# Worst published interview of an actor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 31, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396 "2008-03-31T16:43:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ro\_Carter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7feea3/32.png) [@Ro\_Carter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ro_Carter)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/1 "2008-03-31T16:43:40Z")
[From here.](http://www.newsweek.com/id/129592) This is a Newsweek interview of Patrick Stewart, supposedly about his Broadway role in Macbeth. However, after just a couple cursory questions about the play, the interviewer jumps to questions about his jumpsuit on Star Trek, and if he is concerned about “weird” Star Trek fans interrupting his performance. Now, I haven’t been to journalism school, but I was pretty sure that to be employed at Newsweek as an interviewer one had to, you know, do an interview in a fashion that wouldn’t embarrass everyone involved. I mean, asking relevant questions about the topic you are supposedly interviewing the person about, not insulting large groups of people, that kind of thing. Apologies if this should be in IMHO or something, I figured CS was my best shot. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/2 "2008-03-31T17:26:47Z")
Yeah, that’s a pretty crappy interview. It’s something I would have expected from People or some such, not Newsweek. In 2001 ago Stewart was in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. While I’m sure I wasn’t the only Trekker in the audience, no one was chanting “We love you Jean Luc.” Stewart must get this line of questions a lot and it shows the grand type of person he is when his most caustic statement (at least what was printed by the interviewer) was “that’s just a silly thing to say.” Of course, he may have ended the interview with a “You’re f-ing nuts!” but the interviewer thought better of writing it up. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/3 "2008-03-31T18:38:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*When you’re onstage, aren’t you worried about weird Trekkie fans in the audience? \*\* Oh, come on, that’s just a silly thing to say. > > \*\*But they are weird. \*\* > How many do you know personally? You couldn’t be more wrong. Here’s the thing: if you say the fans are weird, that means there is something essentially weird about the show, and there is nothing weird about it. I’m very passionate when people like you snigger. Wow, the interviewer came across as a real twit! ---
**Author:** ![Manatee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@Manatee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manatee)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/4 "2008-03-31T18:47:21Z")
Have you guys never read this column in the magazine? It’s always jokey and light, with the occasional goofball question thrown in (a la Jon Stewart). It’s not meant to be a “real,” serious interview. ---
**Author:** ![Mycroft\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mycroft\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mycroft_H)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2008, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/5 "2008-04-01T21:42:18Z")
Ah! :smack: Thank you for the explanation. That makes more sense now. (Still stupid, but if it’s _supposed_ to be that way…) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/6 "2008-04-02T03:48:08Z")
[QUOTE=Manatee] Have you guys never read this column in the magazine? It’s always jokey and light, with the occasional goofball question thrown in (a la Jon Stewart). It’s not meant to be a “real,” serious interview. [/QUOTE] Agreed. They always have a semi-fluff celeb interview like that. Some stars take it better than others (although you’d think all their agents would tell them what to expect). Once, at the height of his fame, Stanley Kubrick gave a three-hour interview, IIRC, to a British magazine on the condition that he could approve what finally appeared in print. He ended up only approving six (!) quotations from the entire interview. The magazine ran the six quotations, which were pretty innocuous, across several pages, with the phrase “We just spent three hours interviewing Stanley Kubrick” repeated over and over as filler. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/7 "2008-04-02T07:21:51Z")
I remember reading the \*Playboy \* “20 Questions” with Patrick Stewart. He finally got fed up with being asked about his baldness. He stressed that he was never, ever, ever going to address the topic again in an interview. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/8 "2008-04-02T13:42:30Z")
How about the recent Larry King interview with Jerry Seinfeld where Larry asks Jerry how he felt about his show being canceled. Jerry gets a “WTF” expression on his face and explains to Larry how the show was not cancelled, they ended it, and it was wildly popular. Then he starts to rib him about “Do you even know who I am?” getting a kick out of how out of touch Larry is with the mainstream. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-published-interview-of-an-actor/443396/9 "2008-04-02T13:54:55Z")
You have to see the Extras episode with Patrick Stewart in it. He was brilliant and poked extensive fun at himself and his Star Trek role and seems to have a pretty good sense of humor about such silliness.