Remember Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa? She’s the one who Blake Lively and Parker Posey were extremely rude to during an interview back in 2016. Well, on her YouTube channel, called Flaawsome Talk, Kjersti uploads her celebrity interviews and gives commentary on them. That’s how the whole Blake thing came to light, because she shared the video there. The latest star to make headlines thanks to Kjersti’s channel is Anne Hathaway. In 2012, Kjersti interviewed Anne while she was doing press for Les Miserables. Kjersti starts the interview off with a joke about Anne singing her answers back to her, which Kjersti had done successfully with Anne’s other Les Mis costars including Hugh Jackman and Amanda Seyfried. Anne laughs politely but then responds with a very blunt, (paraphrasing), “Yeah, I’m not doing that.”
Kjersti then cuts to two other clips from the interview, both of her asking Anne a question, only to be met with a very short, “No” as a response. She also shared that she’d met and interviewed Anne several times after that one interview and noted that she was lovely on every occasion since. Kjersti also posted the video to her TikTok, and somehow, Anne ended up seeing it. Rather than go on the defensive or just ignore its existence, Anne did the grown-up thing and sent Kjersti an email to apologize for how snippy she was during the first interview, something that Kjersti then shared via YouTube and TikTok.
“I have to say, I was pretty shocked. I had not expected her to reach out to me at all. I thought she was never going to even see that video, but she did and she did something pretty amazing,” Flaa said, revealing that Hathaway sent her a “long email” explaining what she was going through at the time and apologizing “for giving [Flaa] an awful interview.”
In the original clip of their brief interaction, which took place as Hathaway was promoting “Lès Miserables,” Flaa started off her interview by jokingly asking Hathaway to answer the first question through song.
“I was going to sing the question to you and you can sing back the answer,” Flaa said while laughing in the clip. Hathaway, however, didn’t like the idea. “Well I won’t be doing that, but you’re more than welcome to sing,” she responded.
Flaa went on with the interview by asking Hathaway questions like, “Do you remember your first crush?” and whether she believed “love was more passionate” during the period of time the film took place. Following both questions, Hathaway simply answered, “No.”
At the time, Flaa told her followers that “things didn’t go as planned” as she pushed them to watch the rest of the “cringe” clip on her YouTube channel.
In her Tuesday TikTok, Flaa further said, “[Hathaway’s apology] was so touching to me. Just talking about it makes me almost teary eyed. I was just so grateful that she did that.”
“It was a very personal note and we decided that I wouldn’t share exactly what was in the email, but I just wanted to share with you guys what she did because I thought that was just so amazing.”
Though she didn’t share the specific details of Hathaway’s email, the reporter said she responded to the Oscar winner’s email, expressing her gratitude for the apology and offering to sit down with her for another chat.
“I said, ‘If you ever want to sit down and talk about it, I’m here.’ and she invited me to interview her for her next movie that’s coming out in May,” Flaa announced to her followers.
“I have so much respect for people who own up to their mistakes and say they’re sorry. Sorry is such a powerful word,” Flaa added, likely referencing her previous ordeal with Lively who she claims never apologized for her “little bump” comment.
She finished addressing the incident by saying, “It was a long time ago now, I have no hard feelings about it.”
Honestly, while the whole “I won’t be doing that” thing came off as snippy, I really didn’t think the two “No” answers were that bad. Were they answers that an actor who is trying to sell their movie should give? No, but to me, she just looked exhausted. I’ll admit it: Even when everyone was giving her a hard time about her open Oscars campaign, I’ve always liked Anne and given her the benefit of the doubt. I know she took a break from the spotlight and came back refreshed, like she was Anne 2.0. It was really sweet of her to send an apology email. It sounds like it wasn’t just a generic response, either, but an actual email written from the heart after a decade of self-reflection.
But…yeah. Let’s talk about Kjersti real quick. Is she becoming someone that actors need to be worried about in terms of her calling out their bad behavior? She reminds me of someone who would have absolutely been the source of a blind item back in the day, only now, she’s just doing it out in the open and bringing video receipts. I’m all for as-holes being held accountable, but all it takes is one misleading clip to cause a pile-on, you know? Anyway, I do wonder if this is going to start a trend of more journalists going through their archives and calling out those who were rude to them. Are we entering a new gossip era?
