Miles Teller may have played Mr. Fantastic, but there's nothing fantastic about his frequent outbursts. The "Top Gun: Maverick" star is much more of a hero in the movies than he is in real life.
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00:00Miles Teller may have played Mr. Fantastic, but there's nothing fantastic about his frequent
00:05outbursts. The Top Gun Maverick star is much more of a hero in the movies than he is in real life.
00:11In June 2017, Miles Teller was reportedly arrested for public intoxication in San Diego,
00:16California. According to TMZ, he was out partying with friends when a police officer approached the
00:21group to question Teller. He was uncooperative and was put in cuffs as a result. Teller offered
00:26his own account of the situation in a series of tweets the next day, writing,
00:31"'Went down to S.D. to see my buddy before he deployed. I wasn't arrested,
00:34I was detained, because there was no evidence to charge me with a crime.
00:38Don't believe everything you read, especially from a third-party entertainment news source
00:42trying to get clicks. Appreciate the concern.'"
00:45Despite his public denial of any charges, several other sources have since confirmed
00:49with the San Diego Police Department that Teller was indeed arrested on the night of the incident.
00:54Semantics aside, Teller went on to add what many regarded as deflection,
00:58saying that it was the fault of the establishment that they'd been to before the alleged lockup.
01:03It wasn't the first time his blame-game behavior has caused him problems, though.
01:07When Teller landed a key role as a cast member in the cinematic adaptation of Veronica Roth's
01:12Divergent series, it was a huge boon for his then-burgeoning career.
01:16Although he'd previously impressed in smaller films like The Spectacular Now,
01:20Divergent had the potential to reach Hunger Games levels of popularity,
01:24and Teller's role was one which would last the whole franchise. The series ultimately
01:28didn't live up to expectations, though, and Teller was the first member of the cast to
01:32publicly pan the project.
01:34"'If I'm so important, then why did you give me such a terrible job?'
01:38In an interview with W Magazine, Teller explained,
01:40"'When I first read Whiplash, I was feeling dead inside, I didn't have an interesting part in
01:45Divergent, and I'd taken the film for business reasons. It was the first movie I'd done that
01:50was going to have an international audience.'"
01:52He later tried to backtrack on his words, saying that they were taken out of context,
01:56but the bitter tone of the interview left a sour taste in fans' mouths.
02:00Making matters worse, once the final installment, Allegiant was dropped
02:03from Lionsgate's big-screen plans and instead optioned for a TV run,
02:07Teller was the first cast member to speak up and cast doubt on his return for the altered project.
02:13He told The Hollywood Reporter,
02:15"'Things do change anytime they're messing with something that was not the original intention.
02:19We all signed on for it in hopes that it'd be released in theaters,
02:22and we all had every intention of finishing the franchise.'"
02:25Eventually, others followed in his footsteps to exit the series as well,
02:29but considering his earlier insult to the series, his departure definitely rubbed fans the wrong way.
02:35Shortly after Teller's harsh words to W about Divergent were published,
02:39his co-star Jai Courtney stepped up to defend him — sort of. During a chat with Elle,
02:44the actor laughed about Teller's statement and attempted to explain his meaning, saying,
02:48"'I understand. I think there's a strategy to all of us who have experiences taking on
02:52the small parts, because of the exposure you get off something like that. I mean,
02:56money comes into play. But it isn't like any of us are making millions yet.'"
03:00However, Courtney also made sure to add that Teller's attitude was very off-putting,
03:05even for those who like him. He elaborated,
03:07"'I also know Miles very well. He's a very good friend of mine. He's an interesting brand,
03:12you know? It's like I wanted to legitimately punch him for a couple of weeks when I first met him.
03:17He's not there to make sure you understand his brand of comedy. It's like you either get it or
03:21you don't. And if you don't, you think he's a d----. And he's not. At all. But it's a very specific
03:27tone." While Courtney might be able to read through Teller's harsh words, there have been
03:31plenty of others who have taken offense with his tone. Miles Teller was cast in the Fantastic Four
03:38reboot once director Josh Trank was given the helm. Trank's directorial vision in Chronicle,
03:43combined with Miles Teller's hyped work in Whiplash, seemed like the ticket to box office
03:48gold. However, their professional relationship quickly soured on the set of the production,
03:53with the director reportedly being way too tough on the actors and Teller refusing to take it.
03:58As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, during takes, he would be telling cast members when
04:02to blink and when to breathe. He kept pushing them to make the performance as flat as possible.
04:07"...I'm going to fix this."
04:09"...You can't fix this. Nobody can."
04:14Teller, who was cast in the role of Reed Richards thanks to Trank's insistence,
04:18reportedly almost came to blows with his director during a particularly intense day on set.
04:24As reported by Entertainment Weekly, the two had an intense argument on the set of the film
04:28that very nearly resulted in a physical confrontation. A source explained,
04:33"...he ended up almost fighting Teller, who has a reputation for sarcasm and
04:37recalcitrance while working." At one point, the conflict nearly became physical,
04:40with Trank and Teller chest-to-chest, daring each other to throw the first punch. Neither did.
