Top 20 Times Celebs Mocked Horrible Interview Questions
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 20 Times Celebs Mocked Horrible Interview Questions. For this list, we’ll be looking at the most awkward and cringey interviews where the celebrity couldn’t ignore the ridiculousness of the questions being asked and responded perfectly. Have you ever met any of the celebrities in the video? Let us know below!
#20: Robert Downey Jr.
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It was meant to be a simple promo interview for “Avengers: Age of Ultron” with Channel 4 News’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy in 2015. It should’ve contained fluff and cliché questions about the actor’s motivation. Instead, the interviewer went off script and decided to try his hand at some detective work. It’s well documented that Robert Downey Jr. had some past troubles, but he’s been doing great for years. Guru-Murthy felt this was an appropriate time to bring up his past. Rather than sit through it with gritted teeth, Downey challenged the purpose of this. After a stellar display of patience on Downey’s part, his publicist finally intervened, and the actor removed himself from the situation. Downey later called the newscaster a “bottom-feeding muckraker” when chatting on Howard Stern’s radio show.
#19: Mila Kunis
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It’s always weird when a journalist uses a film's press tour to be combative with a celebrity. It’s just uncomfortable viewing. In 2011, Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake were at a conference for “Friends with Benefits.” Kunis showcased that she was born and raised in Ukraine before moving to the US by speaking Russian to an aggressive reporter. The journalist started with a friendly-ish question before switching tones and asking Timberlake why he went from show business to movies. Kunis picked up on the rudeness of the inquiry right away and was having absolutely none of it. Timberlake, who was getting a delayed translation of the situation, didn’t get to say much but, luckily, he didn’t have to. Kunis defended his honor delightfully.
#18: Taylor Swift
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Ever since she reached the loft heights of superstardom, Taylor Swift’s love life has been an obsession for the media. “Who’s she dating now?” seems to be the go-to thought for many reporters, which is pretty invasive. At the Grammy Awards in 2015, Swift was interviewed by Nancy O'Dell for “Entertainment Tonight.” It started off light, discussing the musician’s dress. Then, O’Dell immediately segues to Swift’s legs, claiming that after the ceremony, she’d be going home with lots of men…yikes. After the glare of the century, probably as Swift considered the audacity of the implications, she didn’t hesitate as she confirmed that would not be the case. Instead, she proclaimed excitement about seeing her friends and going home to her cats.
#17: Jonah Hill
Since gaining fame in 2007’s “Superbad,” entertainment journalists have loved to bring up Jonah Hill’s body. It’s bonkers, it’s creepy, and it’s just plain disrespectful. In 2014, Hill was at the Georgia Institute of Technology to do a radio show. A reporter started by saying that he looked great, which Hill thanked her for. But straight away, another reporter undid that brief decency by asking if he was considered the “fat guy” at parties and in Hollywood. His reaction is just so perfectly uninhibited. There were cues there for the reporter to backtrack but they continued to ramble on instead, and Hill responded beautifully.
#16: Scarlett Johansson
Whenever Scarlett Johansson has done press tours for the MCU, the rampant sexism displayed by journalists is made apparent. Her male co-workers will get interesting, sensible questions about their characters and work. Yet Johansson, for a while there, was almost consistently asked personal and weird questions about frivolity like costumes or whatnot. In 2012, when promoting “The Avengers,” Jeremy Renner and Johnsson were interviewed by “Extra”, and it was a wreck. The reporter decided that asking Black Widow what she wore under the costume would be some good, hard journalism. Johansson tore into the interviewer by saying it wasn’t even a unique question, as she’d been asked that multiple times. The reporter tried to deflect by admitting he asked director Joss Whedon the same question, which did not yield better results.
#15: Samuel L. Jackson
Rule number one of interviewing someone: make sure you have their identity correct. Otherwise, you can appear incompetent at best and racist at worst. In 2014, Samuel L. Jackson was promoting the remake of “RoboCop” and was on the news channel KTLA. After doing well for a bit, Sam Rubin made a massive mistake when he asked Jackson about his Super Bowl commercial. The silence was deafening. Rubin was seemingly confusing Samuel L. Jackson and Laurence Fishburne. Jackson laid into him by stating, “We don’t all look alike,” before mocking him by comparing Fishburne, himself, and Morgan Freeman. The razzing definitely went on for a while, which was very deserved, and Rubin’s attempts to change subject did not pan out well.