Side-eye to the journalist is all Im saying. Also, in both interviews with Blake and Anna her questions are either a bit personal or just not too smart…… But quite mature of Anne to sincerely apologize.
With you @anon. This interviewer seems to have latched on to her moment of fame and is on rinse and repeat.
Getting someone to sing their answers in an interview seems like something you would need to clear with a publicist in advance for a press junket. Kjersti seems to have a victim complex in her interviewing and while stars absolutely may have been rude to her it’s also her job as a professional interviewer to try to make something of the interview.
I was side-eyeing too, just because the people she’s been calling out for bad behavior so far are women.
I don’t have a problem calling out genuine a-holes, but even she points out in her original TikTok that this Les Miz interview was an outlier and Hathaway is usually nice. Anyone can have a bad day. So what was the point of bringing up this decade old interview exactly?
Journalists calling out azzholes is not good but isnt bad. Some celebrities are azzholes and think they’re god’s gift on earth. Some need that humble slap. Anne would not have apologized, she knew what she was doing, she thought she was the IT girl. Just like Blake, she got her humble slap too, but in her case, she decided not to own up.
I think Anne reaching out to her all these years later was lovely. I have had to do this in my life and I appreciate how she put her ego aside in this matter. Kjersti interview of Blake was definitely very uncomfortable because Blake was being passive aggressive/nasty towards her. But there IS something about Kjersti that I find grating. I could be her over eager style, but I think part of the problem may be her.
I saw Kjersti’s video about the Anne apology (not needed but good PR) and then watched about five more videos about her interview stylings and her complaints about bad celebrities. And I think Kjersti is annoying too. Also, she’s a bone dry interviewer while trying to actors to be fun fun good sports, I think she has an implicit condescension.
She harks on about how being polite, politeness, being a polite person is all that’s needed but then blurted an question about a baby bump on Blake (you don’t ask women about being pregnant when they haven’t confirmed it yet ?!) and getting Anne to sing, what a dance-monkey interview route!
Or she could talk about how the junket industry puts actors, staff and journalists in systemic difficulties. She’s not a journalist anymore which is why she’s burning bridges but she could talk about sexism of the industry. Or how previously Anne had been absolutely unfairly crucified by journalists as unlikeable – which would make anyone much more touchy. She said Angelina was a lovely interviewer but called her ‘fragile’. sigh
My understanding is Blake had announced her pregnancy before that interview
True, but I read in an another article that she had only just or so… but if the entertainment journalist can be so thin-skinned and then relate Blake’s comment to somehow her own infertility – I think they are both reaching. Let’s both not talk about little bumps in a ‘professional’ Interview!
@ K.T
Blake announced her pregnancy at the Met Gala weeks before the interview and she was very happy to show off her bump at the Met.
You call being fat shamed thin-skinned?
I do think Kjersti is doing too much with Anne. I agree she is now trying to make this her new career. She was right the first time but, is going to lose that good well if she keeps going like this.
We all have days at work where we can’t quite give it our all, and I think it’s really rude of this journalist to pointedly post interview clips highlighting someone’s bad day. Anne might have been short, but she wasn’t rude.
Agreed – And, as always, a man would be seen as grouchy or quirky in that setting.
Yeah, I’m starting to wonder if maybe there’s something in her delivery that gets lost in translation (literally) which is causing certain celebrities who first interview with her to react negatively. They’re already guarded people because of the little privacy they receive. Not excusing Blake necessarily and I know there were and are still plenty of Hathahaters but I feel like maybe Kjerste is taking things a step over the line.
Context is important here I think. Anne was being pretty mercilessly bullied for having such musical theater kid energy at this time. No wonder she didn’t want to play along.
People truly forget how shitty everyone was being to her.
Am I the only one who thinks that both Ann and Blake were not unjustified in their reaction to this provocateur who is now profiting off humans not having the best most controlled response?
Blake was very rude–to the point of ignoring the journalist during her own interview. That was wild. This is not that. Not sure why she called out Anne like this. She asked questions and Anne answered.
It’s time for journalist/interviewer to do some self reflection. What is it about my interview style/questions that brings out the rude and snippy in some people.
It’s just sad that Anne’s publicist advised her to do this so there’s no bad press while she’s promoting her next movie. I mean, 2012? I think it’s absolutely true that it’s a new era of gossip.
