One celebrity has sworn off profile interviews forever after feeling “violated” by Esquire.
Emmy-nominated actor Miles Teller, 39, told IndieWire he has not done an interview since then unless it’s on camera, for fear of being misrepresented, after his 2015 interview with the publication produced a profile that referred to him as a “d---” seven times.
The article begins, “You’re sitting across from Miles Teller…and trying to figure out if he’s a d---.”
It concludes by declaring that the star will “charm the world with his d---ishness.”
Teller said the article was “mishandled,” while promoting his latest film, Paper Tiger, at the Cannes Film Festival.
“The reason why I have not done profiles is because I said, ‘Wow, if I’m not doing this interview on camera, this person can misquote things or put things out of order or say things that didn’t happen.’ It felt like such a violation of what actually transpired.”
He went on, “I told my team, ‘Guys, I don’t think I’m doing this again, because I’m reading this and this doesn’t sound like me to me.’ This is not life, so why would I ever want to be a part of something where they can just put that in?’”
Teller, who was Emmy-nominated for executive producing 2025’s The Gorge, also appears in the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, as Jackson’s longtime entertainment attorney, John Branca.
He made his feelings known about the profile when it was published in 2015, according to Variety, when he wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, “Esquire couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t think there’s anything cool or entertaining about being a d--- or an a-----e. Very misrepresenting.”
Teller stars opposite Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Paper Tiger, in which he plays a Queens man who gets dragged into a dangerous criminal underworld in the 1980s. He won’t be doing any profiles to promote it, he shared.
“It’s unfortunate that being a good person, that doesn’t sell. People want to click on the negativity. If you go to bed and put your head on your pillow, and how you treat people truly, that’s what matters,” he said on Tuesday, explaining that he took solace in the fact that “the actors, the directors, the crew and the producers” he works with know his true behavior. “You can’t hide who you are when you’re on set.” Anyway, he concluded. “That interview was like 12 years ago.”