#14: Robert Pattinson
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Entertainment reporters seem to think that if something happens to a celebrity that’s usually private for us regular folk, then it’s fair game to bring it up for them. Spoiler alert: it’s not. In 2009, Robert Pattinson was doing a press tour for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” He, along with his team watching on the sidelines, did an interview with Ryan Seacrest. It started out normal. But then, Seacrest attempted to grab some juicy gossip by asking the future Batman actor about the dating rumors between him and co-star Kristen Stewart. While Pattinson nervously laughed and focused his attention on a gift bag, a member of his team stepped in to end the interview.
#13: Ariana Grande
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Instead of asking a female artist about her inspirations, her motivations, or the meaning behind some of her songs, some journalists prefer the uncomfortable sexist approach. In 2015, Ariana Grande was interviewed by radio hosts Justin Credible and Eric D-Lux for Power 106 in Los Angeles, California. She was asked what she would choose between her phone or makeup. Unsurprisingly, Grande was bewildered at the nonsense question. Even after having shot it down and mocked the two men, for some reason, they continued to ask if she’s able to go anywhere without her phone… Big yikes. The hosts then spent the rest of the interview playing up to gender stereotypes that Grande smacked down every time.
#12: Jane Fonda
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Actor Jane Fonda has spoken about her cosmetic surgery publicly several times. But there’s a time and a place for such intimate questions. In 2017, Fonda was a guest on the short-lived show “Megyn Kelly Today” to promote her film, “Our Souls at Night.” Kelly decided to ask the actress why she wasn't proud of the cosmetic work she had done. Fonda was amazed she would ask such a question at that particular moment. But Kelly pushed by complimenting her appearance. Fonda retorted with short and generic advice before moving the interview back to the movie. This incident sparked a public feud between the two, who regularly took shots at each other in the months after.
#11: Helen Mirren
Michael Parkinson is considered one of the best interviewers in the UK. However, he really tainted his reputation with his sexist questions to Helen Mirren in 1975. As an emerging actor, she was on the show to discuss her stage career. Even in the introduction, Parkinson couldn’t help but focus on her looks and implied promiscuity. Somehow, it only got worse from there. Parkinson soon asked whether she felt what he pathetically called her “equipment” was distracting to audiences. Mirren handled it better than we would’ve, that’s all we’ll say. The rest of the interview had the host making barbed statements and continuing to be disrespectful. When Mirren returned in 2006 to promote her role in “The Queen,” the creepy interview was brought up, and Parkinson responded with some grand old misogyny.
#10: Jesse Eisenberg
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Oh boy, we’re going to start with a doozy. The moment Eisenberg sits down for an interview with Romina Puga things get awkward. The actor was promoting the film “Now You See Me”, leading Puga to go straight to magic tricks. Eisenberg is clearly unimpressed with Puga’s interview skills and criticizes the writing on her hand, how she casually referred to Morgan Freeman as just ‘Freeman’ and even called her the Carrot Top of interviewers... a comparison that's very hard to find a compliment in. Eisenberg – er... Jesse Eisenberg – did humor her with a card trick, but the atmosphere remained painfully awkward.
#9: Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino movies are famous for their violence, so it’s safe to say that the director is not only an expert on the subject, he’s also pretty sick of discussing it. Since the beginning of his career it’s been a lazy, within arms reach recurring topic – but Krishnan Guru-Murthy opted to go there anyway, asking if Tarantino thought that the violence in his movies encouraged violent actions in real life. Tarantino not only refused to answer the question, he also refused to explain why he wouldn't answer the question. In an attempt to be highbrow, Guru-Murthy continued to push the issue, making it more and more awkward and Tarantino more and more angry.
