• From drunken on-air tomfoolery to aggressive political debates , we count 15 of the most
uncomfortable celebrity interviews of all time!
15 – Ernie Dingo vs. Kyle Sandilands, • In 2008, an Australian radio interview
degenerated into toxic name-calling.
The interview, which took place between TV personality Ernie Dingo and 2DAY.FM host Kyle
Sandilands, was to promote Dingo’s new show, Outback Wildlife Rescue.
However, it was apparent that Dingo was on the back foot from the start and things quickly
turned personal.
• Sandilands doesn’t have the best reputation, and it certainly seemed like Dingo had preconceptions
about him going in.
It’s likely the interview was a contractual obligation.
• Dingo’s contempt for Sandilands is revealed when he calls him a ‘commercial wanker’.
He goes on to say that Sandilands is ‘over the top’ and suggests that he doesn’t
care about animals.
• Sandilands matches Dingo tit-for-tat and, in typical shock-jock fashion, avoids the
highroad, squeezing in a final scathing remark before shutting the interview down.
‘What a cockhead you turned out to be, Ernie.’
14 – Kristen Stewart on Letterman, • In 2010, Kristen Stewart appeared on The
Late Show with David Letterman to promote the third Twilight film, Eclipse.
• Stewart is not a natural interviewee and, after a few rookie mistakes, unwittingly becomes
Letterman’s plaything.
You can see her growing more and more uncomfortable as the audience feasts on her accidental double
entendres.
• Letterman, exposing a bit of a cruel streak, subtly mocks Twilight, then foists a weird
angry-dad lecture on Stewart after she confesses to owning a pet wolf.
He actually lectures her about how farmers lose livestock to wolves, and Stewart is just
sorta like, ‘Um, yeah, okay.
That sucks.
I still love my wolf, though.’
Uncomfortable viewing.
13 – Bruce Willis vs. Magic 105.4, • Yippee ki-yay!
Don’t look now, but it seems the enemy planted a bug up action star Bruce Willis’s arse
during his promotional radio interview for Red 2.
• Right from the start, Willis is entirely disinterested in reporter Jamie Edwards’
questions.
‘This part is not acting,’ Willis sulks.
‘The fun part is over.
We're just selling the film now.
Sales.’
Edwards goes on to ask him how he’d sell the movie to him.
‘I wouldn’t,’ says Willis.
‘I’d slash my hooves.’
You heard it here first, guys!
Bruce Willis is part bovine!
• Trying a different tact, Edwards quotes a line from the movie about the secret to
keeping women happy, then asks if it’s proven true in Willis’s experience.
Willis’ deadpan reply: ‘No.
That’s just a line in a movie.’
• In a last ditch effort, Edwards asks Willis if he enjoyed the film’s car chase scenes
and receives this warm, fuzzy response: ‘I'm thinking about driving right now.
I can hardly keep my mind on this interview.
I'm thinking about driving up the M1.
You have some great questions here, Jamie.
Great chat.’
12 – Mark Wahlberg on The Graham Norton Show,
• In 2013, ‘Marky Mark’ Wahlberg appeared on British talk show Graham Norton to promote
his latest film Broken City.
Norton and producers got a little more than they bargained for, though, when Wahlberg
overindulged on the on-set wine.
• Midway into the show, Wahlberg completed his seamless transformation into his jollier,
drunken alter-ego.
Drunken Mark Wahlberg’s hilarious antics included upstaging everyone, playing with
the host’s nipples, and aggressively flirting with comedian Sarah Silverman while married.
• Wahlberg went arguably too far during the show’s signature closing skit, the red
chair.
He flipped the chair lever three times before the audience member could get even the beginnings
of her story out.
Talk show whiplash at its best.
11 – Madonna on Letterman, • On March 31st 1994, Madonna’s appearance
on the David Letterman Show became one of the most infamous television interviews in
history.
Letterman inadvertently sets the interview’s course when he refers to Madonna’s sex life
during his introduction and then badgers her about kissing a stranger in the audience.
