In the age of AMAs and live threads and long-form podcast interviews, the movie press tour is such a contrived anachronism that I’m surprised testy interviews like this don’t happen more often. You can almost feel the actors going “really? we’re still doing these?” Here, Jamie Edwards, an entertainment correspondent for London radio station Magic 105.4, tried his damnedest to squeeze some enthusiasm out of crotchedy old Bruce Willis, who seems like he just awoke from hibernation. Edwards’ enthusiasm seemed to only make Willis more angry, like bonking a bear on the nose with a tree branch. Willis seems annoyed solely because Edwards seems so happy to be there. God, I love it when older dudes completely stop giving a sh*t.
Good luck finding what set Willis off. It looks like he starts the interview annoyed. Edwards asks him what his favorite place to film was, and Willis says “Istanbul,” which Edwards points out wasn’t one of Red 2‘s filming locations, saying, “At least it proves I’ve seen the movie though.”
This, for some reason, seems to make Willis angry, at which point Willis says, “Has any actor ever told you this, Jamie? This part is not acting, what we’re doing right now. You might be, but we’re just selling the film now. Sales. The fun part was making the movie.”
TRANSLATION: Stop trying to have fun, you fluffy-haired clown.
“So how would you sell me the film then?” Edwards asked.
“I wouldn’t,” Willis said. “I would slash my hooves.”
I’ve never even heard that expression before. “I would be a horse committing suicide before put any effort into doing that thing that I just told you I came here to do! Now fetch me some oats you goddamned jockey!”
Then Edwards tries to get into Willis’s good graces by telling him he loved the film, which, if he’d been paying attention at all, he would’ve known would be a losing strategy. This revelation only seems to confirm to Willis that he’s being interviewed by the dumbest man who has ever lived.
Of course, if you’ve listened to any of Kevin Smith’s 175 podcasts on the subject, you know that this isn’t the first time Bruce Willis has been hard to work with. It’s hard to know what actually set him off in this instance, but… maybe he just hates guys named Jamie? Or maybe he’s just kind of an asshole.
