There’s a great deal you can do to prepare for an interview but once the recorder is on and you’re directly in front of the celebrity, there’s a chance all the planning you might have done and all the notes you may have taken goes out the window.
Folks shared their stories of those rare but very real moments on Twitter after writer and editor Larry Fitzmaurice asked for them.
“Writers: what’s the worst interview you’ve ever conducted?” Fitzmaurice asked on Twitter before sharing his own. “Mine was Mazzy Star—David Roback accused me of trying to psychoanalyze him so I hung up.”
Writers: what’s the worst interview you’ve ever conducted. Mine was Mazzy Star—David Roback accused me of trying to psychoanalyze him so I hung up
— Larry Fitzmaurice (@lfitzmaurice) May 5, 2018
It didn’t take long for the floodgates to open up. Writers all hopped online and shared their experience during some cringe-worthy interviews with a variety of celebrities.
I interviewed the director of a (really bad) movie, who spent the entire time looking down at his phone and texting. He never looked up at me and barely responded because he was so busy texting. After about 5 minutes, I was like, “Okay, I’m good. Thanks!” And I left. https://t.co/w0ya7kq93j
— Christina Radish (@ChristinaRadish) May 5, 2018
It’s a tie between when Amanda Seyfried gave my outfit the once-over and did not approve and the time when I asked Dominic Cooper how long it took him to nail down his character’s accent and he responded: “I was doing an accent?” ??? https://t.co/buRkvl519t
— Aly Semigran (@AlySemigran) May 5, 2018
phoner w/ Brian Wilson—one-word answers for my first 20 questions, he seemed confused and out of it, I asked him about Dennis Wilson Pacific Ocean Blue bc it had just been reissued & he seemed v. surprised that Dennis had made a solo album, then he hung up on me
— Mark Richardson (@MarkRichardson) May 6, 2018
lupe fiasco said “pass” and “won’t answer that” to the first five questions i asked, he sucks
— steven j. horowitz (@speriod) May 5, 2018
Miles Teller asked if I thought he was “buff” during an interview, then gave me one word answers and said he didn’t believe me when I said the audience cheered when his asshole character got shot
— Rachel West (@rachel_is_here) May 6, 2018
Not the worst, but the sweatiest: I was told Shonda Rhimes had agreed to a very specific interview angle, and I prepped nothing else. 15 seconds in, she said that angle didn’t interest her, and I had to improvise for a half hour, with someone who’s inherently a tough interview. https://t.co/RViBCN4IVB
— Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) May 5, 2018
Mel Gibson gave me 10 minutes for a cover story, watched commercials on tv the whole time (sometimes commenting on them instead of answering my questions – “Can you believe they use half naked women to sell computers nowadays?”). He also burped at my face. I Enjoyed every second.
— Mathieu Carratier (@mat_carrat) May 6, 2018
A weeks-in-the-making phoner with Nas. He was super baked and I’m Australian so he couldn’t understand a word I was saying so I had to affect an American accent. It was a humiliating time.
— Suz Tucker (@susannaht) May 5, 2018
future laid down on the office couch & gave me one word answers for exactly 11 minutes in 2012
— Caitlin White (@harmonicait) May 5, 2018
You win some, you lose some, but at least you always leave with a story of some sort. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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