Coming up with original questions to ask celebrities can be a challenging task. They've probably answered everything already, and they could be coming off a long stretch of time being around a media circus. It's shouldn't be a surprise that sometimes celebrities lose it on a reporter or interviewer. It could come down to fatigue or being asked a stupid question that was interpreted as being offensive or hitting below the belt. Instances where a celebrity fires back at the interviewers on live TV can create awkward moments for both parties. But it also creates compelling live content for viewers. We've compiled a list of such moments, so take a look at these stars who fired back at their interviewer on live TV.
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00:00Interviewing celebrities isn't always easy, for the interviewer or the stars themselves.
00:05It can be tricky to come up with questions that an actor or musician hasn't already answered
00:09countless times before, and sometimes out-of-the-box inquiries about movies, television, and music
00:15can get everyone involved into trouble, too.
00:18Female celebrities often are asked about their outfits and their bodies, and all-stars often
00:22fall victim to personal questions about their private lives or dark pasts that they've tried
00:26to bury or move beyond.
00:28Whether it's rude questions about a celebrity's personal life or just poor manners, these
00:32stars all made it quite clear when they'd had enough, and they let their interviewers
00:35know it in a big way.
00:37From slight to fight
00:39When Larry King interviewed Jerry Seinfeld in 2007, the legendary talk show host did
00:44ask a pretty dopey question about the way that Seinfeld's hit comedy series came to
00:49an end.
00:50180 episodes.
00:51You gave it up, right?
00:52I did.
00:53They didn't cancel you.
00:54You canceled them.
00:56Seinfeld's reaction may have been a bit over-the-top and rude, all things considered.
01:01First, he acted incredulous that King could even ask such a question.
01:04You're not aware of this?
01:07Then he began laying into King, questioning his professionalism and preparedness.
01:11You think I got canceled?
01:12Are you under the impression that I got canceled?
01:13Have I hurt you, Jerry?
01:14I thought that was pretty well-documented.
01:17Is this still CNN?
01:20If that wasn't awkward enough, Seinfeld then went on to boast about his pop culture relevance
01:24and boost his own ego in the process.
01:27I went off the air.
01:28I was the number one show on television, Larry.
01:29Do you know who I am?
01:3075 million viewers.
01:31Last episode.
01:34After that, King tried to calm Seinfeld down, but the funnyman had no humor about the host's
01:39confusion.
01:40Well, that's a big difference between being canceled and being number one.
01:44To top it all off, even after Larry King apologized for the gaffe, Seinfeld still attacked his
01:49intelligence.
01:50Can we get a resume in here for me so Larry can go over?
01:55Perhaps it's appropriate that Seinfeld was promoting his B-movie at the time, because
01:59those comments sure do sting.
02:02Digging too deep
02:03In Legend, Tom Hardy portrayed bisexual gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie K., but while he was
02:09promoting the film at the Toronto International Film Festival, he didn't appreciate the subject
02:13of his own personal preferences coming up.
02:16One reporter contrasted his character Ronnie, who's very open about his sexuality, with
02:19Hardy's real-life persona, which he said is a bit more closed-off, and things went
02:24right off the rails.
02:25Do you find it hard for celebrities to talk to media about their sexuality?
02:30What on earth are you on about?
02:33The interviewer clarified that he was referring to a previous magazine interview Hardy had
02:37done years prior.
02:38I don't find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality.
02:43Are you asking me about my sexuality?
02:45When the interviewer then answered in the affirmative, Hardy made it clear that the
02:48subject was not up for discussion.
02:51Why?
02:52Why?
02:53Um…
02:55Okay.
02:56Hardy later reflected on that viral moment and reiterated his feeling that the question
03:00was inappropriate, telling The Daily Beast,
03:02"...that was a public forum, and for someone to inelegantly ask a question that seemed
03:06designed entirely to provoke a reaction.
03:08It's important destigmatizing sexuality and gender inequality in the workplace, but to
03:13put a man on the spot in a room full of people designed purely for a salacious reaction?
03:17To be quite frank, it's rude."
03:19If the interviewer in question was hoping to make headlines, well, mission accomplished.
03:24Missing the memo
03:26When promoting The Dark Knight Rises, Anne Hathaway wasn't impressed with one particular
03:30interviewer's line of questioning about her preparation for the role of Catwoman, Selina
03:34Kyle.
03:35Extra interviewer Jerry Penacoli asked Hathaway about her physique.
03:39You are in phenomenal shape.
03:43Gracious.
03:45You're always in great shape, but you had to make sure you were in perfect shape for
03:49this one, didn't you?
03:51At first, Hathaway played along and offered an answer.
03:54It wasn't about being in perfect shape, it was about being able to do the stunts and
03:59the fighting perfectly.
04:00And even when he went on to focus on her form, by talking about her leather suit, she answered
04:05in kind.
04:06It was form-fitting.
04:07I mean, it's not a pair of sweatpants, I wouldn't describe it as that kind of comfortable.
04:13But then he continued to ask about her body, asking her to share her, quote, feline fitness
04:17regime.
04:18Hathaway started to get sick of the subject.
04:21It's all the boring stuff that no one ever wants to do.
04:24It's just watch what you eat and get yourself to the gym.
04:26When he failed to get the memo that she wanted to move on, she turned it around on him instead.
04:30Are you trying to lose weight?
04:32What's the deal, man?
04:33You look great.
04:34No, no, no.
04:35No, seriously.
04:36We have to talk about this.
04:38What do you want?
04:39Are you trying to fit into a cat suit?
04:40And with that, the lesson was learned.
04:42Hathaway's physical transformations for a role might be fair game for a question or
04:46two, but clearly the Oscar winner isn't okay with her figure being the central focus of
04:50a conversation.
