After being queried on politics and drugs, film star smiles and waves goodbye to UK Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy: ‘It’s getting a little Diane Sawyer in here’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Having clashed with Quentin Tarantino in an interview two years ago, the UK Channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy has upset another Hollywood titan – Robert Downey Jr.

Promoting Avengers: Age of Ultron, the actor took exception to Guru-Murthy asking him about an interview he gave to the New York Times in 2008, in which he said: “You can’t go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal.”

In a testy exchange, Downey Jr said that he couldn’t remember what he meant: “Things that you said in an interview seven years ago, I could pick that apart for two hours and be no closer to the truth than I’d be giving you some half-assed answer right now. I couldn’t even really tell you what a liberal is.”

When Guru-Murthy pressed the point, Downey Jr responded: “Are we promoting a movie?”



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Saying that he wasn’t a liberal, Republican or Democrat, the actor added: “I was talking to the person who was doing the interview that day, and that just happened to be my opinion. That’s the nice thing, you can have opinions and they kind of change and flow.”

The atmospheric temperature plunged further when Guru-Murthy said that as well as the film, he would like to ask some more personal questions. Downey Jr retorted: “You have as much time as anyone else will.”

Glaring at a fumbling Guru-Murthy, he added: “Your foot’s starting to jump – you’d better get to your next question.”

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As Guru-Murthy said that Downey Jr had spoken before about his relationship with his father, drinking and taking drugs, the actor shook his head and said: “I’m sorry, I really don’t … what are we doing?”

Guru-Murthy replied: “I’m just asking questions,” at which point Downey Jr smiled, got up and waved goodbye.

Referring to the primetime US news journalist, famous for her confessional interviews, Downey Jr said with his mic off: “It’s just getting a little Diane Sawyer in here.”

Guru-Murthy tweeted that the interview was “a steely moment from Ironman”.

In 2013, Tarantino had said to Guru-Murthy: “I’m shutting your butt down,” after being pressed on the link between real and onscreen violence.