04:46Although a lot of that tension likely stemmed from the director's well-documented antagonism,
04:51it wasn't the last time Teller and a director would fail to see eye-to-eye.
04:56After working with Damien Chazelle on the celebrated drummer-drama Whiplash,
05:00Miles Teller was scheduled to star in the writer-director's next musical project,
05:04La La Land. However, he and his would-be co-star, Emma Watson, were both dismissed from the class
05:09list, supposedly for being too demanding. The pair were replaced by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling,
05:14both of whom would enjoy award-season acclaim as a result of their roles.
05:17Teller made sure that everyone knew about his unhappiness with Chazelle's decision. He told
05:21Esquire,
05:22"...I got a call from my agent saying, hey, I just got a call from Lionsgate."
05:26Damien told them that he no longer thinks you're creatively right for the project.
05:29He's moving on without you.
05:31He then shared the exact response he had to the news, which was a text simply asking,
05:36"...what the f-----, bro?"
05:37Of course, that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Teller's ill-advised
05:41diatribes in that particular interview.
05:44Perhaps the most notorious moment in Miles Teller's questionable interview history
05:48came when he spoke to Esquire in 2015. Although he would later slam the publication for
05:53misrepresenting him, the directly-quoted portions of his chat were condemning enough without
05:58any editorialization. For instance, in one segment of the interview, he said,
06:03"...I probably think I'm better looking than the public thinks I am.
06:06I was in one of those forums about a film I did, and it's like,
06:09this dude is so ugly. How does he get f----- parts? Maybe it's because I came from a small town,
06:14but I always did well for myself."
06:16Teller's implication that girls from small towns have lower standards was bound to offend
06:20people in rural areas. There were a host of other cringeworthy moments from the piece.
06:25But even a year after the fact, Teller still felt victimized by the article. He later told
06:29The Guardian,
06:30"...I felt frickin' helpless. I felt extremely misrepresented. I felt a little angry."
06:36For the average person, they are reading this article. They haven't met you, they're like,
06:39oh, Miles is an a----. You didn't hear it? You didn't read that, Esquire?
06:44Yeah, she said he was an a----. He must be.
06:47"...Is it something I said?"
06:49If it were just the one interview gone wrong, he might have a point. But the Esquire incident
06:53hardly stands alone.
06:56In another instance of Teller showing symptoms of severe foot-and-mouth disease,
07:00the actor also seized an opportunity to distance himself from others of his acting generation
07:04in another cringeworthy chat, this time with The New York Times. He said,
07:09"...I feel like a lot of actors of my generation are not proper actors. I want to break out of
07:13that whole group of actors in their early 20s and really start to put stuff down that
07:17lets you know I take this seriously."
07:19As if that self-aggrandizement weren't enough, he also made sure to set himself apart from his
07:24supposed celebrity doppelganger, John Cusack, saying,
07:27"...I guess we look alike. We did some similar movies. He was a leading man that wasn't
07:31traditionally good-looking, who was offbeat and quirky but confident. I get it, but I don't want
07:36his career."
07:37The kicker to end them all, however, happened when Teller actually said the words,
07:41"...I'm pretty hot now."
07:43Teller has been with swimsuit model Kelly Sperry for years, and the two appear to have a picture-
07:48perfect romance that somehow survived his many moments of celebrity conflict.
07:52"...Off the market girls, I'm sorry."
07:54But as the pattern of Teller's interview history dictates, he, of course, seized on an opportunity
07:59to put down others, in the process of talking about his long-lasting relationship. Speaking
08:04to Newsweek, Teller asserted that he doesn't date actresses, stating that his girlfriend was instead,
08:08quote, "...a real person." He'd later elaborate on what exactly that
08:12real-person status entails in a chat with E! News, saying,
08:15"...right now her full-time gig is kind of being with me. She's allowed me to really focus on
08:20acting and what I want to do. She can come to set and visit me and hang out and doesn't really
08:24distract me from it."
08:25It seems that Teller doesn't find ambition a very attractive trait. That said, by his own
08:30admission, he hasn't always been so kind to his former partners.
08:34While Teller hasn't gone into specifics about what went wrong in his previous relationships,
08:39he has admitted to being regrettably unkind to his exes. As he told Interview,
08:43"...I've had certain moments in my life where I've felt really,
08:46really bad about s— I've done to an ex-girlfriend. I've written long letters,
08:50and you almost want them to say it's okay, and sometimes they don't say it. Sometimes they say,
08:55I never want to talk to you again. That's tough to deal with."
08:58Teller later elaborated just a little in a chat with Elle, saying,
09:01"...there was a point after a relationship was over that I did
09:04not respect the girls' feelings as much as I should have. It was from a lack of maturity."
09:08Teller later admitted that said poor decision had something to do with a subsequent hookup
09:13that was documented on social media.