Celebrity Interviews That Went Terribly Wrong

Tom Cruise is probably the undisputed king of the awkward interview after both his Today show confrontation with Matt Lauer and his jumping-all-over-Oprah's-couch incident, but he's not alone when it comes to cringe-worthy celebrity Q&As. Whether an interviewer intentionally asks provocative questions, or the star maybe just isn't feeling it after a long press junket, it's weirdly satisfying when the cameras record these tense interactions. 

There are even times when the interview has gone so terribly wrong that it resulted in a physical altercation that left one of the participants with lasting health effects. Seriously, it gets real in here. From walkouts, to verbal sparring matches, to a smorgasbord of awkward silences and glaring facial expressions, these celebrity interviews cover the full gamut of cringe. 

Here's a list of celebrities whose press agents probably should have been a little quicker to toss the towel in the ring.

While promoting Now You See Me — the movie that tried to make fedora-wearing magicians look like social revolutionaries — Jesse Eisenberg sat down with Romina Puga for a segment of her show, Say My Name. He must have somehow thought he was back on the set of The Social Network because he was in full Zuckerberg mode, rapid-firing insulting quips and japes, even encouraging Romina to cry after they were done by saying, "You are like the Carrot Top of interviewers."

At first, their banter seems playful, and maybe even an attempt at wry humor, but in the course of just under three minutes, Eisenberg ends up looking like a bully. Puga even edited the segment to end with her saying "You're such a jerk." 

Folks wondered it was a failed gag or an actual train wreck of an interview. Puga answered that question with a Tumblr post that confirmed Eisenberg was, indeed, "not very nice." She wrote, "When the five minute 'interview' (more like self-esteem butchering) were [sic] finally over I went behind a curtain to wait for the memory cards from the interview. I peaked around the curtain to ask Jesse about his neighborhood in New York (he lives a few blocks from where I used to live) and he immediately says, 'You're still here?'"

Yeesh, he was still acting like that off camera? Not a good sign.

What's the creepiest possible way a male celebrity can end a conversation with a female interviewer? If you said, "Calling her sexy multiple times, then crawling on his knees towards her," then you must be Vin Diesel, because we have no idea who else on Earth would even think to do that.

Diesel professes his inappropriate love several times while speaking with YouTube personality Carol Moreira to promote xXx: Return of Xander Cage. Moreira, who later told E! News that the encounter with the action star left her "completely uncomfortable," also said, "I did not like it. At the time I did not know how to react, but you will see that I was uncomfortable, it was not nice that he interrupted my work."

Diesel's best attempt at an apology was to post the "uncut" version of the interview on Facebook with the caption, "As you all know, I try to keep my interviews playful and fun, especially when I am in the Xander Zone ... But if I offended anyone, then let me apologize, because that is never my intention."

Need an added layer of gross to the story? Diesel did all of this in spite of having a long-time girlfriend, Paloma Jiménez, with whom he shares two daughters. Ugh. We are definitely not Groot on this one.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy is a UK reporter who's increasingly made a name for himself as a button-pusher, and he got on Robert Downey Jr.'s bad side in 2015, causing the normally congenial star to abruptly end the interview and leave after repeated, extremely personal questions about his so called "dark times." On his way out the door, Downey Jr. calls Guru-Murthy a "schmuck." 

During a later Howard Stern appearance, the actor was less diplomatic when reliving the uncomfortable moment, calling Guru-Murthy a "syphilitic parasite" and a "clown."  

Yes, it is sometimes the job of a journalist to expose facts that the public needs to know, but it's basically common knowledge at this point that the Iron Man star has a checkered past that involves drug use and jail time. To add insult to injury, the tense interview with Guru-Murthy occurred during a press event for Avengers: Age of Ultron during which the stars were reportedly allotted 5-10 minute slots with news outlets for the expressed purpose of promoting the film.

Now, obviously, we don't work for Marvel, but we're pretty sure the studio would rather have the tent-pole star of its cinematic universe talking about how cool it is to be Iron Man, instead of, say, that time he got arrested for heroin possession. Call it a hunch.

Jessica "Is this chicken or tuna?" Simpson has always been kind of an interview wildcard, like in the this supposedly drunk interview with Extra that has been miraculously scrubbed from the internet. So when she returned to the spotlight with a 2017 Ellen appearance, she did not disappoint.

