Actor Interviews That Aged Poorly

The following article includes accounts of domestic violence, substance abuse, and sexual assault.

There is an old saying which states that it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. This idea applies mostly to situations involving missed opportunities: Essentially, if one tries and fails to accomplish something, that will hurt less in the long run than having not tried at all. Where it doesn't apply is in cases where something is said or done that probably shouldn't have happened in the first place — an insensitive phrase, a foolish gesture. We've all had them, and celebrities are no exception.

But unlike most of us, the regrettable statements of celebrities are often preserved for all to see and hear by the media — in interviews or social media, where their gaffes can be viewed over and over again. The following are 12 actors who are probably still smarting over the fallout from these interviews, which haven't aged well at all.

For a period of time in 2011, Charlie Sheen went through a highly publicized meltdown that fascinated and repulsed viewers in equal measure. Sheen shut down production on his hit sitcom, "Two and a Half Men," after entering drug addiction treatment that year, and subsequently engaged in a publicity spree/terror campaign that involved him using an antisemitic slur to describe "Two and a Half Men" creator Chuck Lorre and ranting incessantly about his super-powered body and mind. Catchphrases like "Adonis DNA, "tiger blood," and "winning" became part of the social media lexicon while media critics and Sheen's own family, including ex-wives Brooke Mueller and Denise Richards, feared publicly for his health.

Eventually, the meltdown caught up with Sheen: He was fired from "Two and a Half Men" in 2011 and according to interviews in 2015, diagnosed with HIV that same year. He has returned to acting on occasion — most notably the sitcom "Anger Management" and a hilarious cameo as himself on Lorre's "Bookie" – but has spent much of his time reflecting on his past in interviews. Sheen told Yahoo! Entertainment, "There was 55 different ways for me to handle that situation, and I chose number 56. And so, you know, I think the growth for me post meltdown or melt forward or melt somewhere — however you want to label it — it has to start with absolute ownership of my role in all of it. And it was desperately juvenile."

Years after his death in 2020, Sean Connery is still a beloved screen icon thanks to his seven appearances as James Bond, plus his performances in countless other films, including his Oscar-winning turn in "The Untouchables." Often ignored in adoration of Connery's life, however, are ugly statements he made about violence towards women — not once, but on three separate occasions.

In a 1965 interview with Playboy (via news.com.au), Connery stated, "I don't think there is anything particularly wrong about hitting a woman, although I don't recommend doing it in the same way that you'd hit a man." He stood by those comments in a 1987 interview with Barbara Walters. "[Women] want to have the last word, but they're not happy with the last word," said Connery. "They want to say it again, and get into a really provocative situation ... then I think it's absolutely right."

Connery began to backpedal in a 1993 interview with Vanity Fair, although his explanation is more a roundabout confirmation. "I was really saying that to slap a woman was not the crudest thing you can do to her," he said, adding, "Sometimes there are women who want to take it to the wire. That's what they're looking for, the ultimate confrontation — they want a smack." Connery finally disavowed his comments in 2006 after an outcry from social media. "My view is I don't believe that any level of abuse against women is ever justified under any circumstance," he told the Times of London (via the Irish Times).

Bill Cosby's status as a stand-up comedian and beloved TV figure was torpedoed in 2014 when allegations surfaced that he had sexually abused dozens of women over four decades. In a 2015 deposition as part of a civil suit, Cosby admitted to using Quaaludes as a means of sedating women before having sexual relations with them. Though shocking at the time of release, several media outlets noted that Cosby had been joking about using drugs on women without their knowledge for decades.

The Village Voice cited a track on Cosby's 1969 album "It's True! It's True!" titled "Spanish Fly," in which Cosby riffs on the eponymous substance's alleged aphrodisiacal properties and fantasizes about putting it into girls' drinks. The effect is a myth: The main component of the Spanish fly is cantharidin, an insect extract used primarily to remove types of warts. The legend of its aphrodisiacal properties is most likely due to the warm sensation it produces in the body when ingested. Taking too much cantharidin can lead to internal bleeding, heart failure, and even death.

FiveThirtyEight.com found that Cosby mentioned Spanish fly on several occasions: He revisited the gag from "It's True! It's True!" in his 1991 book, "Childhood," and while promoting the book that same year, had an unsettling exchange about Spanish fly with Larry King on his CNN talk show. Though dismissed as a naughty story at the time, Cosby's comments about drugging women are now chilling.

Bill Cosby isn't the only celebrity to have a throwaway joke about a sensitive subject come back to haunt him. Former "That '70s Show" star Danny Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for two charges of forcible rape, made comments that seemed to allude to a darker nature on multiple occasions. Masterson's 2004 interview on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" saw him discussing his lack of a Long Island accent, despite having been raised there. Masterson said that there are certain words that can't escape an accent, and gives as an example a joke by his friend, actor Bodhi Elfman, who pretended to quote the actor by saying, "Hi, my name is Danny Masterson, would you like to touch my b**ls?"

