Miles Teller John Nacion/Variety/Getty Images Miles Teller has been in Cannes promoting his star turn in James Gray’s competition title Paper Tiger, but the star continues to be shy about press junkets after a September 2015 Esquire magazine profile.
“That was so mishandled,” Teller tells IndieWire about the fallout from the cover story with an opening line that reads: “You’re sitting across from Miles Teller at the Luminary restaurant in Atlanta and trying to figure out if he’s a dick.” Teller still carries a grudge over the feature.
“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,” Teller recounts.
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The Esquire writer carried the “dick” theme to the final closing line: “He gives you a hug and goes off to contribute to the cache or catalog or canon or whatever the fuck you call it and charm the world with his dickishness.”
Teller, who’s gone on to star in such hit movies as Top Gun: Maverick and Michael, recalls telling his handlers he wasn’t up to doing more sit-down press interviews. “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?” he added.
“So 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,” Teller argues.
Paper Tiger follows Hester and Irwin, played by Scarlett Johansson and Teller, respectively, who are raising a family in 1980s Queens, when Irwin’s flashy brother (Adam Driver) sells him on a moneymaking endeavor that leaves them in the crosshairs of the Russian mob.
The crime thriller has Gray having helmed a semi-fictionalized return to his family life in mid-1980s Queens and is also a companion piece to his 2022 film Armageddon Time.
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