In the first 20 seconds, Simpson literally said, "We got an IUD ... Nothing's gonna get in that uterus," in response to Ellen's joke about her being pregnant for her last two interviews on the show. From there, the singer-turned- fashion designer struggled to give cogent responses for questions such as how long she's been married and what kind of things she likes to do with her husband, former NFL quarterback Eric Johnson. She also made the bold, if not bizarrely unbelievable claim that Johnson is able to massage her back in his sleep.

Simpson's demeanor was so strange it derailed the reliably quick-witted Ellen, who resorted to just helplessly staring into the camera at several points. If we're being honest here, Simpson seems to embrace a kind of ditzy persona even in her best moments, so maybe it would be more accurate to describe this interview as having gone "terribly on brand" rather than "terribly wrong."

Okay, so a legal deposition isn't exactly a "celebrity interview" per se, but when Justin Bieber was deposed by a lawyer representing a photographer accusing Bieber's security team of assault, the pop singer was asked many questions, which he answered, so we're saying this counts. And the reason we're so anxious to use this incident is because there might never be a better example of snide, bratty entitlement than this particular performance delivered by the Biebs.

From winking at the camera, to wagging his finger, to pretending to sleep, to his outburst over the mention of ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez, Bieber's deposition is the adult equivalent to throwing a temper tantrum in the cereal aisle when mom says you can't get Cookie Crisp.

What's worse is that after clips of the deposition were aired by TMZ, Bieber's lawyers claimed the entire thing was "a setup" designed to evoke a certain kind of response from the pop star in order to then turn around and sell the tape to a tabloid. Of course, that begs the question: "Gee, we wonder how in the world anyone would have known that Bieber would transform into Veruca Salt the second things weren't going his way?"

Unfortunately for UK radio personality Jamie Edwards, his morning show enthusiasm was no match for Bruce Willis' well-known pretension when it came to an uncomfortable promotional interview for Red 2. Alongside Mary-Louise Parker, whose blank-eyed goofiness was not helping matters at all, Willis approached each of Edwards' questions with an increasing level of boredom and disgust.

Afterward, Edwards explained to HLN that he was simply trying to get a soundbite from the interview to use for promotional purposes for the radio station where he worked, and boy, did that ever happen when Willis, out of the blue, made a suicide joke. Edwards asks the actor how he'd prefer to sell the movie, and Willis responds, "I wouldn't, I'd slash my hooves." Yikes. 

In all seriousness, please Bruce, don't actually go through with it. We don't want to imagine a world where you don't resentfully slog your way through more Die Hard sequels with the enthusiasm of a teenage cashier. 

Canadian news anchor Nathan Downer nearly found himself in a John Stossel situation after he enraged Mike Tyson with a question about his shady past. Citing the controversy surrounding Tyson's meeting with disgraced Toronto mayor Rob Ford, Downer asks Tyson if he thinks people have a problem with it because Tyson is a "convicted rapist."

Tyson treats the question like it's Evander Holyfield's ear, which is to say that he latches on and doesn't let go. His promoter, seated beside him, gamely tries to diffuse the situation, but a clearly incensed former heavyweight champ interrupts with this observation about Downer: "You know, it's so interesting, because you come across like a nice guy but you're really a piece of s**t."

The cursing escalates from there, despite Downer's warning that they're on live TV. "I don't care, what are you going to do about it?" Tyson responds. Downer stops the interview a minute later amid another hail of obscenities. Downer thanks Tyson for his time, to which the boxer replies, "F**k you."

Amazingly, Downer later tweeted, then deleted (via The New York Post): "No ill will toward Mike Tyson. He lashed out at me and that's okay. Not taking it personally." Seriously though, did anyone else sweat like Liam Gallagher while watching that clip, or was it just us?

There are plenty of contentious interviews on this list, but none come close to the physical confrontation that happens between then-20/20 reporter John Stossel and former WWF wrestler Dave "Dr. D" Schultz. After Stossel tells Schultz that he thinks pro wrestling is fake — Shocker! — Schultz proceeds to IRL slap Stossel on both ears, causing Stossel to literally run away from the interview.

Stossel later claimed he had permanent ear damage from the assault and threatened to sue Schultz, who was subsequently fired from the company that managed WWF. According to The New York Times, Schultz was also fined and suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission. Stossel was supposedly paid a $425,000 settlement by WWF owner Vince McMahon, but the controversy doesn't end there.

