Justin Bieber is certainly trying his best to convince us he's that no longer the bratty little pop star who throws eggs at his neighbor's house. And for the most part, he's been doing a good job — barring his recent tantrum on Today, of course. Unfortunately, this recent interview may give people reason to complain about his attitude once again. But, do Biebs a favor and watch the whole thing before placing judgements.
This interview clip for the French website Clique, as Mashable points out, finds Bieber truly asking "what do you mean?" in the nicest way possible. Perhaps it's just a language barrier, but it seems like this interviewer is actually trying to make things incredibly awkward. And in fact, he's done it before with Kanye West.
Clique's Mouloud Achour appears very focused on figuring out just who Justin Bieber really is, and the pop star is willing to talk about it, explaining that he's sent "mixed messages" with his actions. Bieber considers whether if he'd come out "smoking weed," people may have adjusted better to his bad boy image.
"I just want people to see me as a normal dude," he says. "I just come in here with my hoodie, because I'm comfortable, just chillin', not trying too hard. Just wanna have a good time."
The interviewer continues to ask Bieber about his past screwups before getting into the different levels at which his Beliebers react when they see him (e.g., if level one is an excited hello, level three means waterworks). He manages to get all the way up to level five before Bieber seems like he's ready to move on, even adorably trying to sneeze as a way of stopping the interview.
It doesn't work. Achour continues by asking how fun it is to be friends with Skrillex, Diplo, and Floyd Mayweather, which causes Bieber to give up completely and ask how many questions are left just four minutes into this 14-minute interview. Can you really blame him?
As Bieber makes clear early on in this clip, "I'm just kind of walking on eggshells right now just trying to make sure people don't think I'm being disrespectful." And it should be noted, he does ask very politely how many questions are left.
But whether you think he's being disrespectful or not, you can't help but smile when Bieber talks about how much he loves his mom, Kanye's penchant for talking (and talking, and talking) and how gun control would be his first matter of business if he were president of the United States. See, he's really not all bad.
Opener image: MediaPunch/REX USA