You’ve secured a chat with one of the world’s greatest actors, who then ends up walking out on the interview. Now that’s a bad day at the office.
Robert De Niro is a film legend, but he’s living up to his notoriety for being particularly ‘tricky’ in interviews.
The actor, who was promoting his latest film The Intern, terminated his interview with the Radio Times after objecting to what he called “negative inference” from the journalist.
After asking journalist Emma Brockes to pause recording, he apparently ended the conversation by saying, “I’m not doing this darling.”
You come away bewildered and replaying the recording to pinpoint the moment when things f*cked up.
It was before Bon Jovi was due to perform a string of dates at London’s O2 and I asked the usual niceties, whether he was ready and excited about playing at the venue.
Immediately taking offence because I didn’t refer to the gigs as ‘a residency’, the frontman questioned why I didn’t do my research properly. I interjected and tried to save the situation, explaining that I thought Michael Jackson’s run of 50 dates performing to more than a million people, booked before he tragically passed away, was a residency. Big mistake.
With that Bon Jovi was done and the interview was over. And guess what, ‘darling’ was Bon Jovi’s choice of condescension too.