Schultz later claimed McMahon put him up to the assault in order to make an example out of Stossel, because his investigation into pro wrestling was "making a joke out of the business." Schultz also claimed McMahon set him up to take the fall by arranging another reporter-slapping incident in Japan, then lied in his depositions, claiming he didn't direct Schultz to hit anyone.

After being ousted from professional wrestling, Schultz became a bounty hunter. Stossel continued his investigative journalism, but we just want to know: Does he still think wrestling is fake?  

Though Oscar-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones' legendary curmudgeonliness proceeds him, it never stops being amazing when an interview with him goes terribly wrong. And in the case of the promotional junket for Men in Black 3, everyone's favorite Hollywood grump was in rare form.

In this mashup of cringe-worthy moments between Jones and film journalists Paul Christensen and Kevin McCarthy, the veteran actor delivers an equal mix of outright contempt and confusion in response to their admittedly dubious questions. For example, when Christensen suggests that Josh Brolin, who plays a younger version of Jones' Agent K in the film, is actually doing an impression of Jones, Jones replies with, "He's not playing me, no of course not. That's not very good thinking."

Taking an oddly existential route, McCarthy asks Jones what advice he would give himself if he could go back in time to visit his younger self on a set. "I don't have a clue," Jones answers, after picking at the skin around his eye for an agonizing few seconds. Finally, exasperated with McCarthy's philosophical line of questioning, Jones utters, "My mind just cannot get around a question like that. I don't know."

It is a master class in surliness of which our humble description does no justice. Please just watch and enjoy.

Gene Simmons seemingly approached his Fresh Air interview on NPR from the perspective of a wolf being welcomed into the hen house. With the first question out of host Terry Gross' mouth, Simmons began lobbing objectionable responses that ranged from being overtly sexual to just plain insulting. Simmons seems to be attack Gross and NPR for having a liberal slant with which he clearly disagrees, so he treats the interview like he's some sort of conservative counter-agent on a mission to destroy.

Instead, Simmons ends up coming off as a combative jerk who constantly references how allegedly irresistible he is to women. Surprisingly, Gross hangs on for almost 27 minutes (her interviews are usually a full hour), even giving Simmons a chance to redeem himself with her final question. She asks if his obnoxiousness could be chalked up to a persona that he created — if he's acting out for the interview. 

Simmons does not waver, instead choosing to fire a parting shot. He tells Gross that she is "a boring lady," which is amazing coming from a guy whose band has been performing essentially the same show since the '70s.

During Kanye West's 2013 chat with DJ Zane Lowe for BBC Radio 1, Lowe manages to eek out some questions during a full hour of the rapper rambling about everything from his claim that he invented leather jogging pants, to his battle with classism, to how he's just like the "glitch" in Wreck-It Ralph — whatever that means.

West describes himself to Lowe in this way: "I'm a postmodernist, as best as a career. I'm a futurist, mentally." Lowe agrees, because what else can he do? The "Gold Digger" rapper goes on to explain that the internet is like "the sky" from "future movies," meaning all of society's advancements can be found there, but it just hasn't evolved to that point yet. "They will play this interview in five years," West says. "They will play this interview in ten years and say, he called that, he called that, he called that, he said that was going to happen, that was going to change."

As of this writing, it's been a little more than five years, and people are still trying to figure out exactly what West was talking about, but perhaps Lowe put it best when he wrapped up the interview by saying, "Oh my god, that was the most intense f***ing interview in my life."

Perhaps it's a bit of a stretch to say that this interview went "terribly wrong," unless you count an actor turning what is essentially a promotional opportunity into a real-life Tinder session. That's exactly what happened when Avengers: Infinity War star Sebastian Stan repeatedly crushed on Sharon Stone throughout his May 2016 interview on The Late Late Show with James Corden. At one point, the Romanian-born actor even tossed out a pick-up line in his native tongue.  

The full interview is no longer available but a YouTuber helpfully edited together the cringey highlights of Stan swooning hard for the Basic Instinct star. When it became awkwardly clear that Stan's advances were more than just polite talk show patter, Corden couldn't contain himself, shouting, "You're a joke — You're ridiculous! You're finally going for it. ... I love it!" At another point, Corden says, "I feel weird being here. I feel like I could cut this with a knife, it's crazy."

