These celebs would have been better off taking a vow of silence. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at times celebrities severely damaged their reputations by answering just one single interview question.
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00:00 - "How did those injuries come about?"
00:01 - "I wish to God I knew."
00:03 Welcome to WatchMojo,
00:05 and today we're looking at times celebrities severely damaged their reputations
00:09 by answering just one single interview question.
00:12 Number 10.
00:15 Describe your character's motivations.
00:18 Liam Neeson.
00:19 - "But what I do have are a very particular set of skills.
00:23 Skills I've acquired over a very long career."
00:26 With a steady batch of movies released each year,
00:29 Liam Neeson has done a lot of press over his lifetime.
00:32 But a routine junket interview with The Independent for his 2019 revenge film,
00:37 Cold Pursuit,
00:38 embroiled the Oscar nominee in scandal.
00:41 With the questioning landing on how his latest character turns to anger,
00:45 the actor shared a real-life experience of revenge-seeking
00:49 after learning that a friend was sexually assaulted.
00:52 - "The actor admits that at one point in his life,
00:55 he wanted to kill a random black man."
00:57 With the friend identifying her unknown attacker as black,
01:01 Neeson says he wandered through the neighborhoods
01:03 hoping a black man would come out of a pub and quote,
01:06 "have a go" so he could quote, "kill him."
01:09 - "I'm ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week."
01:13 Even though Neeson iterated that he regretted those actions,
01:16 he still had plenty of damage control to do afterwards.
01:19 - "Now I'm not racist.
01:21 This was nearly 40 years ago,
01:25 but because I was brought up in...
01:27 Maybe I'm rabbiting on wrong, so forgive me.
01:29 I was brought up in the north of Ireland and brought up in the Troubles."
01:33 Number 9.
01:34 Did you ever take banned substances?
01:37 Lance Armstrong.
01:38 Prior to 2013,
01:40 cyclist Lance Armstrong was an inspiration to millions worldwide.
01:45 After all, he had won the Tour de France a whopping seven years in a row.
01:49 Not to mention the abundance of charitable work he did.
01:52 - "For seven straight years, he dominated arguably the hardest sporting event in the world."
01:57 - "History in the making.
01:58 Seven times a winner of the Tour de France."
02:00 - "Around him grew an empire that included a powerful foundation dedicated to fighting cancer."
02:05 So what happened after 2013?
02:07 Well, that's when Armstrong sat down with Oprah Winfrey
02:11 for a jaw-dropping interview/confession.
02:14 - "In your opinion, was it humanly possible to win the Tour de France
02:19 without doping seven times in a row?"
02:22 - "Not in my opinion."
02:25 He had already been stripped of his titles amid doping allegations,
02:28 but the interview confirmed that the rumors were indeed facts.
02:32 - "Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling."
02:35 Oprah asked point blank if he ever took banned substances to enhance his cycling performance.
02:40 And Armstrong responded, "Yes."
02:42 And just like that, his legacy was forever altered.
02:47 For the worse.
02:48 - "Yes or no?
02:48 Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?"
02:53 - "Yes."
02:53 Number 8.
02:54 Is there any truth to the allegations?
02:57 Woody Allen.
02:58 When Woody Allen appeared on 60 Minutes in 1992
03:01 to discuss his falling out with former partner Mia Farrow,
03:05 things got fairly awkward.
03:07 - "I went up and played with the kids, read them stories, did my usual things.
03:10 We played out on the lawn and, you know, had a wonderful time with them.
03:15 And out of this has grown lawyers and psychologists."
03:21 When asked about the accusations that he abused the daughter he adopted with Farrow, Dylan,
03:26 many expected Allen to offer a straightforward denial.
03:30 However, the actor and director opted to answer with a baffling diatribe instead.
03:35 - "I had many opportunities in the past.
03:37 I could have quietly made a custody settlement with Mia in some way and done it in the future.
03:42 I mean, you know, it's so insane."
03:44 He said it would be, quote, "illogical" for him to do such a thing at the time,
03:48 and went on to list a bunch of reasons why.
03:50 He also insinuated that Farrow was the mastermind, plotting revenge against him.
03:55 - "Either she has been coached methodically to tell the story because..."
04:03 - "By Mia."
04:05 - "By Mia, yeah."
04:06 It's three decades later and people still scratch their heads
04:10 at how Allen chose to profess his innocence.
04:13 Number 7.
