While digging around YouTube, I found this bizarre press conference by Lou Reed with the Australian press in 1974. I don’t know the context of this event, but both the artist and the press seem eager to get each other’s goat. What interview of an artist/actor/entertainer sticks in your mind as noticeably odd?
I did not see it myself, and this may not even count since it was not a press interview, but the descriptions I’ve read of Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman are way out there.
And Crispin Glover on Letterman, and Drew Barrymore on Letterman, and Farrah Fawcett on Letterman…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuhHThAaymQ
Peter O’Toole at a new level of loaded on Carson.
Two comics-related documentaries, Crumb and Rude Dude, come to mind. In Crumb, Robert Crumb, his wife and his brothers all seem to genuinely want their stories to be heard but do themselves a great disservice in telling them (Charles Crumb, Robert’s older brother, killed himself shortly after the movie was made and it’s not hard to imagine that the two were connected.) Rude Dude, a documentary about superhero artist Steve Rude, was made with his enthusiastic cooperation, but he appeared to be in the middle of a nervous breakdown all through it. It’s possible that this is his default state of mind, but apparently police were called on him during filming.
Harvey Pekar and Harmony Korine were both interviewed on Letterman (I think Korine was on it promoting Gummo) and I can’t imagine two men less suited for network television.
I recall Hunter S. Thompson appearing on Conan O’Brien sometime in the early 2000s. He emerged onto the stage holding a margarita, fell onto the couch, and spent about five minutes drunkenly and half-coherently slurring his way through Conan’s questions. Conan seemed extremely disappointed that he’d managed to land an interview with one of his literary idols and he was completely shitfaced for it.
James Brown on CNN in 1988
Both Phoenix and Letterman later admitted that it was a stunt.
I was not a big fan of Tom Snyder, but I really felt sorry for him when KISS was on the Tomorrow show. Gene Simmons was trying to carry on an adult conversation with Snyder while the other three were indulging in nit-wit antics. Sad.
Yeah, Phoenix was in the midst of filming I’m Not There, his movie about him quitting acting and becoming a hip-hop recording artist. It was an attempt at an Andy Kaufman-esque prank, but it failed spectacularly. If you watch the interview, a hot mike at the very end caught Phoenix saying “thanks for playing along” or something of that effect to Letterman.
The Glover interview was a stunt too. Crispin Glover came out as his weird-ass character (imagine that!) from his upcoming movie River’s Edge. Thing is Letterman wasn’t in on it.
A displeased Billy Bob Thornton on some radio program
A couple members from Gwar “interviewed” by Joan Rivers
Conan also interviewed Mad Magazine’s Don Martin early in his career as a talk show host. Mr. Martin didn’t seem particularly comfortable or talkative.
There’s this interview with Tom Waits. What’s so odd is how he comes across just like Heath Ledger’s Joker. It’s quite uncanny,
That time Werner Herzog got shot in the middle of an interview with the BBCs Mark Kermode. Herzog just laughed it off.
Edit: How do you make the YT link an embed?
Edit2: Apparently just asking the question fixes it lol
Billy Bob Thornton comes right out of the gate pricklish and moody in that interview. I can see him not wanting to focus on his writing or acting during the interview and acknowledge his bandmates but his continuous remarks really made it the opposite of that and pulled it towards him. I always thought using Tom Petty was a terrible example because the answer to that is “I wouldn’t ask him about his musical beginnings but if he was playing a part in a movie I might ask him about his interest and past in acting.”
Right after this interview, I heard a Chicago DJ (maybe Jonathon Brandmeier, I can’t recall) with Jian Ghomeshi (the interviewer - I had to look it up) and Ghomeshi talked about how he strove to remain calm, not snap back, and just let Thornton hang himself with his words and I think he was successful in that.