Good on Anne for sending the email. It was smart and a great way to calm the waters – not that it wasn’t sincere, but let’s face it. If she just ignored it or did what other celebs have done we’d be having a different discussion.
It does feel like this reporter is trying to obtain more fame. I don’t begrudge anyone working to get that money, but I’d be super guarded if I were promoting something and she was the interviewer. She shouldn’t tolerate being disrespected, but these interviews literally years later just popping up into the conversation are odd.
Anne had a pretty intense year in 2012. Les Mis shot from March – June (and then released in December, wild)
She “had to” lose 25 pounds for the role and ate 500 calories a day which is bound to make anyone cranky (and then the return to her normal eating habits would be another adjustment)
She had also just come off filming The Dark Knight Rises which she had described as “ the most physically demanding she had ever played, and confessed that while she thought of herself as being fit, she had to redouble her efforts in the gym to keep up with the demands of the role.” Filming for that ended in November 2011 (I don’t know when she filmed, but I expect she wasn’t filming for more than a few weeks?)
She also got married that year (and her ex husband was released from jail that May.)
I feel like a (mildly, imo) snippy interview is kind of…her being a stressed out human?
Its not a new era of gossip. Seemingly every week an old interview is dug up where people are called out for their comments and/or behavior. I didn’t find Anne to be rude in this interview and the journalist should have let her email apology remain private.
I think Kjersti liked the attention she received from the Blake backlash and she’s beginning to take it too far. *Cue everyone in Hollywood’s publicists frantically looking back to see if their clients did an interview with this woman to prepare a response for when she comes for them. *
Yes. It looks like she’s chasing clout and comes off as inauthentic for this one.
Considering that she apparently had good interviews with Anne after the first interview, it seems unfair to bring this up.
Anne was short sure. But that’s not the same as making rude comments to the interviewer. I think that press tours can be exhausting and everybody gets that they may not be super high energy nice all the time.
Two things can be true at the same time. Anne did not give a good interview and Kjersti isn’t the best interviewer. Both parties enter that kind of transaction understanding their role. Kjersti’s questions are uninspired but I get what she’s trying to do to stand out. If she’s the only one with clips of the actors singing their answers, that’s unique (though slightly cringe). Anne was just not willing to play but let’s be real, she did have a bad attitude and she wasn’t trying to hide it. I’m a fan of Anne and I think she was having a hard time and she acted like it.
I dislike Kjersti very much, AND I didn’t feel Anne H. crossed into rudeness. Celebrities are human beings. For an INTERVIEWER to make it all about her, and be so emotionally fragile that she’s devastated into considering quitting after a bad interview is just…weak. The best interviewer in the WORLD is Terry Gross. Bill O’Reilly walked out on her, and disgusting Gene Simmons said, “If you want to welcome me with open arms, you’ll also have to welcome me with open legs.” She didn’t start crying or run to the internet for validation. Sorry if I seem tough: my mother was a reporter back when woman reporters were only given “fluff” assignments, and she doggedly fought for her position for decades, and was a true pro.
Why is Anne apologizing for not being amused by the reporter’s ridiculous behavior? Yes, journalists are doing a job on a press junket, but so are the actors, and though actors signed up for the gig, they shouldn’t be expected to perform on demand over ridiculousness. As my mother told me as a child “No” is a complete sentence. And by the way, the personal questions were out of line—-stick to the film. Anne’s “crushes” are no one’s business.
Yeah this is nothing like the Blake Lively interview. This makes the journalist look petty and attention seeking. Good for Anne Hathaway for being so gracious to apologize, though she shouldn’t have to.
This journalist is just being ridiculous now. There was nothing snippy about Anne’s response to the request to sing – she was relaxed and smiling. Setting boundaries is not being rude.
As for the other two answers, the first one, she simply didn’t have anything else to add to her answer, and the second one, it was clear to me at least that Anne didn’t feel comfortable with the question – that’s a very personal thing to ask someone to talk about publicly and again, choosing not to do so is not being rude, it’s setting boundaries. Anne simply said no, and she doesn’t owe anyone an explanation.
These are press junkets, interviewers are brought in every 15 minutes. It’s not some 60 minutes in depth interview.
I think the ‘journalist’ and I say that loosely. I think entertainment reporter is more appropriate. Needs to take a step back here and stop acting like she is more than she is.