If you can make it through the full seven minutes of this of Jerry Lewis video, you deserve a medal. Photo / The Hollywood Reporter
If you can make it through the full seven minutes of this of Jerry Lewis video, you deserve a medal. Photo / The Hollywood Reporter
Comedy legend Jerry Lewis didn't exactly bring the laughs in a painfully awkward new interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
The 90-year-old showbiz great sat down with Hollywood Reporter journalist Andy Lewis (no relation - god, we hope not, otherwise there's a whole new layer of awkwardness) as part of a video series in which the film industry bible interviewed 10 showbiz nonagenarians about their career longevity.
His responses beg the question: Why on earth did Lewis even agree to the interview?
Here's a sample:
Hollywood Reporter: Have you ever thought about retiring?
HR: You come from a generation a little older - Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra - do you see similarities with them?
JL: NONE.
... and on it goes. Each detailed question elicits a cold, clipped, one-line answer from Lewis. You can hear the interviewer flailing, desperate for the star to give him an interesting anecdote, even a fully-formed answer.
Asked how his adopted hometown of Las Vegas is different now to when he first started playing there some 70 years ago, Lewis' response is instant: "It's the same. It's exactly the same."
The worst moment: When Lewis' disdain for turns to outright loathing at 6:30, as he coldly mocks the interviewer's nervous, space-filling laughter.
If you can make it through the full eight minutes of this video, you deserve a medal.
The Hollywood Reporter's journalist reflected on the ordeal after the event, writing that as painful as the encounter was, at least it proved that Lewis still has his marbles at age 90.
Throughout the photo shoot, Lewis complained about the amount of equipment in the house, the number of assistants and how the shots were set up. By the time we sat down for the interview about an hour later, Lewis had worked up a full of head of steam, and it seemed like he was punishing THR by doing the interview but being as uncooperative as possible," he writes.
"As awkward and funny - and it's pretty funny - as the interview is, it weirdly proves the point of the entire package: 90-year-old Jerry Lewis is vital and completely engaged. He's just engaged - almost happy - in being difficult."
