Seven star names and shames worst celeb interviews
A former Channel Seven showbiz reporter has named and shamed the worst celebrities he's interviewed.
Nelson Aspen, 61, who as an entertainment correspondent for Sunrise for two decades opened up on his worst celebrity encounters fellow showbiz reporter Kjersti Flaa on her YouTube show.
Flaa who is known for revealing her own "nightmare" celebrity encounter with Blake Lively, prompted Aspen to share his own experience with the Gossip Girl actress.
Aspen said that his first interview with Lively in 2016 was “fun and playful” and he was "gobsmacked" by her beauty. But he had a very different experience just two years later when he interviewed her and Anna Kendrick for A Simple Favor.
“I’m figuring, ‘Oh this is going to be fun.’ I’d interviewed Anna before and she’s fine, but Blake? She’s going to be be a hoot, I can’t wait,” Aspen recalled.
“They were paired together, and I think that may have had something to do with it. She [Lively] could’ve been having a bad day, maybe they didn’t get along, maybe it was competition, maybe it was two egos trapped in the same room, maybe Blake is just better one-on-one … I don’t know, but she answered every question with a question, combatively.
“It was not pleasant, and Anna sort of did the same. It’s like she was like, ‘OK this is girl power, we’re going to be team up on the journalist.’
“And in your interview with Blake, I recognised it, this is a trait, obviously a recurring one,” he told Flaa.
“Thanks to you, everybody’s warned.”
He then revealed that one of his most uncomfortable chats was with Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, and prior to his interview, a publicist warned him that De Niro "won't look you in the eyes".
That was exactly what happened when he interviewed the actor.
“The camera that was on me was off to a weird angle so that Robert never had to look me in the face,” Aspen recalled.
“He looked off camera, but when we cut it together it looked as if he was looking at me.
“They went to so much trouble to avoid him having to look at the journalist.”
Another A-lister he interviewed was Marvel star Paul Rudd, considered to be one of the nicest guys in Hollywood, but Aspen said it wasn't always the case.
“He’s usually very sweet, but it was his birthday, and that’s when everybody was talking about ‘ageless Paul Rudd’,” Aspen said.
“They [publicists] said, ‘Don’t ask him about his youthful appearance, and don’t say Happy Birthday.’ I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
“Yes it was coming from the publicist, but he must have said, ‘I don’t want to talk about my birthday’.”
"I can’t remember exactly how it went down, but whatever it was they were very sensitive about it, and it was very uncomfortable and awkward, and nobody says that about Paul Rudd.
“But it happens, they’re people too.”
However, his interviews weren't all bad, with Hugh Jackman known as one of the kindest stars in Hollywood.
“I’ve interviewed him a thousand times. He’s the best,” Aspen said.
Meryl Streep and Julie Andrews were also among Aspen’s favourites.
Image: Youtube