• ‘The way he introduced me was derogatory,’ Madonna said, ‘so my whole thing was, okay,
if that’s how you want to play it, you cannot beat me at this game.’
• Madonna made Letterman squirm with her provocative and suggestive behaviour, and
by requesting he smell her underwear.
She used language that would make Mother Teresa blush (including fourteen f-bombs) and refused
to leave the stage.
• The episode received numerous complaints and was the most censored show in American
talk-show history.
10 – Carrie Bickmore and John Lydon, • John Lydon, AKA former Sex Pistols singer
Johnny Rotten, lived up to his stage name when he hurled abuse at Australian TV presenter
Carrie Bickmore during a 2013 The Project interview.
• The veteran punk-rocker exploded when Bickmore asked for his thoughts on Margaret
Thatcher’s death.
He repeatedly shouted at her to shut up, saying ‘Listen, when a man is talking do not interrupt.’
• The interruption Lydon perceived was because of an alleged satellite delay.
Lydon finished up by lecturing Bickmore and her co-hosts about manners, which is funny
because irony!
9 – Jesse Eisenberg, Jerk?, • In 2013, Zombieland star Jesse Eisenberg
copped criticism for calling to task blogger Romina Puga’s poor interviewing skills.
Puga opens with a question about Eisenberg’s Now You See Me co-star Morgan Freeman.
She refers to him as ‘Freeman’, causing Eisenberg to interject.
‘Freeman?
Who are you?
What are you on a baseball team with him?’
• Eisenberg then teases Puga for writing her admittedly simplistic interview questions
on her hand.
Puga claims to be offended, but is smiling throughout.
• To the naked eye, the pair’s banter resembles flirting, but many viewers interpreted
Eisenberg as rude.
It might be fair to say, in this age of fluff interviews, that we’re unconditioned to
seeing Eisenberg’s blunt and dry-witted answering style.
• Eisenberg’s critics drew parallels with egotistical Facebook founder Mark Zucherberg,
whom Eisenberg famously portrayed in 2012’s acclaimed The Social Network.
Reports say these critics have unfriended him.
8 – Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Selleck, • In 1999, moustache-growing extraordinaire
Tom Selleck appeared on The Rosie O’Donnell Show to promote his new movie, The Love Letter.
But O’Donnell, who is a passionate socialist, appeared to have other ideas when she brought
up Selleck’s affiliation with the National Rifle Association.
• Selleck gracefully declined to comment, explaining that he didn’t see himself as
an NRA spokesperson and felt the contentious issue was inappropriate for an entertainment
interview.
• O’Donnell, however, persisted, explaining that Selleck, as an NRA associate, ought to
take responsibility for the recent gun-related mishaps in the media.
The interview then curdled into awkward sauce.
7 – Harrison Ford on Conan O’Brien, • In 2009, the notoriously grouchy Harrison
Ford appeared a little worse for wear during his interview on the Conan O’Brien Show.
The Indian Jones star wore a vacant expression and spoke in a soft, measured drawl.
He also stoked the felt arm of his chair for pretty much the entire interview.
• Ford is delightfully loopy during this interview, and fails to recognise that the
joke is on him much of the time.
When Conan asks if he would ever like to be in a stupid comedy, Ford endearingly enthuses
‘Are you kidding?
I love stupid!’
• Ford then makes fun of K19’s title – the very movie he’s there to promote – and,
when given $1,000 to reveal a titbit about Star Wars Episode VII, confirms, with a straight
face, what everyone already knew: ‘I hear they’re making another one.’
6 – Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman, • 2009 was the year Joaquin Phoenix, brother
of River Phoenix and star of Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, attempted to transform himself
from Hollywood A-Lister to scruffy, bearded rapper.
It was an unlikely reinvention, and he was heavily mocked for it.
• Phoenix’s appearance marks one of the most memorable Late Show episodes in the show’s
over-two-decade run.
Making fun of guests is kind of Letterman’s schtick, and it proved open season for him
when mumbling, homeless-looking Phoenix stepped out on stage.
