One can imagine the gatekeepers of Hollywood emailing the September Esquire cover article about the actor Miles Teller to their clients with a cautionary warning: “This is what happens when you run your mouth to a reporter.”

Mr. Teller, the 28-year-old star of films like “Whiplash” and “Fantastic Four,” appeared to go off-script in a way celebrities rarely do during those highly negotiated restaurant sit-downs with crumb-snatching writers.

He compared his penis to a highball glass, boasted of all the pot he had smoked and mused about his appearance, saying, “I was thinking about that today, how I probably think I’m better looking than the public thinks I am.”

If the Esquire article did little to advance Mr. Teller’s appeal with some fans, it was nevertheless part of a long, if infrequent, journalistic tradition.