Adam Driver leaves interview 'because he can't stand listening to himself'

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver star in Marriage Story

Many of us can't bear to listen to or watch recordings of ourselves. But when you're the star of some of the year's biggest films, that can get difficult.

Adam Driver walked out of a US radio interview when they played a snippet of him singing in Netflix's acclaimed drama Marriage Story.

The actor left NPR's talk show Fresh Air during a clip of his performance, the show's executive producer said.

The Oscar-nominated American is also in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

He previously starred in BlacKkKlansman and recently earned praise for The Report, about an investigation into the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" after 9/11.

But despite his success, Driver has previously spoken about his aversion to revisiting his own performances - which was described as a "phobia" in a recent New Yorker profile.

That phobia apparently struck when NPR played a clip of him singing Being Alive - originally from the musical Company - in Marriage Story, according to The Daily Beast.

Executive producer Danny Miller told Variety in a statement: "We don't really understand why he left... We knew from our previous interview with Adam Driver that he does not enjoy listening back to clips of his movies (that isn't unusual, a lot of actors feel that way)."

Driver was in a studio in New York, with host Terry Gross in Philadelphia. Gross suggested he take off his headphones to avoid the pain of listening to the 20-second clip - the same arrangement they used in a 2015 interview.

"But this time around, after the clip concluded we were informed by our engineer in NY that he had walked out of the studio, and then left the building," Miller added. "We still don't understand why Adam Driver chose to leave the interview at that point."

Driver has not yet commented on the exchange.

Five other celebrity interview walk-outs

Left-right: Chris Martin, Tina and Hannah from S Club, and Robert Downey Jr

• Robert Downey Jr accused Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy of being "a bottom-feeding muckraker" after walking out of a 2015 interview for bringing up his past problems with drugs.

• Coldplay's Chris Martin left an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Front Row in 2008 because he was "not really enjoying this", adding: "I always say stupid things and I think Radio 4 is the place that will most remind me of that." He returned for one final question.

• Front Row had another walkout when Russell Crowe took umbrage with host Mark Lawson's suggestion in 2010 that the actor's accent made Robin Hood sound like "an Irishman who took frequent holidays in Australia".

• Jean Claude Van Damme walked out of a TV interview in Australia in 2017 after saying the questions he was being asked were "boring".

• The PR officer for pop group S Club (formerly 7) halted an interview on late lamented BBC Three showbiz show Liquid News in 2003 after host Claudia Winkleman asked about the amount of money they had made.

Adam Driver and wife Joanne Tucker at the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

In the 2015 interview, Gross asked Driver why he declined to listen to himself. "I don't want to hear the bad acting that probably was happening during that clip," he replied.

"I've watched myself or listened to myself before, then always hate it. And then wish I could change it, but you can't."

He has also spoken about feeling "like I had to puke" when he was obliged to sit through 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but hid in a green room during the Cannes premiere of BlacKkKlansman, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor earlier this year.