Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Can You Make it Through This Cringeworthy Interview with Jerry Lewis?

To say that Jerry Lewis and reporter Andy Lewis didn’t hit it off would be an understatement.

For seven cringeworthy minutes, the interviewer asked the actor questions about his career for The Hollywood Reporter’s feature “Creative Until You Die,” a series of interviews with working actors in the 90’s and up age bracket.

“Throughout the photo shoot, Lewis complained about the amount of equipment in the house, the number of assistants and how the shots were set up,” Andy Lewis wrote in a piece that accompanied the video. “By the time we sat down for the interview about an hour later, Lewis had worked up a full of head of steam, and it seemed like he was punishing THR by doing the interview by being as uncooperative as possible.”

By “punishing,” the reporter means that the 90-year-old Lewis refused to give more than a terse, three word answer for each question. Watch below, and prepare yourself for quite possibly one of the most uncomfortable celebrity interviews of all time.

Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter at @theakglassman.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.