David Letterman, who left Late Night in 2015, has spent the past decade reflecting on the ups and downs of his career.
In a recent interview, the 77-year-old former late-night TV host opened up about the challenges he faced during his time in show business and explained why he thinks the pressures of Hollywood have made him a worse person.
“I realized that in show business, I had been pretending to be someone I wasn't,” Letterman said. GQ. “The person I am here in Indiana and at home with my family is probably the real me. And it's unfortunate that those things don't intersect at any point.”
When asked if the show had made him a worse person, Letterman was quick to respond.
David Letterman returns to 'The Late Show' for the first time after tense reports about his exit
David Letterman quit Late Night in 2015 after 22 years as host. (Getty Images)
“Yes, that's right,” he said. “And, I don't know, maybe it's just because I went through show business. Eventually, I was able to focus on being a better person, and if I hadn't gone through show business, I probably wouldn't be here.” Practice trying to succeed in show business.
“Personally, I feel like I'm a better person than when I was in show business. It was all single-minded and there was a lot of pressure and it was really unimaginable. I felt like it was all about me. That it was all nonsense.”
Letterman, who recently launched the Letterman TV FAST channel on Samsung TV Plus, admitted that he was often portrayed as “miserable” in most interviews from the '80s and '90s.
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Letterman said hosting a late-night TV show has made his personality even worse. (Andrew Toth/FilmMagic)
“There's a few things going on there,” he said. “I was a heavy drinker at the time, which may have fueled my unhappiness. And I don't think I could have achieved what I had imagined. For example, Johnny Carson. You name it, there's never going to be anyone better at that kind of show.'' Johnny, there may never be a better broadcaster than Johnny, but I'm here thinking, “Shit, what am I doing here? I'm thinking, 'I'm going to do it.' ? ”
Letterman left “Late Night” in 2015 after hosting the show for 22 years.
“My favorite part of the show over the last few years was just talking to people,” Letterman said of her experience at the end of the show. “Because doing comedy every night, every night, every night, it's meaningful and it's not just funny, it's hard. It's really hard. And you have really smart, really good men and women. I've always been lucky.''I was just in the next room, and actually the most fun I had was just talking to people. ”
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Letterman began hosting “Late Night” in 1993. (Getty Images)
But along the way, the Indiana native faced many uphill battles.
“Every time I went out, I felt like I wasn't going to live up to expectations,” he admitted. “'Oh, he's here. He's going to put on a show. He's going to do something funny. We're going to entertain.' And I felt like that expectation required a lot of energy. So we didn't want to vent that before or after the actual show, which is always in dire need of entertainment.”
These days, Letterman says he's much happier living in his home state of Indiana.
“All I cared about was television, and the one hour of television that I was responsible for for 30 years,” he said. “That was all I cared about. Everything collapsed and disappeared. I didn't even know if it was collapsing or not. And now I have energy and humanity has other fulfillments. There is a broader focus on recognizing that there are more important pursuits.”
David Letterman, pictured with Britney Spears in 2006, hosted the late-night show for more than 20 years. (CBS archive)
It's been nearly 10 years since he retired from “Late Night,” but the TV host said he doesn't know if he'll retire for good.
“Retirement is a myth. Retirement is nonsense,” Letterman said. He currently hosts the Netflix talk show “Next Guest Needs No Introduction.”
“You will not retire. The human system will not let you retire.”
“As long as you're healthy, you want to produce,” he added. “And you'll find a way to do it. Once I quit the show, it took me a few years to realize, oh, this is a completely different rhythm. And if you don't have the rhythm that you're used to, you almost I’m not satisfied.’ So you have to find what’s important to you. ”
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