A seemingly baffled O'Brien asked why Masterson might say such a thing, to which the actor replied, "Everybody should grab." O'Brien quickly retorted, "I've heard about you, and you'll be caught soon." Even more eyebrow-raising was Masterson's 2012 interview on comic actor Kevin Pollack's "Chat Show" podcast, in which he discussed his DJ name, Donkey Punch, which is a slang term for a violent sexual act. The episode, now deleted from the podcast's YouTube page, also featured a clip from the 2009 movie "Made for Each Other," in which Masterson's character, pretending to be a lawyer in a cheap commercial, tells the viewer, "I will rape your spouse ... financially."

In 2005, Tom Cruise made headlines twice, though not for his then-current film, "War of the Worlds." Coverage of Cruise grew exponentially that year because of comments he made about psychiatry — a medical specialty that the actor considered not only fraudulent but dangerous and even lethal. His position echoed that of the Church of Scientology, the controversial organization to which he belongs, and had already drawn criticism after Cruise called out actress Brooke Shields for taking medication to treat postpartum depression.

In a subsequent interview with Matt Lauer on "The Today Show," Cruise doubled down on his anti-psychiatry stance after being asked about his comments regarding Shields. After describing psychiatry as a "pseudo-science," Cruise went on to say that antidepressants are ineffective as treatment and capped his screed by claiming, "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance" — which surely must have come as a surprise to Shields and millions of other individuals suffering from depression, anxiety, and other issues.

Cruise's stance drew condemnation from the American Psychiatric Association, which said in a statement, "It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need." Cruise later apologized to Shields for his comments.

Some interviews turn sour for celebrities almost immediately after they're completed, while others marinate for months and even years before landing their full impact. Case in point for the latter: Mindy Kaling's 2016 interview with Conan O'Brien, in which she discussed an improvised kiss with co-star Lee Pace while filming "The Mindy Project." In the scene, Kaling's character was supposed to simply converse with Pace, but as she recalled to O'Brien, "He's so tall and so handsome, and in the middle of that, he was just supposed to be like, 'What do you think of that, Mindy?' and I was like [mimes kissing Pace]."

Kissing an actor without consent is one issue, but how Kaling handled the fallout from the improv was another, more serious problem altogether. When two of the show's writers told her that she could be fired for her actions, Kaling said, "I got very scared. Then I said, 'Tell anyone and you're fired.'" The comment drew laughs at the time of the show's airing, but in 2023, social media posts began surfacing that criticized Kaling for acting in the same privileged and inappropriate manner that had resulted in the cancellation of many male Hollywood figures during the #MeToo movement — of which Kaling had been a vocal supporter.

Vin Diesel was hit with a lawsuit in 2023 which alleged that the "Fast and Furious" franchise star committed sexual battery on a former assistant, Asta Jonasson, during the filming of "Fast Five" in 2011. Jonasson claimed that Diesel forced her onto a bed in an Atlanta hotel room and groped her; soon after the alleged incident, Jonasson said that the actor fired her. News of the lawsuit brought to light another uncomfortable incident involving the "Guardians of the Galaxy" voice actor and a Brazilian journalist in 2016.

Video of the interview showed Diesel speaking with interviewer Carol Moreira to promote "XXX: The Return of Xander Cage," but the actor's focus turned quickly from his film to Moreira herself. Diesel stated several times during the interview how "beautiful" Moreira was and eventually claimed that she was "too sexy" for him to complete the conversation. "I'm in love with the interviewer!" he stated at one point.

The New York Daily News quoted Moreira's introduction to the video on her YouTube page, in which she said, "I did not like it. At the time I did not know how to react, but you will see that I was uncomfortable ... it was not nice that he interrupted my work." Diesel reacted to the video by posting an uncut version of the interview on his Facebook page, where he wrote, "If I offended anyone, then let me apologize, because that is never my intention."

The subject of abortion has fierce adherents on both sides of the argument, but Lena Dunham managed to offend them both with a comment on a 2016 podcast. Speaking on her series "Women of the Hour" — from which the episode has been scrubbed — the "Girls" creator and star discussed a visit to Planned Parenthood in Texas, where she was invited to share a story about her own experiences with abortion (via Variety). While Dunham noted, "I myself had never had an abortion," the conversation allowed her to address her own long-dormant issues with abortion and exorcise them for good. However, Dunham capped the conversation with a tone-deaf note, stating, "Now I can say that I still haven't had an abortion, but I wish I had."

