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?’”
Teller chalked the framing of the story up to the magazine searching for clicks. “It’s unfortunate that being a good person, that doesn’t sell. People want to click on the negativity,” he said. “If you go to bed and put your head on your pillow and how you treat people truly, that’s what matters. That [2015] interview was like 12 years ago.” Still, he doesn’t feel entirely haunted by it. “You can’t hide who you are when you’re on set,” he said, noting that the directors, producers, actors, and crews he works with know his true character.
In the years since the Esquire interview published, Teller hasn’t completely avoided press. Last year, he completed a few interviews in support of A24’s Eternity, which co-stars Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner. Now, he’s on a promo run for Paper Tiger, the James Gray film he stars in alongside Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.
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