There are a ton of mundane celebrity interviews out there, but every now and then you get
one that really stands out.
In the following cases, what really separates the wheat from the chaff are the bizarre questions
reporters felt the need to pose, and the equally awkward (and sometimes awesome) reactions
those questions garnered.
Check out which ill-conceived interview questions had us cringing in our seats.
Types of trees
When Barbara Walters interviewed screen legend Katharine Hepburn in 1981, the actress compared
her own strong-willed personality to that of a tree for its sturdiness.
"I'm a very strong -- I've become a sort of… you know, tree."
"You know a tree or something."
And instead of letting that odd analogy go, Walters pressed on with it and asked:
"What kind of a tree are you?
If you think you're a tree?"
"I hope I'm not an elm."
Walters has never really lived down the bizarre question, although she's certainly got some
other highlights for her blooper reel:
"Is it all you?"
"Well, I can't show you."
"Why didn't you have your nose fixed?
Everybody had to say you should have your nose fixed?
How did you know it was going to be right?"
Literacy and exhaustion
Model-turned-actress Cara Delevingne was at the receiving end of a particularly awkward
line of questioning when, in July 2015, she appeared on a local Sacramento morning show
to promote her film Paper Towns.
Things started out on a sour note when she was asked whether she'd ever read John Green's
book upon which the film was based.
"The book is taught at a lot of high schools.
Did you get a chance to read it or do you even have time to read?"
Delevingne was obviously annoyed or offended by the question because she snapped back:
"No, I never read the book or the script actually, I kind of winged it."
Things continued to disintegrate with the interview, to the point that one of the anchors
made the comment:
"I saw you in London talking a couple of weeks ago on TV and you seemed a lot more excited
about it than you do right now.
Are you just exhausted?"
Delevingne was visibly taken aback by the question and insisted she was still jazzed
about the movie, but that didn't end the awkwardness.
"You do seem a bit irritated.
Perhaps it's just us."
"Yeah, I think it's just you."
Super Bowl switcheroo
Although there are a lot of Hollywood doppelgangers who don't mind getting mistaken for one another,
Samuel L. Jackson will not tolerate being mistaken for Laurence Fishburne.
A Los Angeles news reporter made the grave mistake of asking Jackson:
"That Super Bowl commercial, did you get a lot of reaction to thatSuper Bowl commercial?"
The reporter was obviously referring to the year's buzzy Matrix-themed car commercial,
but Jackson didn't star in that one.
"What Super Bowl commercial?"
Once the reporter realized his mistake, Jackson lashed back anyway, saying:
"See, what, you're as crazy as the people on Twitter."
The reporter owned up to the mistake and apologized for the error, but Jackson wasn't done dunking
him just yet.
"We don't all look alike!
We may be all black and famous but we don't all look alike."
"You're the entertainment reporter for this station and you don't know the difference
between me and Laurence Fishburne!?"
Jackson went on to list all of the commercials that he and other black actors had done to
both rub the anchor's nose in his mistake and better prepare him for next time.
Fleeting moment
Heiress and reality show veteran Paris Hilton was on the receiving end of an offensive question
during her 2011 appearance on Good Morning America when the correspondent asked her:
"Do you ever worry about your moment having passed?"
Hilton had already been eyeing the exit sign and decided to walk off camera after basically
being asked if her 15 minutes were over.
To her credit, though, she did return with a well-rehearsed rebuke:
"I've been in this business for 15 years now, so it's been a very long time, and just like
any other businessperson or someone in the industry, it's always important to reinvent
yourself and come up with new projects."
Shutting it down
British actor Tom Hardy has played a number of tougher-than-nails characters on screen.
And he definitely wasn't taking any guff in 2015 when a reporter at the Toronto Film Festival
discussed how is character in Legend contrasted with his own public persona.
"In the film your character Ronnie is very open about his sexuality, but given interviews
you've done in the past your own sexuality seems a bit more ambiguous."
Hardy's face clearly indicated that this wasn't a desirable direction for the question, but
the reporter then ventured to ask him:
"Do you find it hard for celebrities to talk to media about their sexuality?"
This time, it was director Brian Helgeland's face that said it all, and Hardy was not one
bit amused.
"What on earth are you on about?"
Hardy then asked the reporter to repeat his question, and things got even more awkward.
"I don't find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality… are you asking
me about my sexuality?"
"Um, sure."
"Why?"
You could cut the tension with a knife.
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