This week The Hollywood Reporter
online posted “Creative Until You
Die,” a series of
interviews with ten legendary entertainers who are still going strong in their
90s. It included such beloved figures as Cloris Leachman, Don Rickles, and Dick
Van Dyke. “Nine of the interviews went great,” THR stated. “One was a trainwreck.”
The trainwreck was a
torturous, seven minute interview, if it can be called that, with comic
icon Jerry Lewis. It consists entirely of Lewis glaring impatiently and
defiantly at his off-screen interviewer Andy Lewis (no relation, hopefully) and
spitting out terse non-answers as Andy struggled to get something from the man THR charitably called “the famously difficult comedian.”
Andy Lewis wrote
that he had “a bad feeling” about how things would go the second he stepped
into Jerry’s Las Vegas home. “He looked angry. I already knew Lewis' reputation
for being difficult and acerbic with his audiences and in interviews. And he's
a well-known control freak.”
“Throughout the
photo shoot,” Andy continued,
Lewis complained
about the amount of equipment in the house, the number of assistants and how
the shots were set up. By the time we sat down for the interview about an hour
later, Lewis had worked up a full head of steam, and it seemed like he was
punishing THR by doing the interview but being as uncooperative as
possible.
“Have you ever
thought about retiring?” Andy began.
“Why?” Jerry shot
back, unsmiling.
“Was there never a
moment that you thought it might be time to retire or that you would –”
“Why?” Lewis
interrupted forcefully. And the interview went downhill from there.
Asked if he saw any
similarities between himself and other nonagenarian entertainers, Lewis cut off
the question with “None.” Asked if there was any difference between the Vegas
of 1947, when Jerry first played there, and the Vegas of today, Lewis
responded, “None.” Was the audience then any different from today? “No.” Do you
have a favorite story of partner Dean Martin or any other entertainer you’ve
worked with over the years? “No.” None at all? “None.” Anything else you wanna
– “No.”
At one point Jerry cruelly
mocks Andy’s uncomfortable laugh. It’s not a merely awkward moment – it’s an
ugly one.
When the interview
ends, Jerry immediately rises and says to the crew, “All right, clean it out of
here.”
THR made light of it all, calling it
both “awkward and funny” and claiming that it demonstrates just how “vital and
completely engaged” the 90-year-old still is. “He's just engaged — almost happily
so — in being difficult,” THR
concluded. Ordinarily, being vital and completely engaged would be positive
attributes for anyone of any age, but being happily engaged in being
“difficult” at 90 is sad and shameful.
Many commenters
beneath the THR article sided with
Lewis and criticized the interviewer and his crew as amateurish, incompetent,
and unprofessional. They felt that the old-timer Jerry had earned the right to
be cantankerous and not to suffer fools gladly, and that the interview was
funny. This too is a sad and shameful perspective.
Regardless of how
uninspired Andy Lewis’ questions or interviewing style may or may not have been,
Jerry’s undisguised antagonism insured that he and most other interviewers would
be left floundering and self-conscious.
In any case, the
interviewer’s role in this unpleasant exchange is frankly irrelevant. Assuming
that THR’s version of the story is
correct, then Jerry Lewis was simply inexcusably rude. Nothing justifies his
mean-spirited non-cooperation. Neither advanced age nor professional stature
nor fame earns one the “right” to be uncivil. But sadly, we tend to give
celebrities a pass for being “difficult” either because we expect artists to be
so or because we are undeservedly in awe of the rich and famous.
If Lewis was in a
cranky mood or didn’t feel up to doing the interview that day, he could have postponed
it. If the interviewer had been the
antagonistic one, Jerry would have been justified in calling him out for it on
camera or shutting down the interview, neither action of which would have
necessitated cruelty or incivility.
If the interviewer
and his crew were amateurish, Jerry could have shown some professionalism and
mentoring generosity by turning the interview into a “teachable moment,” as
Barack Obama might say, and helping them up their game for the future. Granted,
that’s hardly Lewis’ responsibility, but it would have earned him the crew’s
gratitude and respect, and his profile in THR
would have highlighted Jerry’s magnanimity and class rather than his
belligerence and malice. As it is, his interview is certainly the most
talked-about of the series, but for all the wrong reasons.
From Acculturated, 12/22/16
