Robert Downey Jr. Walks Out On Awkward Interview (And Basic Interviewer)

Robert Downey Jr. has walked out on an interview after being pressed to discuss his “dark periods,” because RDJ don’t play that.

It’s the second major walk-out on Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who incensed Quentin Tarantino back in 2013 to the point of interview abandonment.

This particular chat began with Guru-Murthy quizzing the Avengers star with your boilerplate promotional questions, before asking RDJ to discuss a quote he once gave to the New York Times suggesting his time in prison had changed his political leanings.

So, okay. Let’s just point out before we go any further that journalists are allowed – and hey, required! – to ask occasionally uncomfortable questions. It is not their responsibility to promote the agenda of any particular subject.

That said, the boundaries of an interview should be set prior to the sit-down, especially if it’s with a celebrity, and not, say, some corrupt official you’re hoping to catch in a lie.

Anyway, though Guru-Murthy’s question seemed a bit out of left-field, a visibly uncomfortable Downey Jr. still handled it with impressive diplomacy.

And yet, it’s at this point that Guru-Murthy went completely off the rails. Thrown entirely off his game, the interviewer starts stammering, while continuing to plumb the depths of RDJ’s personal life. (Again, he’s welcome to do so, but also, Downey Jr. is entitled to not have to let him.)

The interview is then brought to an abrupt end after RDJ makes a few pointed glances at his publicist.

So, who’s in the right, and who’s in the wrong? Should public figures be allowed to hide behind a shroud of their own making? Should journalists be allowed to ask what they please? Should the public’s unhealthy fascination with the private lives of celebrities – which, let’s face it, is fuelling Guru-Murthy’s line of questioning – be quashed once and for all?

All I know for sure is that this is deliciously awkward viewing and almost as good as Avengers: Age of Ultron itself.

Besides, no hot take or think piece on the matter could say it better than the shade thrown by this cameraman following Downey Jr.'s exit.

Look at that disapproval and disappointment.

Look at it.