We interviewed Cara Delevingne about Paper Towns earlier this month and when we asked her what surprised her the most about filmmaking, she said, “Probably the press tours?”
For weeks, she was killing it— giving YouTube Troye Sivan crazy eyebrows at the movie’s Sydney premiere, catching chocolates in her mouth in Berlin, teasing Michael Strahan about his Magic Mike cameo, beatboxing, interviewing co-star Nat Wolff for Cinemax, getting proposed to by a puppet and playing the drums on Spanish television (which led the New York Observer to call her “the greatest talk show guest ever“).
But the internet has been abuzz about a disastrous interview she had with Marianne McClary, Kenneth Rudulph and Mark Allen of Good Day Sacramento. It’s been called “painfully awkward,” “cringiest,” “excruciating,” “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad.” We agree. It’s all that and more. But not because of Cara.
Here are eight moments Cara’s Good Day Sacramento interview went very, very wrong.
1. When they got her name wrong.
“Carla Delevingne is in the movie. She joins us live from New York City to talk about Paper Towns,” said Marianne McClary. Carla? Really?
2. When they asked if she read Paper Towns and then laughed.
Marianne asked Cara, “The book is taught, I know, in a lot of high schools and such, did you get a chance to read it or do you even have time to sit and read?” And then she laughed.
Cara deadpanned, “Uh no, I never read the book. Or the script, actually. I kind of winged it. Uh, no, of course I loved the book. I think the book is amazing. John Green is an incredible author. So really if you haven’t read his books, you should… Don’t miss them.”
3. When Kenneth Rudulph asked this inane non-question.
He said: “You know I’m wondering, looking at, as Marianne was talking about how busy you are, we’re looking at your IMDB and all the projects, it looks like you’re doing one thing after the next, after the next, do you find that it’s easier for you to focus because you’re so busy? If you had down time, maybe it wouldn’t be so easy for you? What do you think?”
Cara wrinkled her famous brows at this one before answering, “No, I don’t know where that comes from. I think, uh (laughs), yeah, it’s not easy, the focus. I mean I love what I do. It’s not crazy, it’s my passion, all of these things. I’ve wanted to do these things since I was young so it’s not too hard…I’m living my dream.”
And before she could finish, he said, “Not too hard? Oh, all right.”
Even Kenneth agrees that his question sucked:
Yeah, I could have asked a better question. That was my bad. LOL https://t.co/lKKHn7F0pH
— Ken Rudulph (@MrKenRudulphTV) July 29, 2015
4. When Mark Allen thought Cara wasn’t energetic enough.
“I saw you in London talking a couple of weeks ago on TV and you seemed a lot more excited about it than you do right now. Are you just exhausted?”
When Cara heard the question, she gave a look that said, “Can you believe this guy?” But she answered politely anyway.
“Ooh. Uh, no. I mean, I’m still very excited. You know, the premiere was last night and it was an emotional night. It felt like the end of an era but I’m not any less excited than I was a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I had a bit more energy. It’s the morning…”
And because the hosts had started laughing again, you couldn’t hear Cara say, “…Don’t be mean.”
We talked about Cara’s exhaustion during our interview and she didn’t seem put off by our question—probably because we weren’t insinuating anything. Listen to the clip here:
5. When Marianne said Cara seemed “irritated.”
“You do seem a bit… a bit irritated. Perhaps it’s just us,” she said.
Cara replied, “Yeah, yeah I think it’s just you.”
And then the anchors started talking over her again so we couldn’t hear the rest of what she was saying.
“You seem a bit irritated” is something we can imagine a mother telling her teenage child. You don’t expect to hear a journalist say that to her interview subject.
6. When Marianne suggested that Cara take a nap or grab a Red Bull.
Realizing that the interview was going nowhere, Marianne says, “We’ll let you go then, how about that? We’ll let you go take a little nap, maybe get a Red Bull, how about that?”
7. Their reaction when the feed was cut.
When Cara disappeared from screen, they oohed, acting like they hadn’t just ended the interview.
Marianne: “She was in a mood! Jeez Louise, everything’s sarcastic!”
Kenneth: “I think she was trying to be sarcastic on purpose, I thought she was trying to be funny but if she wasn’t…”
Marianne: “I don’t know, I think she was a little irritated…. I mean these guys do these interviews from 800 TV stations… but still.”
Mark: “But still. You make five million dollars for six weeks’ worth of work, you can pretend to talk to Good Day Sacramento with some oomph.”
8. When their crew joined the action by flashing an unflattering shot of Cara on-screen and playing screams in the background.
And they kept talking about her.
Marianne: She’s not the Margo you envisioned…”
Mark: “You should have told her that.”
Kenneth: “That would have gone over like gangbusters.”
Marianne: “Sheesh.”
Kenneth: “We were kidding, like, we were having fun with you.”
Mark: “She was so peppy on UK… (mimics Cara) ‘Oh, it’s delightful, Rob, I love playing this part, I love working with Burberry.”
Marianne: “Anyhoo. We have to shake that one off and move on.”
But Cara’s fans are determined not to let the anchors move on, taking to Twitter, spreading the hashtags #apologizetoCara and #baddaySac and flooding Good Day Sacramento’s Instagram account with comments, calling them “rude,” “patronizing,” “condescending” and “unprofessional.”
These anchors need to take the cue from Today’s Savannah Guthrie who also had an early morning interview with Cara and her co-star Nat Wolff and was able to roll with Cara’s sarcastic sense of humor without throwing shade.
Meanwhile, Cara posted this on Twitter:
Some people just don't understand sarcasm or the British sense of humour
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) July 29, 2015
Watch the whole painful thing below:
