The celebrity press junket can feel like a chore for all concerned. With Avengers: Age of Ultron about to dominate the box office, the movie’s stars are doing the rounds of news and entertainment shows (is there a difference anymore?), answering the same questions over and over. Robert Downey Jr. sat down with Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy, no doubt expecting a set of light questions about Iron Man’s suit or who’s the bigger dreamboat, Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth. Instead, Guru-Murthy decided to act like a real journalist and ask some tough questions, specifically about the actor’s history with drugs and comments he made several years ago about his political views. In a 2008 interview with The New York Times, Downey Jr. is quoted as saying “I have a really interesting political point of view, and it’s not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here. But 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.” When Guru-Murthy asked him to explain, the actor got testy before walking out on the interview.
“The funny thing is, things you said 5-7 years ago — or things you said in an interview that made sense to you at the time — I could pick that apart for two hours and I’d be no closer to the truth than to some half-assed answer right now. I couldn’t even tell you what a liberal is. So therein lies your answer,” responded Downey Jr. But Guru-Murthy wouldn’t back down, prompting the movie star to ask “Um, are we promoting a movie? I’m certainly not going to backpedal on anything I’ve said — but actually, I wouldn’t say I’m a Republican or a Liberal or a Democrat.” Downey Jr. walked out on the reporter, saying “It’s just getting a little Diane Sawyer in here.” This is not the first time that Guru-Murthy has ruffled feathers during a Hollywood press junket: Quentin Tarantino once shut down an interview with him when he asked about the level of violence in his movies.
