Celebrity

Robert Downey Jr. and 6 Other Stars Who've Left Mid-Interview

Robert Downey Jr., Justin Bieber, Robert Pattinson and more celebrities who refused to engage with offensive interviewers

Published on April 23, 2015 05:40 PM

Robert Downey Jr. is a seasoned interviewee. Not only is he currently in the midst of a global press tour for Avengers: Age of Ultron, but he’s undoubtedly put up with hundreds of inane, uninformed and downright dumb questions throughout his long career.

Yet one recent question caused the actor to remove his microphone and leave the room. During an interview for Britain’s Channel 4, Krishnan Guru-Murphy asked RDJ about his relationship to his father and his drug addiction during an interview. Big mistake. Huge.

Downey is hardly the first star to decide that an interviewer crossed the line. Here are the most memorable instances of celebrities who peaced mid-interview.

1. Robert Downey Jr.

When Guru-Murphy mentioned statements Downey had made in 2008 about his political views, the actor reached a breaking point: “Are we promoting a movie?” he asked, right before calmly standing up and handing his microphone over to the producers.

2. Justin Bieber

Sometimes celebrities don’t have the option of storming out – and it’s even easier. Bieber simply hung up on his Mojo in the Morning interviewer in 2012 when he was asked whether he was afraid of Harry Styles seducing his mother. This was only the final straw – Bieber was also annoyed that the interviewer said he sounded like Justin Timberlake on his single, “Boyfriend.” (“Man, that s crazy ’cause our voices sound nothing alike. I mean, I’m not trying to sound like anyone,” Bieber said.)

3. Joan Rivers

We wouldn’t expect anything less from the late comedian. While promoting her 2014 book Diary of a Mad Diva, she snapped when CNN interviewer Fredericka Whitfield called her show Fashion Police mean. Things got even more tense when Whitfield called her out for wearing a fur coat on the cover of her book. “This whole interview is becoming a defensive interview,” Rivers said, taking out her earpiece. “All you’ve done is negative I’ve made people laugh for 50 years. I am put on earth to make people laugh.”

4. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar

It should be noted that the interviewees are not immune to being walked out on by the interviewers. While interviewing conservative pundit and author Bill O’Reilly for a 2010 episode of The View, Goldberg and Behar stormed off the set when he declared that “Muslims killed us on 9/11” and criticized the building of mosques in N.Y.C.

5. Nicholas Sarkozy

No comment, Sarkozy said, when Lesley Stahl asked the former French president about his rocky marriage on a 2007 episode of 60 Minutes. Quite politely, Sarkozy proceeded to take off his mic, shake the interviewer’s hand and calmly walk out. (Two weeks later, Sarkozy’s divorce announcement was released.)

6. Selena Gomez

“Is there something about him that we don’t get?” interviewer Dean Richards asked Selena Gomez via satellite in a 2013 interview, clearly referring to Bieber’s recent delinquent behavior (including public urination). Rather than answer Richards’s question, Gomez smiled uncomfortably and disconnected from the interview.

7. Robert Pattinson

It’s pretty simple – don’t ask stars about their tumultuous relationships if you don’t want them to stop talking to you. Seacrest, you shoulda seen this one coming.