The worst questions of TIFF

by W. Andrew Powell
Rafe Spall at the TIFF 2011 press conference for Anonymous

The questions seem to be endless. Yes, even at the Toronto International Film Festival, when enough press get together, there are always some truly cringe-worthy questions that come up.

Maybe it’s because everyone is exhausted by day three alone, or maybe it’s just the range of press that come out to the Toronto. Either way, it’s sometimes hard to sit through press conferences and roundtables where you might have anywhere from 5 to 50 press in one room, all vying to get a question–seemingly any question–answered by the stars.

One friend of mine summed it up with questions like:

“Do blondes have more fun?”
“Who are you hoping to meet at TIFF?”
“What brings you to Toronto?”

But there are at least two examples of truly epically bad questions.

During a roundtable for Horns a couple of years ago, “the movie where Daniel Radcliffe plays this guy possessed by a demon who grows these horns,” one person asked Radcliffe, because of films like Harry Potter and now this, ‘Are you trying to kill god in your films, because you are an atheist?’

Personally, my favorite was a few years ago when Anna Kendrick was here for End of Watch. It was this big round table with international press (AKA, the worst) and one guy says to her; “So, you sing in this movie. Has anyone told you not to quit your day job yet?” and she’s like, “Well, actually, my next movie is a musical…” Of course, she was referring to Pitch Perfect, which ended up being a hit, not to mention her rendition of “Cups”.

I still feel embarrassed for that guy, but I also sure wish more people thought for a few more seconds before they rushed out a question or comment.

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