Kanye "Ye" West (left) and Robert Downey Jr are among the celebrities to walk out of interviews. Photo / Composite / YouTube
Kanye "Ye" West (left) and Robert Downey Jr are among the celebrities to walk out of interviews. Photo / Composite / YouTube
A clip of politician John Nott storming out of an interview has resurfaced following his death. But celebrities have been even more dramatic.
John Nott vs Robin Day, 1982
Sir John Nott was a successful British politician and barrister, a former president of the Cambridge Union and a commissioned officer of the Gurkha Rifles. But the former Secretary of State for Defence, who has died at age 92, will forever be remembered for cutting short an interview with Robin Day during the 1982 Conservative Party conference.
It had been a stressful several months for Nott, with Argentina having invaded the Falklands earlier that year. His speech after the invasion was seen as underwhelming and he tendered his resignation – an offer refused by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Then came October’s Conservative Conference, where he was on the receiving end of a robust interview by Day.
Too robust, reckoned Nott, who became fed up with repeated questioning about cuts to the navy budget. Day brought up criticism about budget cuts from the first sea lord, Admiral Henry Leach – to which Nott replied, “You’d hardly expect the first sea lord to say anything else, would you?”
When Day suggested to the secretary that he was a “transient ... here today, and if I may say so, gone tomorrow politician”, Nott removed his microphone. “Sorry, I’m fed up with this interview. Really, it’s ridiculous.” And he was gone.
Decades later, he would address the controversy. “As he questioned me, the major part of my brain was dwelling on my farm – the autumn colours, the conclusion of the harvest ... and here was this famous controversialist, desperately trying to generate a row ... My brain reacted, ‘What the hell?’”
The Bee Gees vs Clive Anderson, 1997
Anderson’s career would never recover after his light teasing of the Bee Gees on Channel 4′s Clive Anderson Talks Back ended disastrously. Greeting them as “Les Tosseurs”, he was surprised to feel the temperature plunge as the prickly pop princelings failed to see the joke (despite the fact Les Tosseurs was their original name).
“You’re the tosser, pal,” said Barry Gibb and off the Bee Gees went (though Barry’s younger brother, Maurice, did look quite embarrassed). Anderson would later express his regret. “It was poor. But it was only meant as a joke. I’ve always been like that in conversation – I like to come out with a gag. I know it can be annoying.”
Whether it was Monty Python’s “Ministry of Funny Walks” or Basil Fawlty’s comedy march for the benefit of his German guests in Fawlty Towers, John Cleese is no stranger to the attention-grabbing strut. However, in December 2021 he embarked on a walk of a different kind when ending an interview about cancel culture in comedy with BBC World News host Karishma Vaswani over what he described as the “deception, dishonesty and tone” of the exchange.”
“I just did an interview with BBC World Asia. It was to talk about the shows I’m doing in Singapore and Bangkok,” he tweeted.
“Instead, the interviewer, whose name was, I think, Karishma, started asking me questions about cancel culture. I replied courteously and in full.”
He added that the BBC had “no interest in a discussion with me … [The journalist] wants only the role of prosecutor”.
S Club 7 vs Claudia Winkleman, 2003
The 1990s pop poppets had announced a reunion tour, which is how they ended up being grilled by future Strictly Come Dancing host Winkleman on the BBC’s Liquid News. Winkleman got straight to the point and asked the band how much they stood to trouser from the comeback.
“Let’s talk cash ... please don’t look at me like you are angry,” she said. “Mr Simon Fuller [the guru behind the group] has 90 million in the bank … Are you not grumpy about it at all? There are rumours that you guys are grumpy because you guys haven’t made mint ...”
As the tension mounted, singer Jo O’Meara tried to be diplomatic, saying: “I think we are all really, really lucky to be where we are today at our age and have the bank balances that we do have.”
But the conversation was called short when the group’s publicist charged on to set. “Can you not ask this question please ... I’m not having it,” she told Winkleman. “I’ve tried to stop this and I’ve had to walk in here ... we are going.” And off they went, to Winkleman’s astonishment. She would not look so shocked again until Bill Bailey won Strictly.
Samuel Preston vs Simon Amstell, 2007
The frontman of indie band The Ordinary Boys, Samuel Preston had been catapulted to overnight fame when he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother and struck up a romance with fellow contestant Chantelle Houghton, whom he briefly married. Their relationship was a sensitive topic as viewers of Never Mind The Buzzcocks discovered the following year when team captain Simon Amstell began to read aloud extracts from Chantelle’s autobiography, prompting a red-faced Preston to exit the building. He would later express his regrets over the walkout. “[Amstell is] funny, charming and likeable, which made it [walking off] all the more embarrassing.”
Russell Crowe vs BBC, 2010
The Oscar winner was less than impressed when a BBC interview suggested the accent he had conjured up to portray Robin Hood in the Ridley Scott movie of the same name had “hints of Irish”. “You’ve seriously got dead ears if you think that’s an Irish accent,” he said – and, like Robin Hood fleeing a woodland heist, he was gone.
Supermodel Campbell is not known for suffering fools and was not in a forgiving mood when an ABC news journalist asked her about the so-called “blood diamond” she was rumoured to have received from former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor (she always denied it).
“I didn’t receive a diamond, and I’m not going to speak about that,” said Campbell. The journalist persisted, so Campbell stood up and left, accidentally knocking over a camera in the process.
Paris Hilton vs Good Morning America, 2011
The reality television star didn’t react well as ABC news reporter Dan Harris asked how it felt to be eclipsed by the Kardashians. “Do you worry at times that the people who have followed in your footsteps, like Kim Kardashian, have overshadowed you?” he wondered.
“No, not at all,” she replied. She was then quizzed about the poor ratings of her new show, The World According to Paris, and whether “her moment had passed”.
With that, she was off – and could be heard saying off-camera to her publicist, “I don’t want this being used”.
She was eventually persuaded to return and to provide a more diplomatic answer. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years now, so it’s been a long time. So just like any other business person or someone in the industry, it’s always important to reinvent yourself and come up with new projects.”
When Downey Jr flew to London to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron, he expected a week of soft-ball questions about his Iron Man alter-ego. But then in came the Channel 4 newsreader Guru-Murthy, with an awkward line of inquiries about Downey Jr’s troubled history of drug use (including a stint in prison).
Downey Jr was not in the mood to share. “Are we promoting a movie?” he wondered before calling short the chit-chat. Later, talking to US shock-jock DJ Howard Stern, Downey Jr would label the future Strictly Come Dancing contestant a “bottom-feeding muckraker”.
Kanye West vs Piers Morgan, 2022
Two big egos collided as controversial rapper Kanye went on Piers Morgan’s no-holds barred Uncensored show. It was a tetchy back and forth with West labelling Morgan a “Karen”, to which Morgan replied, “I’m not a Karen and I’m not going to cancel you and I’m not going to censor you, I’m simply going to challenge you on what you’re saying.”
Kanye eventually walked out – though he was persuaded to return by his team and to finish the interview.
