cole-bert” rather than “Cole-bear.” He then narrated the history behind his name. As per Newsweek, the political commentator revealed that his father had originally wanted their last name to be pronounced with a silent "t," such as the French "Col-bear," but that their family decided to adopt a different way to pronounce it after some time."You can be 'Col-bear' or 'Colbert,' whatever you want," he recalled, stating that although some family members loved the alternative version, others persisted with the first one.
Similarly, in 2016 Colbert learned how to pronounce a few difficult Irish names from American-Irish actress Saoirse Ronan including Tadhg, Niamh, Oisin, and Caoimhe. "Can you teach me to do a real Irish accent?" Colbert asked the Brooklyn actress during their conversation. Ronan took up the challenge and described that every word sounds melodic while speaking Irish. Colbert then proceeded toward the pronunciation of Ronan's name, the 'Blitz' actress then taught the late-night host to correct way to say her name. "It's Sursha," she said. Colbert then asked her what the worst way she had ever heard her name pronounced to which the 'Little Women' actress instantly replied, "Sauer-es-s, Suarez."
Ronan then proceeded to teach Colbert the correct pronunciations of a few popular Irish names, after trying them the television writer simply said, "They're all ridiculous." The talk show host was defeated in the challenge and he had to accept that Irish names are hard to pronounce.
