10 Movie Interviews That Went Very Wrong
2. Robert Downey Jr. Walks Out When Ambushed About His Past
Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy strikes again, this time while interviewing Robert Downey Jr. for Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Though the first few minutes of the interview go civilly enough, things take a nasty turn when Guru-Murthy brings up a quote Downey gave to The New York Times in a 2008 interview about his prior incarceration on drugs charges:
"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."
Downey briefly engaged with the question before attempting to move the interview on, though Guru-Murthy continued to press the actor, prompting him to reply, "Are we promoting a movie?"
As Guru-Murthy refuses to return to discussing Age of Ultron, Downey grows increasingly impatient, and when the journalist brings up both his relationship with his father and his "dark periods," Downey decides he's had enough and hastily exits the interview.
In an interview on Howard Stern some time later, Downey called Guru-Murthy a "syphilitic parasite," to clarify what he made of being put on the spot about his past.