Highlights
- Teller says a 2015 Esquire profile that labeled him “kind of a dick” felt like “such a violation.”
- The Whiplash star has avoided press profiles ever since, citing fears of being misquoted.
- Teller, now promoting Paper Tiger at Cannes, says “people want to click on the negativity.”
Miles Teller has not forgotten — or forgiven — that notorious 2015 magazine hit job. Not even a little bit.
The Top Gun: Maverick star is making the rounds at the Cannes Film Festival this week to promote his new film Paper Tiger, but it’s an old interview that’s got everyone talking. In a new chat with IndieWire, Teller, 39, addressed a now-infamous Esquire profile that concluded he was “kind of a dick.”
And yeah — he’s still pretty bothered by it.
The piece opened with the line, “You’re sitting across from Miles Teller at the Luminary restaurant in Atlanta and trying to figure out if he’s a dick,” and closed with a suggestion he would “charm the world with his dickishness.” A rough read for anyone, let alone someone who was, at the time, one of Hollywood’s hottest up-and-comers.
“That was so mishandled,” Teller told IndieWire in Cannes. “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.”
“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?'”
It’s a fair point. Nobody wants to pick up a magazine and see themselves described as a dick — especially when they feel like the whole thing was taken out of context.
Teller fired back on Twitter at the time, writing: “Esquire couldn’t be more wrong. I don’t think there’s anything cool or entertaining about being a dick or an asshole. Very misrepresenting.”
More than a decade later, he’s got some perspective on it — but he’s clearly not letting it go entirely. “It’s unfortunate that being a good person, that doesn’t sell. People want to click on the negativity,” he said.
True, but it’s also kind of ironic that we’re all clicking on this story right now.
Teller is also quick to point out that the people who actually matter — his costars, directors, and crew members — know who he really is. “The actors, the directors, the crew and the producers all know who I really am because you can’t hide who you are when you’re on set,” he said.
“If you go to bed and put your head on your pillow and how you treat people truly, that’s what matters. That [2015] interview was like 12 years ago,” he added.
Fair enough.
Reflecting on the early phase of his career, after breaking out with 2010’s Rabbit Hole and 2014’s Whiplash, Teller noted that most actors are “just hoping to get a role.” The Esquire incident clearly hit differently because he was still trying to build his image in the industry.
Teller most recently played lawyer John Branca in the Michael Jackson biopic Michael, and is now at Cannes promoting Paper Tiger, the James Gray-directed drama that also stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. Neon is set to release the film in theaters later this year.
So while the Esquire interview may have put Teller off written profiles for over a decade, it sounds like he’s slowly warming back up to press — on his own terms, of course.