#8: Anne Hathaway
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When Anne Hathaway starred as Catwoman in “Dark Knight Rises” she needed to get into comic book shape, and boy golly didn't the interviewers love to ask her about it. "Extra's" Jerry Penacoli was especially interested; asking for details on her diet, her fitness routine, specific exercises and the actual fit of the suit. It got to the point where Hathaway had to ask if he was planning on going on a diet to try and fit into a catsuit, because surely that is the only explanation of why he’d be so interested. Luckily for Penacoli, Hathaway was able to find humor in the situation and ride through it.
#7: Mayim Bialik
We get it, when working the red carpet at any award show you have to interview a lot of stars, and in depth research becomes difficult... which is how we get moments like these. At the SAG awards Mayim Bailik was asked if a lot of people assumed she could do calculus because she played Amy, a neuroscientist on “The Big Bang Theory”. Well, it turns out that yes, Mayim Bailik can do calculus: because she just so happens to be an actual neuroscientist in real life, a fact that she happily shared with the interviewers.
#6: Cara Delevingne
Nothing puts a woman – or anyone for that matter – in a good mood like being told they seem exhausted and irritated. In Cara Delevingne's case, these comments came at the end of an already awkward interview on Good Day. Things started off with the hosts talking down to her, and obviously not understanding Delevingne's sarcastic sense of humor. She tried to lighten the mode by explaining it was just early for her, but when the hosts told her to take a nap and drink a red bull there was no saving the interview.
#5: Matt Damon
Oh boy, if you want an interview to go well maybe don’t insult someone’s work ethic or their motivation, especially if that person is Matt Damon. When an ambush journalist insinuated that the only reason the actor is such a hard worker is because his career doesn’t have job security, Damon didn't appreciate the insinuation. Matt Damon is by all accounts an intelligent man, so his explanation on why her question is stupid is suitably eloquent, and gave her a few moments to reflect on her life choices. Given that he was attending a teacher's rally, he even managed to work her limp question into a succinct vessel of support for educators.
#4: Jim Carrey
Top 10 Times Celebs Mocked Horrible Interview Questions
Apparently “what’s up” is a very loaded question for Jim Carrey. When interviewed at New York Fashion Week, Carrey explained he wanted to come to the most meaningless place he could think of. Catt Saddler tried to defend the event saying it promoted icons, and but Carrey just went deeper, saying he didn’t believe in icons, or in anything really. He later contextualized the bizarre reaction, saying he was having a bit of an existential crisis and at that moment he didn’t know who Jim Carrey was, which was hopefully enough to give Saddler something resembling closure.
#3: Jerry Seinfeld
This interview went down as one of Larry King’s worst interview moments in his epically long career, so you know it’s going to be a doozy. While interviewing Jerry Seinfeld, King brought up his eponymous sitcom and made the mistake of clarifying that it hadn't been “canceled”. Jerry's reaction is one of pure outrage, accusing King of not knowing who he is and reminding viewers just how successful the show was. Let’s get this straight, no one cancels Jerry Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld cancels them. Just like Larry was trying to say!
#2: Tom Hardy
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After playing a gay man in “Legend”, film media began to ask questions regarding Tom Hardy’s own sexuality. At a Toronto Film Festival panel he was asked by a journalist from the Daily Xtra if he found it difficult to publicly discuss his sexuality, a question the actor found a tad offensive. After some back and forth as to why one would feel the need to ask such a thing, Hardy dismissed it with a simple “thank you.” The outlet went on to defend the question – as they are a gay and lesbian news source – but Hardy has defended his stance as well, saying it was not an appropriate place to talk about such a personal issue.
#1: Joaquin Phoenix
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Joaquin Phoenix famously loathes interviews, even the good ones. In his own words he absolutely hates them, so if you have the chance to interview him you better keep it interesting. Following his outstanding performance in “Joker”, Phoenix faced renewed attention from the world's press, and clearly quickly became tired with the same set of questions, and he let everyone backstage at the Golden Globes know it. Asked a by then fairly routine question, Joaquin dismissed it initially as “old news” before laying into it with sarcasm-fueled, ultra-thorough detail.