04:52Airing dirty laundry
04:54Jerry Penacoli struck out again in an interview with Avengers stars Scarlett Johansson and
04:59Jeremy Renner, when he opened the segment by asking Johansson about a certain aspect
05:03of her own form-fitting costume wear for Black Widow.
05:06Now, were you able to wear undergarments, if you were?
05:09You're like the fifth person that's asking that question.
05:12What is going on?
05:13Right away, Johansson made it clear she found the question to be both odd and offensive.
05:17Since when did people start asking each other about, in interviews, about their underwear?
05:21Rather than just change the subject, however, Penacoli stuck with it.
05:25Because it is such a skin type.
05:28But ScarJo didn't even let him finish the sentence before shutting him down.
05:31I'll leave it up to your imagination, okay?
05:35Whatever you feel like I should be wearing or not wearing under that costume.
05:38Apparently, that dismissal wasn't clear enough, however, so Penacoli kept right on talking
05:43about it.
05:44Is it inappropriate?
05:45To ask somebody what kind of underpants they wear?
05:46I didn't ask you what kind.
05:48You just asked me if I was wearing any.
05:49For some reason, Jeremy Renner felt the need to step in and help Penacoli out, so Scarlett
05:54caved and answered in earnest.
05:56No, you can't wear clothes under it.
05:58It's like a wetsuit.
06:00But she still wasn't okay with the question.
06:03Was I wearing underwear?
06:04I mean, gosh.
06:06Ask Joss.
06:07When Penacoli told her that he did ask director Joss Whedon about it, she was even more disturbed.
06:12You asked Joss what kind of underwear he wears?
06:15No, no, no.
06:16What kind of interview is this?
06:19Perhaps this incident was enough to earn Penacoli some sensitivity training before his next
06:23actress interview.
06:25Going skin deep
06:27Before she served as a presenter for the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Rashida Jones
06:32walked the red carpet and stopped to talk to TNT's red carpet reporter, Danielle Dembski,
06:36along the way.
06:37The Parks and Recreation star was delighted to talk about her designer gown, but when
06:41the subject of her skin color came up, things got very cringeworthy very quickly.
06:46Evidently, Dembski didn't know that Jones is the biracial daughter of music legend Quincy
06:50Jones and former model Peggy Lipton, so she asked Jones about how she managed to get her
06:54skin tone to be so tan.
06:56Wow, class, beautiful.
06:58You look like you've just come off an island or something.
07:01You're very tan, very tropical.
07:04Jones was, understandably, a little baffled at the clueless moment, so she replied simply,
07:08I mean, you know, I'm ethnic.
07:11Dembski apparently did not know that, and her reaction was about as awkward as it could
07:15possibly be.
07:16It's just being ethnic, that's what it is.
07:19Jones shrugged it off and went on with her night, but the headlines that followed were
07:22not kind to her interviewer.
07:24Generalizing the gender issue
07:27During the course of her short-lived daytime talk show, Katie Couric made headlines for
07:30all the wrong reasons while interviewing transgender model Carmen Carrera.
07:35Instead of focusing on her career and ambitions, Couric asked about her genitals.
07:38Was the whole process painful, physically, for you?
07:44Your private parts are different now, aren't they?"
07:47Carrera then told her that she'd prefer not to talk about such a personal topic and that
07:51she'd rather talk about work, but Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox stepped in
07:55to school Couric on etiquette.
07:57I think that the preoccupation with transition and with surgery objectifies trans people,
08:01and then we don't get to really, really deal with the real, lived experiences."
08:05Cox then went on to talk about the realities that often go undiscussed about the transgender
08:09community, including discrimination, violence, and employment concerns they may face on a
08:14regular basis.
08:15When we focus on transition, we don't actually get to talk about those things."
08:19To her credit, Couric was all ears during Cox's speech and later admitted to feeling
08:23like a, quote, "...buffoon for her misdirection," admitting that her line of questioning was
08:27a mistake and a teachable moment for others to learn from.
08:30It's just too bad it took such a painful broadcast to achieve that awareness.
08:35Letting him finish
08:36In 2010, Kanye West appeared on The Today Show to discuss his infamous remarks about
08:41former President George W. Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina.
08:45During a fundraising segment for victim relief, he infamously claimed,
08:49"...George Bush doesn't care about black people."
08:52Bush was offended by the comment and later fired back.
08:55"...It's not true, and it was one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency."
09:00Given the newsworthiness of the response, the subject of his words was certainly fair
09:03game for Matt Lauer's interview with Kanye West, and the rapper was happy to contextualize
09:08his comments.
09:09"...In a moment of emotion to peg someone or to call a name or peg someone as a racist
09:14is not, it's, it's just not right."
09:18However, when Lauer had producers show West a video of Bush's segment, West grew miffed.
09:23"...You know, I mean, I didn't need you guys to show me the, um, the, the tape in order
09:28to like prompt my emotion to what I'm gonna say, you know?
09:30You know what I'm saying?
09:31It's like, I don't even have to do the TV stuff with me.
09:32This is reality."
09:34As if tensions weren't already high enough, the same thing happened again when the subject
09:38of his infamous behavior at the 2009 MTV Music Awards came up, when he rushed the stage during
09:43Taylor Swift's acceptance speech.
09:45While he didn't seem upset that Lauer brought up the incident, he was annoyed that they
09:48played a clip of it while he was speaking.
09:50"...Yo, how am I supposed to talk if you're gonna run this thing in the middle of while
09:54I'm talking?"
09:55Lauer instructed his producers to cut the feed, but the conversation couldn't be recovered.
10:00"...Please don't let that happen again, it's, like, ridiculous."
10:03Yep, that's pretty hard to recover from, alright.