Justin Timberlake Is Very Tired Of Being Bullied By The Media
In an emotionally raw, constantly on the verge of tears interview, the Robin to Jimmy Fallon's Batman sat down with GQ this month for their annual "Man of the Year" issue, to talk about his title, Hashtag Of The Year, and show fans the real Justin Timberlake: a sensitive guy who really, really hates being picked on.
After Variety ran a piece "Justin Timberlake: Why He Should Stop Acting" that quoted Timberlake as having said "I have no aspirations of being a movie star," among a myriad of reasons why the silver-tongued Southerner should give up on the silver screen, Timberlake has some choice words for entertainment journalists. "You sound like a dickhead.... It just shocked me because, like, you're trade magazines. None of your opinions count. And by the way, none of you can do it."
Timberlake carried on with his rant, which GQ report Amy Wallace dubbed both a "thirty-minute tirade" and "freak-out," by expressing shock that he's been so kind to people in entertainment, stating "sometimes I just want to fucking kill everybody." Scary!
Timberlake has had a banner year: he returned to music after a seven-year hiatus, and despite critical commentary that the songs were too long, still turned out an incredibly solid album. He headlined a sold-out national tour with Jay-Z, and is amidst his own international tour, The 20/20 Experience. He also joined the Saturday Night Live five time club, and scored an Emmy nomination for his work on the show. While critical complaints have been high in the last few weeks over his box-office failure of Ben Affleck-produced Runner, Runner, being Timberlake is definitely a business, and right now, business is good. His acting skills aren't where they should be, but his role in the upcoming Coen brothers' film, Inside Llewyn Davis, may change that. If not, he has no plans of giving up.
What Timberlake doesn't realize, amidst his plaintive cries of being picked on—he did this to himself. As an avid Justin Timberlake fan myself (the only reason I've been chained to the Tennessee Titans for the last 13 years is because teenage me loved Justin, and Justin loved Steve McNair), even I'm reaching peak Timberlake overload right now. It's not that he's a bad actor—lots of people have bad moviees, and let's be honest, I'll watch them all—it's just that he's fucking everywhere right now. He did a weeklong residency on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in August, and followed it up with a monthlong residency on the show every Tuesday in September. If Timberlake really wants the critics to stop tearing him apart, he needs to focus less on trying to do everything, and aim to just do the things he loves, well.