At 90, even veterans of the usual Hollywood media routine don't have patience for small-talk.
Jerry Lewis, the slapstick comedy legend-turned-infamous curmudgeon, gave the ultimate grumpy old man interview in an awkward exchange with The Hollywood Reporter that's quickly gone viral.
More Entertainment News Videos
Jerry Lewis's car crash interview
Jerry Lewis decides to play the role of grumpy old man during an interview with the The Hollywood Reporter.
The magazine was putting together a feature on nonagenarians still working in the business, interviewing the likes of Betty White, Dick Van Dyke, Stan Lee, Carl Reiner and Norman Lear.
But Lewis, who has a lead playing an ageing jazz pianist in the upcoming indie drama Max Rose, wasn't exactly in a chatty mood.
Disregarding the usual back-and-forth the sit-down implies, Lewis huffed his way past each question with a monosyllabic retort and infuriated dismissal, seemingly taking sadistic pleasure in putting the magazine's poor reporter through the wringer.
"Have you ever thought about retiring?" the reporter asks.
"Why?" Lewis replies.
"Was there never a moment that you thought it might be time to retire or..." he continues.
"WHY?" Lewis replies.
The interview gets even more hilarious from there.
"You come from a generation a little older. I think of Bob Hope, George Burns, Sinatra ... Do you see similarities with them?"
"None."
"What's different about performing now for you than, say, 20 years ago?"
"It isn't."
"You've had a number of health issues over the last few years..."
"Anyone that's 90 does."
"How have you maintained your audience over the years?"
"You tell them you're playing there and they show up."
7 painfully awkward minutes with (famously difficult) comedian Jerry Lewis https://t.co/FY54ztjrKz pic.twitter.com/0hfVJ5DaLp
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) December 19, 2016
The poor sap on the other end of the exchange was The Hollywood Reporter's Andy Lewis (no relation to the star), who broke down the "trainwreck" scenario in a piece for the magazine.
"I had a bad feeling about how the conversation with Jerry Lewis was going to go the second I walked into his Vegas house ... He looked angry," Lewis wrote, citing the actor's reputation for being acerbic with audiences and reporters.
"Throughout the photo shoot, Lewis complained about the amount of equipment in the house, the number of assistants and how the shots were set up.
"By the time we sat down for the interview about an hour later, Lewis had worked up a head full of steam, and it seemed like he was punishing THR by doing the interview but being as uncooperative as possible," he wrote.
"As awkward and funny as the interview is, it weirdly proves the point of the entire package: 90-year-old Jerry Lewis is vital and completely engaged. He's just engaged – almost happy – in being difficult."
Love this and Jerry L. so much.
— Jerry Seinfeld (@JerrySeinfeld) December 20, 2016
The essence of every comedian on display. Wish this was mine. @TonyBiancosino https://t.co/g50clt3w6F
Quite possibly the best interview I've seen all year -- Jerry Lewis is, ahh, difficult. https://t.co/3y8cKZHJrl
— Joe Bel Bruno (@JoeBelBruno) December 19, 2016
I salute @andyblewis for keeping it together. I would have been perspiring and possibly in the fetal position https://t.co/U17nSccLzq
— Aaron Couch (@AaronCouch) December 19, 2016
The actor - who, despite his bitter persona, is renowned as one of Hollywood's biggest philanthropists, famous for his telethon fundraising for Muscular Dystrophy research - hasn't been a stranger to controversy in recent years.
In 2014, he echoed comments he made in 1998 when he said "women aren't funny", drawing the ire of female comedians including Tina Fey.
"Whenever someone says to me, 'Jerry Lewis says women aren't funny. Do you have anything to say to that?', I reply: 'Yes. We don't f---ing care if you like it'," Fey replied in her bestselling book, Bossypants.