Miles Teller Stepped Away From Magazine Profiles After ‘Mishandled’ ‘Esquire’ Interview

By Larisha Paul

Larisha Paul

In 2015, Esquire published a profile of Miles Teller that opened with the journalist interviewing the actor “trying to figure out if he’s a dick.” More than a decade later, Teller is still thinking about it. The article, he recently told IndieWire at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, led to an intentional step away from written profiles.

“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.”

At the time, in 2015, Teller responded to the story, saying, “I don’t think there’s anything cool or entertaining about being a dick or an asshole.” At Cannes, he said there was a clear disconnect between his self-perception and what he read on the page. “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,” he said. “This is not life, so why would I ever want to be a part of something where they can just put that in?’”

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