Celebrity interviews are usually pretty predictable. A star answers a few questions, promotes their latest project, shares a funny behind-the-scenes story, and moves on. Every now and then, however, they’ll throw such a curveball that people will be talking about it for the next 10 years.
Keke Palmer “Sorry to This Man”
Keke Palmer gave the internet one of its most useful reaction memes during a 2019 Vanity Fair lie detector test. While promoting Hustlers, Palmer was shown a photograph of former VP Dick Cheney and asked whether her character on True Jackson had been a better vice president.
There was just one problem: she genuinely had no idea who Cheney was. Her completely sincere confusion quickly spread across social media. Rumor has it, she still has no clue who that random man was.
Jack Nicholson Surprises Jennifer Lawrence
After winning an Oscar for Best Actress in 2013, Jennifer Lawrence found herself in a situation even she wasn’t prepared for: during a backstage interview with George Stephanopoulos, Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson suddenly appeared behind her and gave her big kudos on camera!
Lawrence looked shocked for a second, but not the bad kind of shocked. Then Nicholson mentioned that she reminded him of an old girlfriend, to which she replied in her own jokey way before covering her face in panic.
Elijah Wood Is Asked About Wigs
This bizarre interview originally appeared as an Easter egg on the DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Elijah Wood believed he was speaking with German interviewer Hans Jensen, but the interviewer was actually his co-star Dominic Monaghan using a fake accent.
The questions became progressively more ridiculous, eventually leading to the topic of wigs. Wood reassured his interviewer that he had never used any wigs, but that question broke him, and the conversation turned into a joke.
Tom Cruise Jumps on Oprah’s Couch
Tom Cruise’s 2005 visit to Oprah Winfrey’s show was going normally enough, but when Oprah asked about his relationship with Katie Holmes, Cruise’s excitement rapidly took over.
He dropped to his knees, pumped his fists, and jumped onto Oprah’s couch while the audience cheered in a confused choir of hyped-up voices. Holmes was eventually brought out from backstage, sending the crowd into an even louder frenzy. The clip spread everywhere and became one of the defining celebrity moments of the 2000s. Who knew that Tom Cruise was the real drama queen in their relationship?
Danny Pudi Gives Larry King a Reality Check
Larry King, who is used to sitting across from presidents, billionaires, and big-shot movie stars, got to have a conversation with Community star Danny Pudi in 2020.
When King asked which luxury Pudi couldn’t live without, the actor mentioned coffee and comfortable socks. King seemed rather confused by that answer and offered examples like private jets. Pudi reminded him that he was an actor on DuckTales of all things and that their lives were clearly very different.
Tom Holland Meets the “WatchMojo Lady”
When Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon realized they were speaking to the familiar voice behind WatchMojo’s videos, both actors became hilariously excited.
They even got to experience a live demo, although Zendaya did not seem like she was in on the joke, as she tried to understand why her co-stars were making such a fuss. Marvel fans quickly clipped and shared the exchange, turning an ordinary promotional stop into a viral fan-favorite.
Mila Kunis Turns the Interview Around
BBC Radio 1 reporter Chris Stark was visibly nervous when he interviewed Mila Kunis in 2013. But rather than suffering through it, Kunis encouraged him to talk about his friends, football, and trips to the pub. And before he knew it, their roles switched.
Kunis even entertained an invitation to watch his favorite football team and attend a friend’s wedding. And even after that “uno reverse,” Kunis still managed to answer the necessary promotional questions. What a legend.
Robin Williams on The Tonight Show
Whenever Robin Williams appeared on talk shows, he unleashed his chaotic creativity in every direction. During a 1991 interview with Johnny Carson, he decided to do a rapid-fire salvo of impressions, characters, accents, and jokes that still remains unmatched to this day.
One minute he was discussing Shakespeare, and the next he was doing an impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Following Williams’s death in 2014, clips from this and many other of his appearances became especially treasured reminders of his one-of-a-kind brilliance.
Dakota Johnson Corrects Ellen
In one of the most famous interview clips ever, Ellen DeGeneres joked that she hadn’t been invited to Johnson’s birthday party. She seemed like she was trying to guilt-trip the actress, but Johnson was not going to fall for that trap.
It turns out that Ellen had actually been invited to the party, and her own team confirmed that she had been out of town when it took place. That made things a bit awkward, but that’s why we watch these shows in the first place.