04:14 Did you enjoy your film, Catherine Heigl?
04:17 Catherine Heigl's fall from Hollywood's good graces can be traced back to a 2008 interview
04:22 with Vanity Fair.
04:24 After winning an Emmy for her role on Grey's Anatomy,
04:26 and having starred in the smash hit blockbuster Knocked Up,
04:30 Heigl certainly had a lot to be happy about.
04:32 - "We're just doing what we can.
04:33 We're making the best of it and I don't want us to put any more pressure on ourselves."
04:37 But when the actress was asked about the Judd Apatow film she made alongside Seth Rogen,
04:42 she did not hold back in her true feelings.
04:45 - "What?"
04:45 - "What?"
04:46 - "I'm pregnant."
04:47 - "With emotion?"
04:50 - "With a baby."
04:51 - "You're the father."
04:52 Catherine said she was not happy with Knocked Up and called it quote,
04:56 "a little sexist."
04:58 She went on to say quote,
04:59 "It paints women as shrews, as humorless and uptight."
05:03 While it paints the men as quote,
05:05 "lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys."
05:07 - "Exactly. We can work together. This can help us with anything, I think."
05:12 Her comments were met with immediate criticism and have followed her for years,
05:16 despite recent mea culpa's.
05:19 - "I'm gonna be really honest right now. I'm not. I know I'm not.
05:22 I don't have to think about it. I'm not a rude person. I'm not an unkind or mean person."
05:27 Number six. What are your thoughts on psychiatry?
05:31 Tom Cruise.
05:32 Tom Cruise has weathered more than a few controversies over the years,
05:36 but in the mid-2000s things were at a critical mass.
05:39 - "Know how you handle an actor? They whine about anything.
05:42 You pull down their pants and you spank their ass."
05:45 It all went down during a whirlwind time when the actor started dating actress Katie Holmes.
05:50 Cruise had already jumped on Oprah's couch,
05:53 - "Ever felt this way before?"
05:56 and shared statements on Brooke Shields' postpartum depression
05:59 when he sat down with Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show.
06:03 - "I'm just living my life. And I'm doing the best that I can,
06:07 and doing it in a way that I feel is right."
06:10 Things turned intense when Lauer asked about Cruise's stance on psychiatry
06:14 and Shields' endorsement of antidepressants.
06:17 Tom called psychiatry a quote "pseudoscience"
06:21 and began to debate Lauer on depression treatments, notably Ritalin.
06:25 - "And I know that psychiatry is a pseudoscience."
06:31 It was a moment that forever changed people's opinion of the movie star.
06:35 - "Matt, Matt, you don't even... you're glib. You don't even know what Ritalin is."
06:39 Number 5. How did she get those injuries?
06:42 Jonathan Majors.
06:43 Jonathan Majors experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in 2023.
06:48 - "What's coming?"
06:49 - "Me. A lot of me."
06:57 He was riding the wave of stardom as Kang the Conqueror in the MCU
07:01 and with starring roles in films like Creed III.
07:04 - "Will this be a fairy tale or a massacre?"
07:07 Things came crashing down, however, when he was arrested and later found
07:11 guilty of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend.
07:14 In an interview for Good Morning America, Majors opened up and attempted to save face
07:19 by denying everything. When asked how his ex received her injuries, the actor said,
07:25 - "I wish to God I knew. That would give clarity.
07:28 That would give me some type of peace about it."
07:30 He then went on to say that he was, quote, "reckless with her heart, but not her body."
07:34 - "But never hit a woman."
07:35 - "Never hit a woman. I've never... my hands have never struck a woman."
07:40 The response did little to reassure the public of his innocence,
07:44 only raising further questions.
07:45 - "The peace between realities."
07:47 Number 4. What are you trying to do with the message you're sending?
07:55 Kanye West.
07:55 Where to even start with Kanye?
07:58 The prolific rapper has said and done numerous controversial things on a vast array of platforms.
08:04 - "I don't follow, like, rules of, like, you know,
08:06 normal celebrity or what their publicist tells them to say or anything."
08:09 But it was through one simple question on TMZ Live in 2018 that sent Kanye
08:14 straight down a rabbit hole of scandal.
08:17 After being seen with a "Make America Great Again" hat on,
08:20 host Harvey Levin asked Kanye about the message he wanted to send.
08:24 - "What are you trying to do with the message you're sending?"
08:28 - "Well, it was really just my subconscious. It was a feeling I had."