• Phoenix’s bizarre appearance was ultimately revealed as a stunt for his mockumentary I’m
Still Here.
The film sought to deconstruct vapid celebrity culture, with the Letterman interview forming
a central scene.
• Crucially, Letterman did not know the interview was a piece of performance art.
His barbed comments are a hundred percent genuine.
5 – Sean Connery vs. Barbara Walters, • Does Sean Connery prefer things shaken
or stirred?
Slapped, apparently – at least according to his 1985 interview with Barbara Walters.
• Walters brought the issue up in reference to an earlier interview Connery had given.
During this 1965 Playboy interview, Connery admitted he believed slapping a woman was
warranted and justified if they were acting disagreeably.
• ‘I think a man has to be slightly advanced, ahead of the woman,’ Connery was quoted
as saying.
‘I really do – by virtue of the way a man is built, if nothing else.’
• Connery confirmed to Walters that he still holds the view, and the surrounding temperature
goes from brisk to frosty. 4 – Merlin from Big Brother Australia,
• In 2004, Australian TV viewers were enjoying the fourth season of Big Brother.
The formula was well-known: a housemate was nominated, votes were cast and the evictee
emerged for an interview during a live elimination show.
So far these evictions had unfolded predictably.
• That is until left-wing activist Merlin Luck emerged from the Big Brother house, outraging
viewers and producers alike with an unexpected silent protest.
This kind of thing was unprecedented in the show’s history, so the host and producers
clearly had no idea what to do.
As they scrambled to fill the hour and salvage their show, Merlin stood silent on stage with
a taped mouth and a sign that read ‘Free th[e] Refugees’, which he’d concealed
in the sewn-in pocket of his t-shirt.
• Merlin was protesting the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers, who were being held against
their will at Australian-run detention centres.
Luck, who attracted the ire of most of the reality TV-watching nation, said he did not
regret the negative attention, and was grateful to have brought the issue to national attention.
3 – Meg Ryan on Parkinson, • This is one of the most famously awkward
interviews of all time.
Legendary interviewer Michael Parkinson tries to get reserved Meg Ryan – who, by her own
admission, despises the limelight – to open up.
• Ryan is polite and does her best with what is no doubt an uncomfortable line of
questioning, but Parkinson probes on, seemingly determined to make her crack.
• Consequently, Ryan becomes frosty and uncommunicative, which just makes Parkinson
more aggressive still.
• The whole thing ends in a big old explosion of awkwardness, with Ryan requesting they
‘wrap it up’. 2 – David Blaine on GMTV,
• In 2001, illusionist David Blaine appeared curiously vacant when he appeared on breakfast
news show GMTV.
The show’s host, Eamon Holmes, asked several questions about Blaine’s act, but received
only brief, mumbled answers and a chillingly empty stare.
• When Holmes asked whether Blaine identifies as a magician or illusionist, Blaine replied
that he’s ‘Just a showman’.
His creepy stare seemed to cross dimensions, but Holmes, who was being hung out to dry
on national TV, remained unamused.
• Towards the end of the interview, David Blaine raised a hand to reveal a drawn-on
eye in the centre of his palm.
When asked it means, he uttered ‘protection from death’.
• Some speculated that Blaine was attempting to hypnotise an oblivious Holmes; others suggest
he was on drugs, or pulling a stunt.
Either way, it made for bizarre and uncomfortable viewing.
1 – Tom Cruise vs. Matt Lauer, • Tom Cruise is no stranger to controversy
– everyone remembers the time he used Oprah’s couch as a jumping castle – but it’s the
interview he gave with The Today Show’s Matt Lauer that had our discomfort metres
peaking.
• In June 2005, Cruise and Lauer had an extremely intense exchange during a sit-down
interview.
Psychiatry and Scientology were involved – never good dinnertime discussion.
• Promoting film War of the Worlds at the time, Cruise, completely flustered, criticised
friend Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants and called Lauer ‘glib’.
• The men have since put the incident behind them, but it certainly didn’t help Cruise’s
reputation at the time.