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Avengers: Age of Ultron star Robert Downey Jr ended a press promo with Channel 4 News abruptly when the notoriously hard interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked him about his past problems with drugs.
Bolshy Guru-Murthy has made a name for himself by getting under Hollywood heavyweights skin during interviews.
He was cut short by Quentin Tarantino in 2013 during a Django Unchained press junket for a seemingly innocuous question about violence in movies.
The Pulp Fiction director famously told the Channel 4 newsman: “I’m shutting your butt down.” Before leaving the interview.
Guru-Murthy was interviewing Robert Downey Jr about the hotly anticipated summer blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron, when things turned sour.
Asked about his past drug problems and his time spent in prison, the Iron Man star quickly ended the interview in an uncharacteristically non smooth talking fashion.
“It’s getting a bit Diane Sawyer and you’re a bit of a schmuck,” Robert Downey Jr was heard saying while exiting.
US broadcaster Sawyer is renowned for her probing personal questions and the confessional nature of the interviews she conducts with celebrities.
At the start of the interview, broadcast yesterday, Downey seemed happy to answer questions about the new Avengers movie and his role as Iron Man.
But the mood turned when he was asked about a quote he gave to the New York Times some years ago, in which he had made reference to his time in prison.
The actor declined to expand on the quote, saying it had come at a specific time.
Guru-Murthy went on to bring up Downey Jr’s relationship with his father and “the dark periods you went to,” prompting the actor to say: “I’m sorry, what are we doing?”
A publicist off camera then stopped the interview, at which point Downey Jr jumped up and left the room.
Guru-Murthy looked a little awkward at the end of the clip – when what he really needed to do was shout: “Channel 4 New Team – Assemble!”
Hard work.