Interviews are part of any actor's life. Sometimes, if everything goes perfectly,
a great interview can even change a celebrity's legacy for good. But sometimes, they go horribly,
awkwardly, and unforgettably wrong. These are some of the worst ever conducted.
One of the most recognizable examples of an actor interview gone wrong occurred in April 2015,
when Robert Downey Jr. was promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron. Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy,
who was already known for making his interviewees uncomfortable,
initially asked Downey easy questions about the movie and his character. Alarms started to go off,
however, when Guru-Murthy brought up a Downey quote from a previous New York Times interview:
"You can't go from a $2,000-a-night hotel suite
to a penitentiary and understand it and come out a liberal."
Downey then responded,
"Are we promoting a movie?"
The interview ended on a dour note when Downey walked out after Guru-Murthy prodded him about his
complicated relationship with his father, Robert Downey Sr., and his past history with addiction.
Shortly after the interview was published, Guru-Murthy wrote about the incident for The
Guardian, clarifying that question areas were discussed ahead of time with Downey's publicist,
and claimed Channel 4 News did not do, quote, "promotional interviews."
Downey, on the other hand, vented to radio talk show host Howard Stern about his less-than-ideal
experience, calling Guru-Murthy a, quote, "clown," among other things.
For over 60 years, Larry King made a name for himself as one of most prolific talk show
hosts of all time. He's a fixture of American television, about as familiar to small screen
viewers as Friends reruns. But his rocky 2007 interview with all-star comedian Jerry Seinfeld
was certainly not a highlight in his career. The Seinfeld co-creator and star appeared on
CNN's Larry King Live to promote the DreamWorks Animation film Bee Movie, which he co-wrote,
produced, and starred in. King, who cameoed in Bee Movie, asked Seinfeld if his flagship
sitcom was cancelled, and the following response was anything but enthusiastic:
"I was the number one show in television, Larry. Do you know who I am?!"
Year later, in an interview on The Young Turks, King admitted that he only got to know Seinfeld's
sitcom work later, and regretted asking what turned out to be an ill-informed question.
Despite this setback, King continued to interview other high-profile celebrities on Larry King Live
and Larry King Now, the latter of which began airing on King's Ora TV starting in 2012.
Ryan Seacrest has been involved in many awkward moments throughout his career as a celebrity host.
One of his most cringeworthy moments involved none other than Robert Pattinson.
While the British actor has since starred in several high-profile indie films such as
2017's Good Time and 2019's The Lighthouse, Pattinson first gained worldwide stardom
for portraying soulful vampire Edward Cullen in the big screen adaptations of Stephenie Meyer's
massively popular Twilight novels. Seacrest interviewed Pattison in 2009, at the premiere
of the Twilight sequel New Moon for his radio talk show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest.
This two-minute interview started off smoothly enough, but things turned sour when Seacrest asked,
"What do you say to your fans who are desperate to know about you and your co-star Kristen?"
Pattinson's publicist subsequently came in and ended the interview before
the teen heartthrob could answer the question. Pattinson, amidst laughter,
told Seacrest to, quote, "watch New Moon" and promptly left the studio.
Seacrest's question arrived during a moment of particularly intense scrutiny for the Twilight
stars. Around this time, rumors were circulating heavily about the potential real-life romance
between Pattison and his co-star, Kristen Stewart. Despite this speculation, neither Pattinson nor
his publicity team wanted to give any official details to the press. Thankfully, Pattinson
and Seacrest would reunite in 2011 to discuss the actor's latest movie, Water for Elephants.
Samuel L. Jackson has starred in a vast variety of terrific movies throughout his career.
The sheer number of stone-cold hits in his filmography is stunning:
The man has been iconic in Pulp Fiction, The Incredibles, Snakes on a Plane,
the MCU, and Star Wars, making him one of the most famous people on the planet.
Yet an entertainment reporter still confused him with another famous actor during a 2014 interview.
The first question that KTLA's Sam Rubin asked Jackson, who was promoting the 2014 Robocop
remake he starred in, was about the reaction to a then-recent Super Bowl commercial, which featured
Laurence Fishburne, not Jackson. Once Jackson realized what was going on, he did not hold back:
"I'm not Laurence Fishburne. We don't all look alike!"
Rubin admitted his mistake and tried to steer the conversation to Robocop.
Rubin quickly issued an apology, calling his flub a, quote, "amateur mistake." The reporter revealed
that he'd interviewed Jackson several times before, and that he saw him in a Super Bowl ad for
Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is what confused him — though he still described the grief
he took as, quote, "well deserved." Fortunately, Jackson and Rubin met again during The Winter
Soldier press junket, and Jackson didn't even recognize Rubin until he brought up the incident.
Jane Fonda has gained fame as both an actress and an outspoken activist, but she looked visibly
irritated when someone brought up a taboo subject. That someone was Megyn Kelly, who interviewed
Fonda and Robert Redford about their film Our Souls at Night back in 2017. This conversation,
which aired on the NBC talk show Megyn Kelly Today, was going well, until Kelly told Fonda,
"You admit you've had work done, which I think is to your credit, but you look amazing."
