The latest cringe-inducing celebrity interview is only about three minutes, but it will probably take you at least twice that time to watch it. This much awkwardness is so hard to witness that you’ll probably have to pause at points to back away from it, just as you know Cara Delevingne wishes she could have done.
The British supermodel turned actress appeared via satellite to talk to the cheery hosts over at Good Day Sacramento to promote her new movie Paper Towns.
One good rule for interviewing actors – anyone really – is make sure you get their name right. It shows you’ve done the bare minimum to prepare.
Let’s see how the hosts at Good Day Sacramento did.
“Carla Delevingne is in the movie. She joins us live from New York City to talk about Paper Towns,” one of the hosts says by way of introduction.
Cara was obviously not impressed. But maybe the first question will pull this thing around.
“Did you even get a chance to read [the book] or do you even have time to sit and read these days you’re so busy?”
Uh, oh. Not looking good, Good Day Sacramento.
“No, I never read the book or the script, actually. I kind of winged it,” Delevingne said, her sarcastic tone the equivalent of a giant eye roll.
What other questions could you ask to make Delevingne even more visibly uncomfortable and confused?
“It’s like you are doing one thing after the next after the next. Do you find it’s easier for you to focus because you’re so busy?”
Clearly confused by the logic of the question, Delevingne responded, “No. I don’t know where that comes from.”
By this point, any hope of establishing a rapport was gone.
Another host then jumped in with this gem.
“I saw you in London talking a couple of weeks ago on TV and you seemed a lot more excited about it than you do right now. Are you just exhausted?”
Every question, it goes without saying, was asked with the unhinged peppiness of morning-show hosts.
By the end, Delevingne had gone from confused to insulted to sarcastically confrontational – the classic arc of an awkward celebrity interview. In this case, the interview ended with one of the hosts suggesting: "We'll let you go take a little nap, maybe get a Red Bull. How about that?"
Are there any bright sides for the 22-year-old actor?
At least the interview didn’t call her character a skank, which Amy Schumer had to endure last week in an interview with an Australian radio show.
And at least the interviewer didn’t try to pull you back in to discussing the darkest period of your life, which you’ve actively worked very hard to distance yourself from. Right, Robert Downey Jr.?
Sometimes celebrities can roll with an awkward interview, as Mila Kunis has proved.
But rather than suffer the whole painful ordeal, celebs should probably take a page from Quentin Tarantino and just shut the butt down.