Debra Winger Sets Andy Cohen Straight In An Uncomfortable Interview

Actress Debra Winger recently appeared on Andy Cohen’s hit show Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen to play his popular game “Plead the Fifth.” The intention of the game is to push celebrities to reveal personal secrets about their past by posing three separate questions to them. If one of the questions is too personal, they can opt not to answer or “plead the fifth” on only one.

According to People, Winger appeared excited to take on the challenge in good humor. However, things got heated only a few minutes into the interview. Winger answered Cohen’s first question inquiring about who was the biggest pig she’d ever encountered in Hollywood. With little hesitation, she provided the name Harvey Weinstein, who has been charged with sexual misconduct towards over 60 women.

Cohen didn’t stop there. He proceeded to question Winger about her strained relationships with former co-stars, in particular, Shirley MacLaine.

“Back in the ’80s, there were so many rumors about your relationship with Shirley MacLaine on Terms of Endearment. You wrote about this in your book,” he began to ask before Winger cut him off.

“No! I didn’t write about her. She wrote about me!” the actress replied. “Let’s try to get something straight. I mean, c’mon. It’s hard out here for a chimp.”

Winger went on to correct Cohen saying that she had in fact written a book but had never mentioned MacLaine in its contents.

Cohen quickly attempted to move on to what he must have assumed would be a lighter topic of conversation. Unfortunately, his third question challenging Winger to rank her former co-stars on their kissing ability didn’t go over as well as he had hoped. The individuals in question were John Travolta, Richard Gere, Anthony Hopkins, and Robert Redford. After a beat of awkward silence, Winger spun the question back to Cohen asking if he could really remember someone he’d kissed many years ago. While Cohen stated that he believed he would be able to recall the kiss had it taken place during an iconic film, Winger claimed that she was simply playing a character in those roles, and thus was unwilling to answer the question.

“Oh God, what were you doing 40 years ago?” she asked Cohen. “So you remember somebody you kissed 30 years ago? You don’t think that you sort of are busy investigating a character, which puts you in another self state? Right now it’s pretty hard to be authentically a person.”

Cohen wrapped up the tough interview shortly after and shared his reaction to the interview on his Instagram story later that night. He said that he and his team intended to share a few drinks following the “rough” show.