Adam Driver Walked Out Of An Interview After Hearing A Clip Of Himself Singing, But That’s Not The Whole Story
Of all the horror stories about Hollywood actors out there, Adam Driver walking out of an NPR interview because he didn't want to hear a clip of himself in Marriage Story sounds pretty benign. However, after The Daily Beast broke the news on Tuesday, opinions were divided on Twitter over whether his reaction was justified, but the issue is way more than one interview.
According Daily Beast reporter Maxwell Tani, host Terry Gross offered Driver the option of removing his headphones when Fresh Air played back the clip of Driver singing "Being Alive" from Company in the Netflix film, but Driver left the interview when the clip was played.
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“We don’t really understand why he left,” Fresh Air executive producer Danny Miller told The Daily Beast in an email. “We were looking forward to the interview—Terry thinks he’s a terrific actor, he was a great guest when he was on [Fresh Air] in 2015—so we were disappointed that we didn’t have a new interview to share with our listeners about Marriage Story.”
But that 2015 interview is when Driver first informed the host of his dislike around watching back his performances.
“I don’t want to hear the bad acting that probably was happening during that clip,” he said.
“Does it throw you off to hear yourself?” Gross asked.
“Yeah, no, I’ve watched myself or listened to myself before, then always hate it,” he explained. “And then wish I could change it, but you can’t. And I think I have, like, a tendency to try to make things better or drive myself and the other people around me crazy with the things I wanted to change or I wish I could change.”
But in a recent profile in The New Yorker, the severity of his distaste was clarified as genuine anxiety that began back when he first watched himself in Girls.
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“That’s when I was, like, I can’t watch myself in things," he told the outlet. "I certainly can’t watch this if we’re going to continue doing it." He also recounted feeling like he "had to puke" during the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. His openness to talking about his anxieties around his own performances has cause many people to come to his defense on Twitter.
This is a real thing. Acting is about finding the truth in your character, in their words and in their actions. It’s your job to play those truths to your audience. No matter how good you are, there’s always once person who sees the lie. You. https://t.co/F7tYwJBmNz
— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) December 18, 2019
Seeing so many snide tweets about this. If the man has anxiety or a phobia then let him do whatever he needs to do. Being a famous actor doesn’t mean you don’t have mental health needs just like everyone else. He wasn’t rude to anyone, he was just anxious. https://t.co/b6xx864bQF
— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) December 18, 2019
If you carefully read the Adam Driver New Yorker profile (which um maybe if you were a radio producer prepping an interview you would have done) NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE SURPRISED YOU
— Aminatou Sow (@aminatou) December 17, 2019
Refinery29 has reached out to Driver for comment.