The celebrity interview can be yawn-inducing … or worse.
We’re inundated with these chats, from fawning magazine profiles to late-night schmooze-fests. Every once in a while, though, things don’t go according to plan.
Take Hugh Grant’s red-carpet interview prior to the 95th Academy Awards telecast. No one expected a Woodward and Bernstein-style interrogation, but Ashley Graham’s questions caused the “Love, Actually” star to show his disdain in real time.
Was Grant excited about any of the potential Oscar winners? “Nope,” he said.
Who was the British star wearing, the cliched fashion query asked at many red carpet affairs.
“Just my suit.”
Unbowed, Graham carried on. Was it enjoyable to shoot “Glass Onion,” the Oscar-nominated film that features a blink and you miss it Grant cameo?
“I’m barely in it. I’m in it for three seconds.”
Was it a fun experience?
“Almost.”
Graham later brushed the Q&A off, but it’s hardly the first time a celebrity chat went off the rails.
Robert Downey Jr. is known to millions as Iron Man, but not long ago he endured crippling addictions that sent him to the hoosegow for a year. An interviewer brought up his troubling past during a 2015 chat tied to “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
Interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy brought up his drug woes, prison stint, and complicated ties to his father, the late director Robert Downey. The Avenger fled the Q&A as fast as his alter ego.
“It’s getting a bit Diane Sawyer and you’re a bit of a schmuck.”
The superstar quickly saw himself out.
The same reporter got an earful from iconic director Quentin Tarantino during their fractured interview. The “Django Unchained” maestro, when pressed about the violence in both his latest film and previous efforts, eventually melted down over the questions.
“I’m shutting your butt down.”
Drew Barrymore’s career has run the gamut from child star, teen drug abuser, and now, daytime TV diva. Back in 1995, though, her appearance on “Late Night with David Letterman” caused a kerfuffle.
She didn’t say anything outrageous. Instead, she jumped on the host’s desk and lifted up her top to give Letterman a deeply “personal” birthday gift.
Any interview of screen icon Mel Gibson might brush up against the star’s anti-Semitic past. Gibson’s career cratered following a 2006 arrest during which he claimed the Jews were responsible for all the wars in the world.
Gibson has tried to defend and dismiss his troubled past in subsequent interviews, but a 2010 chat with L.A.-based journalist Sam Rubin took a contentious turn. Rubin rightly pressed the actor on his ugly past during a chat to promote his comeback vehicle, “Edge of Darkness.” That’s when Gibson lobbed a contentious counter-question his way.
“Some people will welcome you back, some people will say you should never come back.”
“I gather you have a dog in this fight? Do you have a dog in this fight? Or are you impartial?”
Rubin is Jewish, but he was able to stay composed and finish the interview in a professional manner.
Jim Carrey can be counted on for high-energy laughs during an interview, but in 2017 he went in a dramatically different direction. The “Ace Ventura” star appeared on the red carpet during New York Fashion Week, and that’s where E! News’ Catt Sadler tried to squeeze an amusing anecdote from the comedy icon.
It didn’t go as planned.
“There’s no meaning to any of this … so I wanted to find the most meaningless thing that I could come to and join and here I am.”
Sadler tried a different approach, noting the party’s theme of the night – icons.
“I don’t believe in icons.”
He wasn’t finished deconstructing the affair.
“I don’t believe in personalities. I believe that peace lies beyond personalities, beyond invention and disguise, beyond the red ‘S’ you wear on your chest, that makes bullets bounce off.”
Grant would be proud.
Sometimes a celebrity interview causes a kerfuffle after the fact. Action hero John Cena found out the hard way that actors aren’t allowed to say anything the Chinese government might take the wrong way.
So when Cena referenced Taiwan being a separate country in an innocuous 2021 Taiwanese interview tied to “F9,” he had to do some speedy damage control. His mea culpa, one of the more cringe-worthy moments in modern pop culture lore, found him apologizing in Mandarin over and again lest his film suffer any box office blowback in the Middle Kingdom.
The most infamous celebrity interview involves a star many dub the “Last Movie Star.” Tom Cruise chatted with Oprah Winfrey back in 2005, and at the time he was flush with love for his new flame, actress Katie Holmes.
Cruise, never one to hide his enthusiasm, literally jumped for joy over the relationship – atop Winfrey’s TV couch.
The moment proved embarrassing for the “Top Gun” star, sparking endless jokes that finally faded after he began keeping his private life private. It took years for the incident to fade from memory.
Now, Cruise is best known for his gratitude and hard work behind the scenes to make the best popcorn movies possible. No more couch-jumping antics going forward.
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at @HollywoodInToto.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.