Mike Segar
In a new interview this week, Jimmy Fallon opened up about how the intense backlash to his hair-ruffling interview with Donald Trump just two months before the 2016 election affected him personally. “It was definitely a down time,” Fallon told The Hollywood Reporter this week. “You go, ‘Alright, we get it. I heard you. You made me feel bad. So now what? Are you happy? I'm depressed. Do you want to push me more? What do you want me to do? You want me to kill myself? What would make you happy? Get over it.’” Fallon went on to apologize, saying he never intended to “normalize” Trump, nor did he “want to make anyone angry—I never do and I never will. It's all in the fun of the show. I made a mistake. I'm sorry if I made anyone mad. And, looking back, I would do it differently.” The Tonight Show showrunner Katie Hockmeyer recently discussed the fallout from that interview with The Daily Beast, saying, “Of course, no one likes to be criticized and in that moment I don’t think anyone knew what the future was going to hold. But I feel like we’ve moved on from that and we’ve done a lot of wonderful things this year.”