Response to the comment on social media by anti-choice and pro-choice advocates was, for once, largely united in opposition to Dunham's statement. Anti-choice supporters disliked her position, while pro-choice advocates found her statement flippant and out of touch with the emotional and financial obstacles that many women face when considering abortion. Dunham responded with an apology on Instagram, citing the "sort of 'delusional girl' persona that [she] often inhabits." She also promised to make donations to abortion rights groups in New York, Texas, and Ohio.

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep found herself careening down that path after answering a question about films from other cultures. Streep was serving as the jury president at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival when an Egyptian journalist asked her if she, as a white Hollywood performer, could truly understand the perspective of films from the Middle East or Africa.

Streep's answer started off on the right foot: She admitted that while she wasn't very familiar with the Middle East, she also noted that people share the same hopes and dreams everywhere. And with that, Streep stuck her foot in her mouth by saying, "You know, we're all Berliners, we're all Africans." She said more, but the media attention was focused primarily on the line about Africans.

Streep responded to the excoriation by media sources in an essay for the Huffington Post, for which she said that the "we're all Africans" line was intended to echo the famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner") speech given by President John F. Kennedy while visiting West Berlin in 1963. "I was not minimizing difference, but emphasizing the invisible connection empathy enables, a thing so central to the fact of being human, and what art can do: Convey another person's experience," wrote Streep.

Ben Affleck is often open in media interviews about his struggles with alcohol, for which he's sought treatment on several occasions. That candid approach has won Affleck support from fans, but as a 2021 interview on The Howard Stern Show (via Good Morning America) illustrated, it occasionally doesn't spare others from painful feelings. When asked about his marriage to actress Jennifer Garner, Affleck told Stern that if he had remained with her rather than divorcing in 2018, he'd probably still be drinking.

"It's part of why I started drinking," said Affleck, who said that feeling trapped in the marriage led him to drown his feelings in alcohol. "I was like, 'I can't leave 'cause of my kids, but I'm not happy, what do I do?'" Affleck later added that the demise of the marriage was ultimately due to the couple growing apart. "We had a marriage that didn't work," he said. "This happens, with somebody that I love and respect, but to whom I shouldn't be married any longer."

Admitting one's faults is part of recovery from addiction, but so is owning up to one's role in those mistakes. Affleck appeared to lay the blame for the marriage's end at the feet of Garner, but only acknowledged that his response was wrong. Affleck later walked back his comments to various media sources, claiming that his statements had been taken out of context.

Actress Vanessa Hudgens felt the full fury of social media when a seemingly offhand comment made on her Instagram page generated widespread negative responses from viewers. The former "High School Musical" star went live in 2020 with comments that apparently addressed the coronavirus and news that it would remain active into the summer of that year. In her post (via YouTube/Entertainment Tonight), Hudgens said, "Even if everybody gets it — like, yeah, people are going to die. But, like, inevitable?" Hudgens appeared to realize that her comments were going to earn blowback, and quickly added, "Maybe I shouldn't be doing this right now."

Her prediction proved correct. The backlash she experienced, some of which came from her 38 million followers, prompted Hudgens to post a new Instagram story to appease rising tempers. "Yesterday I did an Instagram Live and I realized today that some of my comments are being taken out of context," she said. "Yeah, I don't take this situation lightly by any means. I am home. So stay inside, y'all."

Apparently, the post wasn't enough of an apology, as she addressed the original Instagram post on her X account. There, she called her comments insensitive, and said that the response from fans had been a "huge wake-up call."

In addition to her Oscar-winning career as an actress, which includes multiple appearances as Pepper Potts in "Iron Man" and other MCU titles, Gwyneth Paltrow also oversees the wildly successful health and lifestyle website Goop.com. Paltrow and Goop have earned a loyal following, as well as media attention for some of the site's more outre endorsements: A 2016 article in the U.K.'s Independent cites apitherapy, which involves multiple bee stings to cure inflammation, and a process for women that involves herbal steaming and a part of the body that probably wants neither herbs nor steam.

All of this made her 2011 comment about processed cheese something of an eyebrow-raiser. In a 2012 Q&A on Goop.com, a fan asked Paltrow to confirm an answer she gave to interviewer Jonathan Ross in 2011, who wanted to know if the actress would rather eat cheese from a can or smoke crack cocaine. Paltrow, who stated crack as her choice in 2011, doubled down in 2012, stating, "Hell yes. You know, crack might be extreme, but spray cheese is not my kind of party." What's not being said here: crack cocaine is most likely not its user's party either, especially given that addiction to a debilitating and often lethal narcotic is not ever a choice. Equating junk food with deadly drugs was not only tone-deaf but also completely divorced from reality.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues or may be the victim of domestic violence or sexual abuse, contact the relevant resources below:

• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
• The National Domestic Violence website or contact their Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
• The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).