Jimmy Fallon Is Depressed Because of Donald Trump?
by EG
When The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon booked then-candidate Donald Trump to be a guest on the show, Fallon was no doubt thinking that the interview would just be one of his typical giggle fests in which throws softball questions at his guests and laughs hysterically at everything they say. That approach to an interview with Donald Trump, though, caused a lot of controversy, and the controversy hurt Fallon's feelings. Read on for details.
Via Page Six.
NEW YORK — Jimmy Fallon is opening up about the personal anguish he felt following the backlash to his now-infamous hair mussing appearance with Donald Trump.
The host of “The Tonight Show” tells The Hollywood Reporter he “made a mistake” and apologized “if I made anyone mad.” He adds that he “would do it differently” looking back on the Sept. 15, 2016 episode.
Trump opponents criticized Fallon for a cringe-worthy interview only weeks before the election where Fallon playfully stroked Trump’s hair. Fallon’s show eventually lost more than one-fifth of its audience and its late-night crown to Stephen Colbert’s new and more political “The Late Show” for CBS.
Fallon said in a Hollywood Reporter podcast that he wasn’t approving of Trump or his beliefs just because he joked with him: “I did not do it to ‘normalize’ him or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff.”
The talk show host has discussed the episode before, explaining in a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair that he was just “trying to have fun” with Trump, but revealed that he was “devastated” to learn that people had a negative reaction. He also told The New York Times: “If I let anyone down, it hurt my feelings that they didn’t like it. I got it.”
But in the podcast, Fallon reveals the backstage fallout to the criticism that he had been too soft on Trump. “It’s tough for morale,” he said. “You go, ‘Alright, we get it. I heard you. You made me feel bad. So now what? Are you happy? I’m depressed. Do you want to push me more? What do you want me to do? You want me to kill myself? What would make you happy? Get over it.’”
Get the rest of the story at Page Six.
Do you think Jimmy should have handled the Trump interview differently? Let us know in the comments below.