13 Infamously Cringey Celeb Interview Moments (And The Stories Behind Them)

Celebrity interviews can give a lot of funny, insightful, or even inspiring moments. However, sometimes, like most of us, they say or do something that's a little, well, embarrassing. However, unlike most of us, their embarrassing moments are captured on camera or in print for the world to see.

Here are 13 cringey and embarrassing celeb interview moments:

1.When Esquire interviewed Miles Teller in 2015, he wanted to try a piece of the writer Anna Peele's pork belly, but after struggling to cut it, he had her do it for him.

She wrote, "You have to cut his meat for him, a man who ten minutes earlier showed you an iPhone photo of his back muscles to prove how strong he is. He wants you to cut it small. 'I don't have back teeth. I literally have four teeth.' Not true. He's right, though, this pork belly is really hard to cut. But still."

2.In 2015, NJR, a German radio station, asked Demi Lovato, "What's your favorite dish?" The interviewer meant "dish" as in "meal," but the singer had an unexpected interpretation.

They later claimed they'd been joking, tweeting, "For anybody who actually thinks I misunderstood the 'favorite dish' question — you clearly don't get my sense of humor."

Watch the full clip below:

3.In Bella Hadid's 2017 Sneaker Shopping interview with Complex, the answer she gave about her "sneaker turn-offs" spawned a meme.

Watch the full interview below, with this part starting at the 1:30 mark:

4.At the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, Harry Styles accidentally created his own meme. During the Don't Worry Darling press conference, he said, "My favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie."

The face Chris Pine made in reaction to his comments went viral.

5.During the 1995 VMAs, Courtney Love threw a makeup compact at Madonna, then hijacked her interview with MTV VJ Kurt Loder.

Watch the full video below, with this part starting at the 2:39 mark:

6.When Tom Cruise appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, he jumped on the couch to demonstrate his love for Katie Holmes.

In his 2023 book Yearbook, Seth Rogen claimed that, in 2006, during a five-hour meeting with Judd Apatow and Tom Cruise, who wanted to get into comedy, Tom discussed the Oprah interview.

He allegedly told them, "Well, yeah, they're making it seem like I'm losing my mind. There's a coordinated effort to make it appear that way. [Seth asked, 'Who would do that?'] The pharmaceutical industry. Because my exposure of their fraud has cost them SO much money that they're desperate. They're scrambling, and they're doing everything they can to discredit me so I won't hurt sales anymore. ... They edited it to make it look so much worse than it was."

Here's the full video, with Tom jumping at the 1:31 mark and the 1:52 mark:

7.In a 2010 Access Hollywood interview, Justin Bieber imitated reporter Maria Menounos's laugh.

Here's the full interview, with this part happening at the 2:58 mark:

In 2022, Maria hilariously re-created the viral clip for Justin's birthday.

Twitter: @mariamenounos

8.When Crispin Glover appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1987, he tried to get the host to arm wrestle him, then almost kicked him in the head, which prompted David to leave the set.

However, in 2014, the actor sort of hinted that he'd been doing a bit on the Late Show. On The Sam Roberts Show, he said, "What I say is, in popular media, I neither confirm nor deny that I was on the David Letterman show."

Some speculate that he did the Letterman interview in character as Rubin from Rubin & Ed.

Here's the full interview, with the kick happening at the 3:25 mark:

9.In 2013, Jupiter Ascending actor Douglas Booth told the Evening Standard that it was hard to explain his new life as a celebrity to his non-famous friends. He said, "They'll say: 'Mate! Last night we went out in Leeds and got so messed up!' And I'm like, 'Yeah…last night I was in New York with Hillary Clinton.'"

He also said, "I had an invitation in the post the other day: 'Anna Wintour invites you to a dinner in honor of Benedict Cumberbatch.' At first, I thought it was hilarious, and then I thought, 'Ben's doing well!'"

10.On a 1970 episode of The Dick Cavett Show, Husbands director John Cassavetes and actors Peter Falk and Ben Gazzar — who later admitted to drinking before the show —shouted, smoked, took off their socks and shoes, and threw themselves into a pile on the floor. Their behavior drove the host to briefly walk off stage.

In 2014, Dick told the New Yorker, "It was out of the blue. It was astonishing. I could not believe it while it was happening. I think I watched it a year or so ago, and it seemed even worse than I remembered it. When the circus was going on, with shoes coming off and smelling each other's feet — which may be an image I have conjured, but something very close to it — and falling down, as if that were funny, just a bunch of louts out encouraging each other in their stupidity, it was … I had a mixed feeling as it was happening. I knew it would be entertaining in a certain way involving the word 'horror.'"

Watch the full interview here:

11.In 2022, Robert Pattinson — who often gives notoriously bizarre interview answers — admitted to GQ that, sometimes, he'll "just make something up in an interview, in order to say anything at all."

Daniel Riley, who profiled the actor, wrote, "It all gets a little slippery when someone tells you they sometimes deliberately lie. But it feels like it adds up with several of the other stories Pattinson shares with me."

12.One lie that continues to haunt Robert Pattinson came from a 2009 interview with Extra. He said that he didn't "really see the point in washing your hair" and that he'd "probably" gone six weeks without washing his hair at one point.

He said, "If you don't care if your hair's clean or not, then why would you wash it? It's like, I don't clean my apartment 'cause I don't care. I have my apartment for sleeping in and I have my hair for just, you know, hanging out on my head. I don't care if it's clean or not."

13.And finally, one peculiar moment Robert swears was fully honest came from a 2020 GQ interview. After describing his business plan for handheld pasta, he attempted to cook it (using cornflakes, a lighter, pre-sliced cheese, sauce, sugar, gloves, aluminum foil, penne pasta, and a microwave), nearly burning down his house in the process.

While struggling with his creation, he said, "I actually knew how to do this before. I literally did this yesterday. And now it's just impossible. It's going to look like I can't cook at all."

Recounting the moment two years later, he told GQ, "I was fully, actually trying to make that pasta. ... Like, I was literally in talks with frozen-food factories and hoped that that article would be the proof of concept. My manager was like: 'Is this really what you want to do? You want your face on handheld pasta? You know you’ve got to go to Walmart and really sell it, for potentially very little return.' And there was a part of me that was like, 'Is there a world where this works?'"

What are your favorite cringey or embarrassing celeb interview moments? Let me know in the comments!