Top 10 Celebrity Interviews That Left Us SPEECHLESS
#10: Robert Downey Jr.
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In 2015, the actor behind Iron Man sat down with Channel 4 journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy to promote “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” The summer blockbuster was hardly Guru-Murthy’s top priority, instead prying into Downey Jr.’s prison time, history with drugs, and relationship with his father. Downey Jr. attempted to remind Guru-Murthy that this interview was supposed to be about a movie, but the reporter remained fixated on his personal life. Aside from veering off-topic and making him uncomfortable, Downey Jr. feared that kids might be watching. Guru-Murthy had conducted a similarly unprofessional interview with Quentin Tarantino years earlier. Where Tarantino fired back, watching Downey Jr. walk off was even more jarring. Downy Jr. wishes he had left sooner, calling Guru-Murthy “a bottom-feeding muckraker.”
#9: Lance Armstrong
Winning the Tour de France seven years in a row, Lance Armstrong was an inspiration to cyclists and cancer survivors alike. None of us wanted to believe that we had idolized a fraud. It wasn’t until Amstrong sat opposite Oprah Winfrey in 2013 that a lot of people accepted what was becoming increasingly apparent. Months after being stripped of his titles amid doping allegations, Armstrong confirmed that the rumors weren’t rumors. While Armstrong denied taking performance-enhancing drugs between 2009 and 2010 or encouraging teammates to follow his actions, he confessed to cheating with each of his Tour de France victories. In a flash, Armstrong went from superhuman to a man backed into a corner, leaving viewers with muted disappointment.
#8: Samuel L. Jackson
Promoting “Robocop,” Samuel L. Jackson’s interview with KTLA’s Sam Rubin turned into a slow-motion train wreck when the actor’s recent Super Bowl commercial came up. The issue? Jackson wasn’t in a Super Bowl commercial, but Laurence Fishburne was. Rubin and Jackson both appeared bewildered until they realized the reporter’s staggering mistake. Rubin scrambled to tie-toe around the boo-boo and get the interview back on track. Jackson wasn’t about to let this slip-up slide, however. He proceeded to roast Rubin in an outburst so uncomfortable that stunned viewers could only laugh on the inside. Fishburne admitted that people mistake him for Jackson all the time. Of course, most of those people probably aren’t entertainment journalists who clearly should’ve done more research before a live interview.
#7: R. Kelly
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By 2019, the controversy surrounding rapper R. Kelly had dominated the media for almost 25 years. It wasn’t until recently that serious consequences started to catch up with Kelly. Having been indicted a month earlier, Kelly sat down with Gayle King in an attempt to paint a sympathetic portrait of himself. Instead, he went off the rails, making the audience question if what they were watching was real. Despite insisting that he was innocent and the true victim, Kelly didn’t help his case as he rose up and pounded his chest in an unhinged fit of sobbing. Some were surprised that King was able to remain so composed. At the same time, King reflected many viewers at home. Few words, just stone-faced confusion and concern.
#6: Woody Allen
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Allen is known for blending quick-witted dialogue with awkward tension. Only the latter was on display when Allen appeared on “60 Minutes” in 1992, discussing his falling out with former partner Mia Farrow, his relationship with Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, and the accusations of abusing a daughter he adopted with Farrow, Dylan. When the latter came up, we expected a straightforward response. Allen selected some truly baffling words in an attempt to profess innocence, saying it’d be “illogical” for him to do such a thing at this time. Allen went on to claim that Farrow was plotting revenge against him while defending his relationship with Previn. Over thirty years later, some still aren’t sure what to say about this interview or Allen in general.
#5: Britney Spears
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The media repeatedly failed Britney Spears during her darkest hours, and few interviews have aged more poorly than her 2003 conversation with Diane Sawyer. The journalist held nothing back, relentlessly poking into Spears’ breakup with Justin Timberlake. Sawyer phrased many of her questions in a way that portrayed Spears as the guilty party, suggesting that she had caused Timberlake “pain.” In reality, Spears was going through a painful period, which she opened up about twenty years later in her memoir. She reflected on the Sawyer interview as an internal “breaking point,” making Spears feel as if she was a “Bad Person.” While the interview was hard to watch back then, looking at it from a modern lens leaves us too upset to talk about it.
#4: Joaquin Phoenix
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We now know that this future Oscar winner’s 2009 appearance on “The Late Show” was for his mockumentary “I’m Still Here.” At the time, though, neither David Letterman nor the audience knew that Phoenix was playing a character. Some laughed when Phoenix showed up with a scruffy beard, sunglasses, and a muted demeanor. As the interview proceeded, that uncomfortable laughter gradually turned to uneasy silence as people wondered what Phoenix was going through and how this interview might wrap up. Thankfully, Phoenix didn’t go Arthur Fleck on Dave, but few knew what to make of it. Even with the background information we’ve since gained, it’s hard to find the right words to describe this interview. Funny? Awkward? Disturbing? All of the above? Who can say?
#3: Charlie Sheen
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Where Phoenix’s surreal interview was an act, this unhinged “20/20” appearance was 100% Sheen. Following his firing from “Two and a Half Men,” Sheen met with journalist Andrea Canning. No matter how many times we rewatch this interview, it’s difficult to remember what Canning asks Sheen because his answers are so nonsensical. While “winning” and “bi-winning” were the biggest takeaways, those memes didn’t even scratch the surface. Sheen claimed to be a “warlock” with “tiger blood” and “Adonis DNA,” but he sounded more like a human Madlib. Eons from now when another species inherits the earth, they’ll uncover this interview, attempting to dissect its meaning. Even with their superior intellect and advanced technology, we guarantee they’ll be every bit as dumbfounded as us.
#2: Tom Cruise
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Nowadays, Tom Cruise leaves audiences speechless with his death-defying stunts. During the mid-2000s, it was Cruise’s interviews that left us more speechless than Oprah’s poor couch. As head-scratching as that appearance might’ve been, the actor was on cruise control compared to his intense interview with Matt Lauer a month later. What started as a friendly conversation about “War of the Worlds” veered into a commentary on Brooke Shields, who had endorsed the antidepressant Paxil. It was around the time that Cruise described psychiatry as a “pseudoscience” that the chat turned into a sparring match about postpartum depression treatment and Ritalin. Stating each opinion as if it were fact, Cruise revealed a part of himself that was both amusing to observe and kind of frightening.
#1: Diana, Princess of Wales
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As long as there’s been a Royal Family, there’s been an image to uphold. When Princess Diana shared her experiences in a 1995 “Panorama” interview, millions saw a dark side of the monarchy for the first time. In addition to opening up about her mental health, Diana confessed to her affair with James Hewitt while also discussing Prince Charles’ relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. When asked about her husband’s ability to rule, Diana didn’t give the most encouraging response. The only thing more shocking than the interview itself was Martin Bashir’s dishonest tactics in recruiting Diana. The same year Bashir retired, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle engaged in another revealing interview with Oprah. Once again, the world watched in silence, but with more hands raised.
Which interview left you searching for words? Express yourself in the comments.
