You’d think being a Hollywood star with bucket-loads of money and hoards of fans would keep you happy, but Goldie Hawn was apparently less than friendly when she sat down for a chat with Andrew Denton.
The Aussie TV star told 97.3 FM’s Bianca, Terry and Bob on Monday that Hawn was his worst guest ever and described her as both “bad” and “unpleasant” to interview. In fact, the interview was such a disaster, he decided against airing their awkward chat, and to this day it’s never been televised.
“Maybe she was having a really bad day and it was via satellite, but she was so bad and so unpleasant,” he said.
He added that Hawn’s management team was also awful, saying, “[they] called our producer the ‘c’ word. It was just an awful experience”.
“We just thought, ‘we’re not putting you onto air and goodbye’.”
After years working on both television and radio, Denton has come across his fair share of celebrities, and while Hawn was his most unpleasant interviewee, it was Rolf Harris, who was convicted of sexual assault in 2014, who left him the most disturbed.
“As the interview went on, it got darker and darker, there was this clear self hatred coming out and none of which I had a clue about,” he explained about his chat with Harris.
“I remember driving away from that interview and saying to my producer ‘you know I’m paid to do this as a living but I have no idea what just happened there’.”
Despite a few disappointing interviews over the years, the Gold Logie winner revealed his all-time favourite guest was British actress Miriam Margolyes, (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Harry Potter), saying, “she was fabulous” and heaps of fun.
Denton, 57, is set to return to the small screen this week with his new show Interview. The series marks Denton’s long-awaited return to television after being diagnosed with advanced heart disease last year.
Following his diagnosis, Denton was forced to cut back on his work commitments and pull out of a high-profile campaign supporting euthanasia.
Denton has been vocal about voluntary euthanasia having watched his own father’s painful struggle with a heart condition before his death. Victoria recently became the first state in Australia to legalise euthanasia, but others are yet to follow.
Like his previous show Enough Rope, Interview will feature sit-downs with some of the world’s biggest celebrities as well as chats with some of Australia’s everyday heroes.
Interview airs on Channel 7 on April 17 at 9pm.