Krishnan Guru-Murthy Defends Painful Robert Downey Jr Interview

Krishnan Guru-Murthy isn’t about to back down over his line of questioning which saw Robert Downey Jr walk out of a promotional interview for ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’.

The Hollywood star, who plays Iron Man in the Marvel movies, stormed out after he deemed questions about his director father, his politics and his 'dark times’ as a drug user too personal.

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Speaking about Channel 4 New’s stance on the matter, he said: “We don’t do promotional interviews on Channel 4 News.

“We agree with PR people that as well as talking about a new movie for a while we want to ask wider ranging questions on relatively serious topics, and we don’t guarantee to run any answers in particular.

“When Robert Downey Jr’s PR man rang up asking what we wanted to talk about, we said we had no particular agenda but would ask about the new Avengers superhero movie and his recovery from jail and drug abuse to Hollywood stardom.”

On Hollywood stars being obliged as part of their contract to do interviews only to promote the films they’re in, Guru-Murthy added: “My sympathy runs only up to a point. If I was going to ask any other interviewee about difficult topics I would probably have a chat beforehand to prepare them. Movie stars don’t do that.

“As anyone else in the public eye knows, the best way to eclipse an uncomfortable topic is to volunteer one that is more interesting.

“But when I’ve asked movie stars what they would like to talk about, to see if they have a nugget they would like to drop on Channel 4 News, the response is usually along the lines of 'not really, I hate all this’.”

He then added that stars like Robert Redford, Samuel L. Jackson and Carey Mulligan 'have all happily taken the chance to talk to me about things ranging from politics to sexism, from violence to Alzheimer’s disease’.

It’s not the first time that he has fallen foul of Hollywood temperaments.

Quentin Tarantino famously 'shut him down’ in 2013 after he asked the director about his predilection for on-screen violence, and how it sits in the wake of real-life violence like the Sandy Hook massacre.

“I’m not your slave and you’re not my master. You can’t make me dance to your tune. I’m not your monkey,” he said.

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Image credit: Channel 4