Profiled: Miles Teller Is Still Haunted By That Esquire Profile
Miles Teller gave a notorious interview in Esquire, wherein the journalist clearly hated him. He's still bothered by it, 12 years later.
One of my favourite ever mean tweets from the Jimmy Kimmel Live! regular segment is one where Miles Teller reads a post telling him that he looks like the kind of guy who turns up at a stranger’s wedding and demands the DJ play “Gangnam Style.” It’s such a hyper-specific burn and it felt so true of Teller, a rising star at the time who, let’s be honest, many felt had an extremely irritating quality about him. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people say he has a punchable face. It all made it very easy to forget that Teller is actually a very talented actor. Just check out The Spectacular Now or Rabbit Hole or Whiplash for proof. He’s currently at the Cannes Film Festival with Paper Tiger, the new drama from James Gray, which has received a ton of great reviews, particularly for Teller. Between this and his appearance as the token white guy in Michael, it’s a moment for him to bask in the spotlight, but the renewed attention has brought with it a reminder of the interview that haunts him to this day.
IndieWire. "Miles Teller Opens Up About ‘Paper Tiger,’ Adam Driver, and Losing His Home Before Filming James Gray’s Movie." May 19, 2026. Anne Thompson.
Teller opens up the piece with a lot of vulnerability. He talks about losing his home in the California wildfires and the death of his grandfather around the same time that James Gray approached him for Paper Tiger. He talks savvily about wanting to age into movies for adults alongside his audience, which is around his age (he's 39.) There's also some interesting stuff about him playing a dad, which is relatively new territory, and being inspired by both the men in his life and those of Gray's. Anne Thompson, the interviewer, makes a point of noting that Teller shut the blinds at one point to block outside noise and fetched her a glass of water. She's lavishing him with praise in her questions, pushing open the door for the answers she wants. She grandly declares, "You seem to be delivering performances at such a level that you keep getting more work. The work itself is selling you."
This leads to him talking about having to counteract some bad press, including the now-infamous 2015 profile from Esquire where he was straight-up called a d*ck by the writer. In that profile, the writer can barely hide her disdain for Teller, who, in fairness, comes across as kind of an oblivious doofus who think his arrogance is charming. Esquire thought otherwise, and it ended up being one of the most notorious celebrity profiles of the decade. You just don’t see that kind of brutal honesty from a journalist in these sorts of interviews, certainly not in the current market.
Said Teller about that profile:
"That was so mishandled. 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. 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. This is not life, so why would I ever want to be a part of something where they can just put that in?” So it’s unfortunate that being a good person, that doesn’t sell. People want to click on the negativity. 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."
At the time, Teller did reply to Esquire on Twitter, claiming he was unfairly misrepresented. This is the interview where he jokes repeatedly to at least two women about a highball glass being modelled after his c*ck.
I remember when I first wrote my piece on that profile. Some people accused me of essentially simping for Teller because I wasn’t endlessly ragging on him for his cockiness. I did think he came across as a bit of a twat but it was also true that the writer in question was clearly getting out some inner aggression towards her subject in a way that most profilers don’t get the chance to. Whether or not you think that’s fair is entirely subjective. We love reading the bitchier profiles for a reason, after all. It’s funny when arrogant rich people get taken down a peg or two, especially in a medium where they’re used to having smoke blown up their rears. And it is true that, as often happens, you don’t come across as you intended. Doesn’t everyone have that Liz Lemon fear in them, the worry that you think you’re being a funny underdog, but everyone else sees it as pure dickishness?
Following this latest piece, a few journalists who have interviewed Teller in the past shared their own stories of him. There’s nothing hugely damning. It’s mostly just tidbits of him being a bit immature and clearly not liking the interview process. After one writer asked him if he had any big projects lined up, he made a dick joke. Some real frat bro nonsense right there. Probably for the best that you didn’t try that line with Esquire. Teller just seems like a guy who could benefit from some classic publicist training. Frankly, most of us could, regardless of our jobs.
Was it a violation of trust? Maybe he felt it was on his end. Most actors don’t expect to be portrayed as anything less than saintly in modern magazine profiles. Usually, the editors demand it. There’s no room for a sharp eye when your future advertising space is dependent on appeasing the brands tied to certain stars. I always remember when Vanity Fair interviewed Alicia Vikander over Skype for a cover piece and being stunned that they’d yield to such a demand, and then I remembered her Louis Vuitton contract and how much Conde Nast needs that relationship. So, Teller probably thought he was being charming and roguish, and any snafus would be trimmed out of the final piece. Instead, the writer was, and I’m still surprised to this day, given the go-ahead to all but admit that she hated hanging out with him. A hit to the ego? Of course. But not a broken promise from her.
Miles Teller has a lot more freedom these days to do as he pleases. In April of this year, the canned cocktails company in which he had a minority stake was sold for $325 million. He’s also now closer to 40 than 30 (me too, Miles!) He probably was a d*ck when he was 27, and he probably thought his frat jokes were funny to anyone who listened, including in a professional setting. He learned otherwise. It’s tough to be told that you’re being kind of a twunt, but sometimes, you need that outside voice to humble you.
