For six years Andrew Denton was considered the best interviewer in Australia.
On his ABC show, Enough Rope, he interviewed huge international names like Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Parkinson, Bono, and Helen Mirren. He also got inside the minds of some of Australia’s biggest talents including Steve Irwin and Rove McManus.
Now Denton, 57, has revealed the one interview that was so bad, it didn’t even make it to air.
When Brisbane’s 97.3’s Bianca, Terry & Bob asked Denton who he considers to be his worst guest ever, he hesitantly named and shamed.
“Maybe she was having a really bad day and it was via satellite, but she was so bad and so unpleasant, that we never even put it to air,” Denton told the hosts.
“It was Goldie Hawn.”
“It wasn’t just her, in fairness,” Denton explained. “It was her manager as well who called our producer the ‘c’ word.
Andrew Denton on leaving life gently. Post continues.
“It was just an awful experience and we just thought, ‘Well we’re not putting you to air… and goodbye.’”
Denton is returning to TV tonight for his new show on Channel Seven called Interview.
Earlier this year, Denton explained to Craig Bruce from the Game Changers: Radio podcast why he walked away from Enough Rope in 2008.
While chatting to Denton, Bruce suggested the show had almost become “a confessional” by the end of its run.
“In the early years it was fantastic like that,” Denton responded. “I had an instinct there was a place for this show but no one knew it was going to work the way it worked.”
“But by the last couple of years that had become a bit of a trap in some cases… and it’s part of the reason I wound up the show.
“People were coming on, and ironically one of them was Craig McLachlan, and they were doing their ‘performance’ as an Enough Rope guest.”
Denton explained some of the guests would come on the show to put on a performance, to “cry” and pour their hearts out in an attempt to win over the Australian public.
“It wasn’t everyone but there were some notable moments where I remember sitting there and thinking, ‘This is an act’, this is the opposite of what I want to be doing.
“It was the opposite of what I was in it for which was honesty.”
“The better guests became the ones from overseas who didn’t know what they should be doing,” the TV host said.
The first episode of Interview will air on Channel Seven at 9pm tonight. Denton will interview swimming sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.