The veteran actress glared at the talk show host while she asked the question and responded,
"We really want to talk about that now?"
The glare itself became a widespread meme.
After Fonda called out Kelly in several future interviews,
Kelly finally addressed this moment on January 22nd, 2018:
"For years, she has spoken openly about her joy in giving a cultural
face to older women. Well, the truth is most older women look nothing like Fonda."
Kelly then spoke about the actress' controversial Vietnam War history. Is
that relevant to the conflict at hand? Not really - which is why so many found the moment petty.
London-born Cara Delevingne has established a successful career in acting and modeling, but
a catastrophic interview on Good Day Sacramento is likely not a moment she wants to look back on.
Co-host Marianne McClary started things off badly when she introduced the actress,
who was appearing to promote her movie Paper Towns, as "Carla Delevingne." The same host then
asked Delevingne if she'd read the book the film is based on, to which she sarcastically responded,
"No, I've never read the book or the script, actually, I kind of winged it."
Delevingne looked visibly uncomfortable throughout the interview but still tried to make the most
out of a sticky situation. Unfortunately, all three hosts had already noticed that
the actress-model looked irritated, and McClary told Delevingne near the end of the interview,
"We'll let you go then, how about that? We'll let you go take a little nap,
maybe get a Red Bull, how about that?"
Delevingne subsequently offered the hosts one more perplexed look before her satellite feed cut off.
McClary wasn't done, even then, declaring that Delevingne was, quote, "in a mood."
Later that day, Delevingne tweeted,
"Some people just don't understand sarcasm or the British sense of humour."
A truly excruciating example of reporters being ill-prepared for an interview occurred in 2014,
when KWGN-TV's Chris Parente interviewed Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader about their
film The Skeleton Twins. The conversation was going fairly well, until the high-spirited
Parente made a disastrous and odd attempt at a joke. He asked Wiig,
"I am thinking on this program of doing the news completely full frontal, completely nude.
Do you recommend that? And do you have advice for going nude?"
Wiig looked confused, as anyone would, offering a few awkward chuckles, while Hader wore
an openly incredulous look on his face. Parente attempted to salvage his joke, pointing out
that Wiig had a nude scene in this film. Wiig immediately clarified that she was actually
nude in a different movie, Welcome to Me, and definitely not in The Skeleton Twins. Hader joked,
"I'm nude in this movie,"
and, leaning into the absurdity of the moment, claimed that the film took place on Mars.
Hader then openly asked Parente if he'd seen The Skeleton Twins,
and the reporter, knowing he was beyond saving, claimed that Hader's
character wins the lottery and the movie has Muppets. Neither claim is true, of course.
This viral moment was very embarrassing for Parente, but he interviewed Hader again in
2015 to talk about a movie appropriately titled Trainwreck. The pair joked around the whole time.
A 2012 interview between Jerry Penacoli of Extra and Anne Hathaway proves just
how creepy interviewers can be towards actors. Penacoli had already asked Scarlett Johansson
earlier that year if she wore underwear while in her skintight Avengers costume,
and asked similar questions of Hathaway about her appearance as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises.
In fact, Penacoli started the interview with a comment about how Hathaway had
to be in "perfect shape" for this role. Hathaway responded:
"Ehhhh. It wasn't about being in perfect shape. It was about being
able to do the stunts and the fighting perfectly."
Penacoli pressed on with a question about the costume specifically. Hathaway replied,
"It was form-fitting. I mean, it's not a pair of sweatpants. I wouldn't describe it
as that kind of comfortable, but, you know, it was fine."
The next question from Penacoli was about Hathaway's, quote,
"feline fitness regime." Hathaway laughed it off and dismissed the topic as, quote,
"boring," but Penacoli kept pressing until Hathaway shot back:
"Are you trying to lose weight? What's the deal? You look great."
"No, no." "No,
no, seriously. We have to talk about this. Are you trying to fit into a catsuit?"
Hathaway joked around towards the end, but Penacoli was still in the wrong for swamping
the actress with inappropriate questions about her weight and not asking about the movie.
Mark Wahlberg's appearance on The Graham Norton Show is a rare example of an actor being at fault
for a bad interview. Norton is known to give his guests alcohol, but when Wahlberg appeared
on the show in February 2013 alongside Sarah Silverman and Michael Fassbender, audiences
could tell he'd had a bit too much to drink. The interview started off smoothly as Wahlberg
discussed his latest film, Broken City, and even told stories about his children. As the episode
went on, however, Wahlberg participated in several crazy antics, such as flirting with Silverman,
challenging Fassbender over penis size, and outright groping Norton. Ironically,
Wahlberg offered some big, flashing warning signs early on when he said,
"Why would you have people drink alcohol and come on a show?
Wahlberg would later claim his antics on the show were, quote, "pre-planned. When speaking to
Digital Spy about this uncomfortable episode the following July, Norton called Wahlberg, quote, "a
lovely guy" who he didn't judge too much for what he chalked up to, quote, "jet lag and wine" in a
later interview. Wahlberg has continued to appear on The Graham Norton Show, so there is apparently
no major animosity between the two figures - or at least, any they'll admit to on the record.
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