08:32 Kanye being Kanye, went on a rant about free thought.
08:36 He then caused a huge stir when he spoke about slavery,
08:39 saying that to him it sounded, quote, "like a choice."
08:43 - "When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years? That sound like a choice.
08:48 Like, you was there for 400 years and it's all of y'all?"
08:53 Of course, Kanye would go on to say even more shocking things in the years that followed.
08:57 And if we're being honest, we'll likely continue to do so in the years to come.
09:01 - "So you're gonna love me? You're gonna hate me? But I'm gonna be me."
09:04 Number three.
09:05 Do you see why people worry about you sharing a bed with... Michael Jackson?
09:09 Late pop star Michael Jackson has long been accused of inappropriate and illegal acts
09:15 involving minors.
09:20 In 1993, Jordan Chandler, a teenage cancer patient,
09:25 sued Jackson for sexual abuse, leading to a criminal investigation.
09:30 During an infamous interview with journalist Martin Bashir as part of the documentary
09:34 "Living with Michael Jackson," the star was asked if he understood why people would be worried
09:39 about him sharing his bed with Chandler.
09:42 - "He talked about the fact that he shares your bedroom."
09:44 - "Yes."
09:44 - "Can you understand why people would worry about that?"
09:48 - "Because they're ignorant."
09:50 The response was nothing short of shocking,
09:52 as Jackson defended the practice by calling it, quote, "a beautiful thing."
09:56 - "What should I be wearing? Who's the criminal? Who's Jack the Ripper in the room?"
10:00 - "This is a guy trying to help heal a child."
10:04 He also said that he has slept in a bed with many youths,
10:07 and called it, quote, "very right," and, quote, "loving."
10:11 - "Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, McCully Culkin's on this side,
10:15 his sister's in there. We're all just jamming the bed."
10:18 While Jackson saw the act as, quote, "helping the boy heal,"
10:21 others saw it as proof of the crimes he was being accused of.
10:25 Number two, your response to the allegations, Prince Andrew.
10:30 It's the interview equivalent of car crash.
10:33 Amidst the media scrutiny surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's inner circle,
10:37 Prince Andrew sat down with BBC's Emily Maitlis in an effort to clear his name.
10:42 - "But today, you've chosen to speak out for the first time.
10:47 Why have you decided to talk now?"
10:50 When Maitlis asked the Prince for his response to allegations made by an accuser of his,
10:55 Virginia Roberts, he boldly and straight up denied ever meeting her.
10:59 - "I have no recollection of ever meeting this lady. None whatsoever."
11:04 This despite photographic evidence that shows he did.
11:08 Andrew says the photo is not valid.
11:10 He also went on to say that he didn't regret his friendship with Epstein,
11:14 adding that it presented him with, quote, "useful opportunities."
11:18 - "He has quite obviously conducted himself in a manner unbecoming, yes."
11:23 - "Unbecoming? He was a sex offender."
11:26 - "Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm being polite."
11:28 It was clear that the interview did not help his case,
11:31 and the Prince stepped down from public duties for the royal family shortly after.
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11:51 Number 1. Do you like teenage girls? R. Kelly
11:56 It's hard to imagine given all that we know today, but in the 2000s,
12:00 singer R. Kelly had many defenders. What were they defending him against?
12:05 Why, those would be a long list of sexual misconduct allegations.
12:08 - "I'm very tired of all of the, uh, lies. I've been hearing things and,
12:13 you know, and seeing things on the blogs and, you know, I'm just, I'm just tired."
12:18 In 2002, Kelly was indicted, but would go on to be acquitted in 2008.
12:23 That's the year he took part in an interview with BET's Toré about the damning claims.
12:28 When asked about whether he liked teenage girls, Kelly's response was a jaw-dropper.
12:34 - "When you say teenage, how are we talking? Girls who are teenagers."
12:40 It was an infamous response at the time, and it's easy to see why. Kelly added another
12:45 notorious interview moment to his name when he sat down with Gayle King in 2019 and became unhinged.
12:52 - "I didn't do this stuff. This is not me. I'm fighting for my f***ing life."
12:57 The musician is now serving 20 years in jail for his various crimes.
13:02 Which interview response shocked you the most? Express yourself in the comments.
13:06 - "That's a beautiful thing. That's not a worrying thing."
13:10 -
13:18 "I'm not worried about it. I'm just worried about my life." - Kelly King, 20 years in jail.