We have no clue if a real-life romance ever blossomed between Stone and Stan, but one thing we learned without a doubt is that there needs to be a Romanian Sebastian Stan dating show on the air ... starting yesterday.

It's not often that you get to see a mainstream star like Mark Wahlberg get completely smashed on TV, but that's precisely what happened when the Boogie Nights actor popped into The Graham Norton Show in 2013. Wahlberg even signalled his own demise at the start of the interview when he chastised Norton for allowing guests to drink on the show. "It's a recipe for disaster," Wahlberg very accurately predicted.

By the end of the interview, Wahlberg had done all of the following: blatantly hit on fellow guest Sarah Silverman, fully groped Graham Norton's chest — including a nipple tweak — while sitting on his lap, challenged fellow guest Michael Fassbender to a "big d**k contest," and repeatedly interrupted everyone.  

Producers of the show later said that, although they knew Wahlberg was drinking in the green room, he seemed fine to go on. But then, "about a quarter of an hour in, something clicked," they said, and Wahlberg ended up "not quite in the right place." That has to be the nicest possible way to describe behavior that would normally get one kicked out of a house party, let alone a popular TV show.

In 1988, singer James Brown was accused by his wife, Adrienne, of subjecting her to a terrifying domestic assault. According to People, Adrienne claimed that Brown beat her "with a metal mop handle," and fired a rifle at her multiple times while she was driving. Shortly after he bonded out of jail following his arrest for the incident, Brown did a completely bonkers interview on CNN.

Instead of addressing the very serious charges he faced, Brown proceeded to sing, ramble incoherently, and at one point, get out of his seat and start to dance. Perhaps the most unbelievable part of the segment is when the interviewer actually asked Brown about his then-pending divorce proceedings by saying, "Does that mean that you're now eligible?"

Brown responded, "I'm single ... I wanna mingle." Then he described why "the ladies love him so much when he gets out there," by saying, "Because I look good, I smell good, I feel good ... and make love good."  

And we didn't even describe Brown's clothing yet, which happened to be yellow-tinted protective goggles, a silk scarf, and maroon leather gloves. Absurd doesn't even begin to describe this whole scenario that was so insane comedian Jordan Peele did a verbatim version of it for the YouTube comedy channel JASH.

It actually wasn't the single, awkward question about plastic surgery that turned this Megyn Kelly Today interview with actress Jane Fonda into a full-blown trainwreck, but, rather, the lasting feud it ignited afterwards. Granted, Fonda's ice-cold glare at Kelly was about as cringeworthy as daytime TV gets, but it was her subsequent shading of the talk show host that cranked this thing up to 11.

In multiple interviews after the "glare meme'd round the internet," Fonda would go on to say Kelly's question was "weird" and "so inappropriate." She even returned to Today and jabbed at Kelly again, eliciting shocked responses from Kelly's colleagues, Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.

Not to be outdone, Kelly swung back hard with a segment called "A word on Jane Fonda," which can only be described as a scorched-earth approach to this feud. After highlighting several notable instances when Fonda previously discussed her plastic surgery, Kelly went for the kill by unearthing the decades-old controversy over Fonda's remarks during her protest of the Vietnam War. Yeesh.

There are interviews that go terribly wrong, and then there's whatever you call it when two celebrities start attacking each other on the air like bitter political rivals.

After a long hiatus from the movie biz following his DUI arrest and subsequent anti-semitic remarks scandal, action star Mel Gibson returned to the screen with the revenge thriller Edge of Darkness. And with any new film comes the inevitable press tour and celebrity interviews, for which, to put it mildly, Gibson did not seem prepared at all.

Instead of having appropriate responses to the inevitable questions about the scandal, Gibson seemed surprised and irritated that reporters would even bring it up. In an interview with WGN-TV, he even got caught calling the reporter an "a**hole" after thinking their segment had already ended. But it was his interview with KTLA's entertainment reporter, Sam Rubin, that really raised eyebrows.

Asked by Rubin whether he felt some detractors would have a problem with his return, Gibson asked Rubin, "You have a dog in this fight?" Rubin, who is Jewish, said that he didn't understand Gibson's question in the moment but later realized it to be an offensive suggestion on account of his religious beliefs. Regardless of what Gibson actually meant by the remark, his nearly instant rage at being asked to address the scandal was not a good look, even for an actor who's made a career out of portraying tough guys.