President Barack Obama has been making the interview rounds lately, showing up as part of Dave Letterman’s farewell tribute, and, most recently, sitting down for a chat with Marc Maron on his podcast, WTF. We imagine it probably gets pretty tiring to be asked questions all the time (although among the big list of Things That Probably Make You Pretty Tired When You’re The President, it might not rank that high), so it must have came as a relief when Obama got to turn the tables on someone back in May. The grillee in question: legendary British naturalist and filmmaker Sir David Attenborough, who sat down to be interviewed by Obama for part of an upcoming special, set to air on Sunday on BBC and BBCAmerica.
Obama, an avowed fan of Attenborough’s, asked the 89-year-old documentarian questions about environmental preservation, and how to get young people interested in the natural world. But, because he was talking to Barack Obama, who is doomed to be asked questions by every person he meets, at every hour of the day, Attenborough couldn’t resist adding in a few interrogatives of his own, pressing the American president on his own lack of commitment to reversing climate change. Obama replied with the expected answers about the need for an international solution for a global problem, while most likely internally seething that his one question-free day off had been ruined once again.