The post-screening Q&A is a lovely tradition that often retrospectively seems like it was better in theory than in practice. If you’ve been to a handful of them, you may be aware that the Venn diagram of people more inclined to get up and actually ask a question about the film they’ve just watched, and people who love to hear themselves talk regardless of the relevance of the subject matter, regularly appears to be pretty close to a circle.
One moment that audience members tend to dread when they pop along to a movie screening attended by a cast and crew brave and willing enough to field questions from an audience occurs when the mic is finally passed to an eager beaver and “hi, yeah, this is more of a comment than a question…” is the first thing that spills from their mouth.
Feeling trapped in your seat, you know damn well you’re about to hear either the worst opinion of all time or, if you’re incredibly lucky, a lengthy story only vaguely related to the movie in question. The brain recoils and straps in for the inevitable: as a collective, you’re about to experience paint drying in real time – you can only hope that any of you were smart enough to bring snacks.
But it could be worse, as Twitter has proven fairly well this week. Movie fans and industry professionals have been sharing their tales of post-screening Q&A woe online for all to read, and some of it makes for truly cringeworthy reading at that.
From the woman who asked Benedict Cumberbatch if she could taste his “deliciousness” before being escorted off the premises, to a hungover Mickey Rourke just hanging in there for dear life during his efforts not to vomit, this is just a sample of some of the worst post-screening Q&A stories shared on Twitter so far…
TIFF for Imitation Game, woman gets to mic and starts sexually harassing Benedict Cumberbatch, asks “can I taste your deliciousness,” entire audience erupts in mortified groans, Keira Knightley open-mouth shock, Cumberbatch barely fazed tries to laugh it off. Woman escorted out. https://t.co/AH6S6yQH67
— Brian FH Clement (@brianfhclement) August 12, 2021
Well this is just rude…
Got free tickets to a screening of Ex Machina at a small theater in NYC. My wife and I were snorting and making sarcastic jokes after like 20 minutes. Guy behind us shushed us and I gave him the finger and kept talking. When the film ended he got up to talk. Sorry Alex Garland
— Danny Brody (@DannyBrodyBX) August 12, 2021
Really putting the Q in Q&A…
This was a Comic Con and not post screening but someone asked John de Lancie, serious actor who happens to voice a My Little Pony character, what he thought about all the erotic pics and fanfic on Tumblr. The cringe took years off my life. https://t.co/oa1btKPkrO
— Laura (@laurahotch) August 12, 2021
How dare…
1st screening of ROGER RABBIT. When the lights came up, there weren’t enough people left in the theater to have a Q&A.
— Frank Marshall (@LeDoctor) August 11, 2021
This is disgusting. Who wears sunglasses indoors…?
Happy memories of the THE WRESTLER q&a with Aronofsky & Rourke, in which Mickey Rourke, drenched in sweat and wearing sunglasses, crouched down on the stage to steady himself due to his colossal hangover. He gestured to Aronofsky to keep talking while he focused on not vomiting. https://t.co/s5CDPm46n7
— Whitlock And Pope (@WhitlockAndPope) August 12, 2021
After a screening of the Suspiria remake the host, ex-MTV Steve Blame, asked Luca G. to tell each other something they haven‘t told to anyone else. G. politely declined but Blame told a deeply private 10 minute long story about the things his mother told him on her death bed
— DerSoze (@kaisasoze) August 12, 2021
Oofgood…
I was at a 70mm screening of Willow w/ Ron Howard where a guy got up, complimented the film, asked if there were plans for a sequel. Then pulled a script out of his pocket for “Willow 2” that he had written. When the groans of 2nd hand embarrassment started, he was MYSTIFIED. https://t.co/qtJuhX0CXT
— Tanner Johnson (@TannerTrue) August 12, 2021
Will The Last Jedi discourse ever end…
Knives Out screening at Arclight where half the audience questions were about why Rian Johnson ruined Star Wars.
— Sean Mercado (@SceneMersaydo) August 12, 2021
Super Monkeyball…
I went to a screening of Jeff Who Lives at Home with q&a featuring Jason Segel and Ed Helms and someone mentioned Jonah Hills performance in Moneyball which led to an audience member repeatedly screaming “MONKEYBALL!!” Over and over again. https://t.co/LCCF9weT1d
— Good Ol’ Mike P (Available for storyboard work!) (@PattenPending) August 12, 2021
Doing his evil bidding…
THE NEON DEMON. Refn up on stage held up the Q&A and told us all to wait because he was bidding on some movie memorabilia on eBay. Just ignored everyone and looked at his phone. The audience had paid extra for the special screening. It was awkward as hell.
— William D’Annucci (@CountBillStein) August 12, 2021
Man Who Fell To Woof. I’ll see myself out…
Nic Roeg after a screening of ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’. A woman in the audience asked a sadly very frail, ailing Roeg, who had struggled throughout the Q&A, if ‘he’d ever considered making the film with animals instead, as animals have a different spirit to humans’. https://t.co/czAWjEfuRB
— Nia Childs (@nia_loves_films) August 12, 2021
Use your indoor kidnapping plot voice…
when i saw eighth grade at the music box & a girl asked bo burnham for his wrist and ankle measurements so she could chain him up in her basement……. 🥲⁉️ https://t.co/Qud9WebtG4
— megan (@heyitsmegn) August 12, 2021
I saw a screening of Escape From New York in like 2004. A Q&A with Carpenter followed it. Someone in the crowd asked if he felt responsible for 9/11. Crowd was pretty divided after that.
— David Snyder (@SnyderDavidE) August 12, 2021
No. Just no…
My husband went to a screening of Kick-Ass at the Music Box where a grown man asked 13-year-old Chloe Moretz if she had a boyfriend https://t.co/HEcHrb1IJC
— Molly (@_uncoolniece) August 12, 2021
Was at a film festival and saw a little no name film.
It was sold out. It became apparent the person had spent years making it, and had promised to pay everyone, but never did. Every question asked was when they were getting paid, and the audience applauding. Cringe max.
— R.J. Blake (@RJBlake_Prod) August 12, 2021
More like a nightmare…
Went to a WGA screening years ago where Matt Damon did the Q&A and some guy got up and nervously raced through the following in a rehearsed monotone voice: “In 1997 Hollywood made your dreams come true and so I’m wondering if you would like to in turn make my dreams come true”
— Christopher Cantwell (@ifyoucantwell) August 12, 2021
Got any moments of excruciating cringe of your own to share from post-screening Q&As you’ve attended? Be sure to let us know in the comments so that we can all suffer together!
The post Mortifying Tales of Post-Screening Q&As Emerge Online appeared first on Den of Geek.
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