Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News ruins promo chat

Apr 23, 2015 07:20 GMT  ·  By
Robert Downey Jr. during “Avengers: Age of Ultron” promo interview, before walking out
   Robert Downey Jr. during “Avengers: Age of Ultron” promo interview, before walking out

Robert Downey Jr. is not the kind to hide the darker aspects of his past. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t because it’s all out there in the media, from his drunken arrests, to his drug addiction and erratic public behavior.

At the same time, he believes there’s a time and place for everything, and obviously an “Avengers” promo interview is not the best place to discuss politics or such personal and upsetting past events. Krishnan Guru-Murthy of Channel 4 News found this out the hard way, as the video below will confirm.

Robert Downey Jr. walks out

The interview started like any other, with the actor talking about being a part of the Marvel cinematic universe, the differences between the “Iron Man” franchise and “Avengers,” and how amazing it was for him to work with a star-studded cast that he loved.

Then, at about the 4-minute mark, things got more personal and definitely weirder. The reporter made a connection between Tony Stark / Iron Man and RDJ in real life, saying that they were both men with a past, who seemed to have fallen out of public’s good graces but then made an unbelievable comeback.

This is when RDJ starts looking back at his publicist, checking for her approval or some kind of advice as to whether he should continue with the interview or not.

He makes an effort to answer, even when the interviewer goes from this casual observation to interrogating him about his political orientation, and whether he still considers himself not a liberal.

By the time the interviewer mentions the “dark places” RDJ had been and brings out his relationship with his father, you can sense the actor’s discomfort. If you can’t by the look on his face, you can by listening to his quickened breath. He also keeps checking with his publicist more and more, as if eager to leave.

In the end, this is exactly what he does: he stands up and walks out, but stops at the sound guy to have his microphone taken out. Before leaving the room, RDJ turns to the interviewer and explains that the chat was getting a little “too Diane Sawyer-y” for him.

A repeat offender

Fans are already rallying for RDJ online for the way he was treated during this interview, pressuring Channel 4 News to have Krishnan Guru-Murthy fired.

This isn’t the first time he’s doing something like this either, they point out: during the promo trail for “Django Unchained,” he pulled a similar stunt on director Quentin Tarantino, trying to back him into a corner to provide an answer to the question of whether there was any link between violent movies and real-life violence.

You can find that video below too, at the end of this post.

Much like RDJ, Tarantino tried to make the distinction between a promo interview for a movie, whose purpose was solely to sell said movie, and a serious interview touching on art, ethics, responsibility and personal beliefs or experiences.