Robert Downey Jr. Stormed Out Of An 'Avengers' Interview And Oh God This Video Is Awkward
“Aww nards.” – This guy
Channel 4 London – A Channel 4 News interview with film star Robert Downey Jr comes to an abrupt end when the questions turn to his family and colourful past.
In London to promote his latest film, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Robert Downey Jr discussed superheroes with Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
But when the questions turned to his past experience of serving a prison sentence (for drug offences), the atmosphere cooled dramatically.
He declined to explain a comment in an interview with the New York Times some years ago that “you can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal,” saying it made sense at the time: “I could pick that apart for two hours and be no closer to the truth than giving you some half-arsed answer right now.”
But when asked about his relationship with his father (the film star Robert Downey Senior) and the role it played in the dark periods he went through – the drug-taking and drinking – and whether he feels he’s free of all of that now, Downey Jnr shook his head, says “I’m sorry, I really don’t .. what are we doing?” and walked out on the interview.
I’m a big fan of cringe-y clips, especially ones where interviews go off the rails, but this one was almost too much to handle at points. But more than anything I’m just baffled that stuff like this still occasionally happens. Maybe early on when Howard Stern had Stuttering John on red carpets or Sasha Baron Cohen was doing early Borat interview bits people might get caught off guard by a question because they weren’t expecting it since it was so new. But now, it’s 2015, you’re the PR person for a huge conglomerate in Disney and working with the movie’s biggest star and you still book an interview with some dude who was clearly setting out to be a bit of an asshole and get some salacious clips? And he’s done it before and you still didn’t expect it? If you want a fun softball interview in which Robert Downey Jr. says “Yeah I’m a lot like Iron Man irl too lol” a lot then that’s cool, don’t let people asking tough questions in, problem solved. Blows my mind how bad at their job these guys are. Might as well be a website with typos and grammatical errors in every blog, amateur hour.
On the plus side, there was a real nice reaction GIF here when Robert Downey Jr did his “bye.” Always thinking of us that RDJ.
While we’re on the Avengers movie, here’s a bonus spoiler: Someone recorded one of the end credit scenes from Avengers: Age of Ultron and put it on Instagram. Obviously it’s a huge spoiler, though not like a surprising one, so tread lightly: